Thursday, November 28, 2013

Book Spotlight - Chasing the Storm



Chasing the Storm is Martin Molsted's debut novel, although he has been actively engaged in writing shorter fiction, as well as screenplays since 2009. When he is not working as an Archivist in a Fortune 500 engineering company, he writes fiction and non-fiction.

He enjoys playing music, singing, travelling, nice food, great wine, tasty beer, hot rods and awesome custom built motorcycles.

Martin Molsted lives in Asker, a small town between the greater cities Oslo and Drammen, in eastern Norway. He lives together with his French wife and their two daughters. No cats. No dogs.

He is currently working on the storylines for a trio of further Rygg & Marin thrillers, so stay tuned for more compelling and intriguing action.

Find out more about Martin Molsted and his works of fiction at http://www.molstedfiction.com , https://www.facebook.com/authormolsted , https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7350785.Martin_Molsted  , or Twitter @molsted.


Monday, November 25, 2013

Out of Print Books


In this day of electronic books and Google scanning thousands of books to be available free online, I still think there is a place for the paper out-of-print book. Actually several places.

First there is the old book that one remembers from one's childhood, either a personal favorite (mine is The Little Toy Soldier - NOT the Hans Christian Andersen tale) or something the adults were reading and you weren't allowed (Colleen McCullough's The Thorn Birds).

Second there is the old book about something or by someone who interests you and with whom you feel closer because of the physical paper. I have a friend who loves Frances Parkinson Keyes' historical novels. For me, it is the feel of the paper when I read a classic - like Edgar Allan Poe or Henry David Thoreau.

Finally there are those books which are too recently out of print to have electronic versions. This includes a huge amount of popular fiction, from serial romances to westerns, science fiction, mysteries, and thrillers.

Literally millions of these books (in paper form) are available online for reasonable prices. I have featured a couple sellers on this blog. I, also, have little online business with books that primarily fit the criteria above. It also has some classics and some books that have been published electronically - some Nora Roberts titles and the works of Dickens, Austen, Shakespeare, etc. for example.

My little enterprise has recently reduced prices on over 8,000 titles for the holiday season. It also features free shipping and coupons for multi-book purchases (all at the landing page). So if you, or someone on your holiday shopping list, is a bibliophile and is interested in paper books out of print in all media, I encourage you to take a look at the many online sellers, and start :-) with mine.


Saturday, November 23, 2013

Feature and Follow TAG

8474595901 873f4993f4 Feature & Follow #137

You Are It! We are playing #FF tag this week. Comment on as many blogs as you can, even if they aren’t participating in #FF. Just say Happy #FF! At the end of your comment. Keep a running total if you want and update your post with it. The bigger the number the more impressed we will be!

photo sparkles effect

We'll see...

15 #FF

Monday, November 18, 2013

Liebster Award Nominee!!


I've been nominated for a Liebster Award!!

I have been nominated for a Liebster Award by Ericka at highway-Y.A. Thank you!
For more information on the Liebster Award go to Adrienne's Blog. I copied the rules from Ericka.

Rules for accepting the award:
• Link back to the blog that nominated you.
• Answer the questions they set for the blogs they nominated.
• Nominate 10 blogs, be sure to let them know with a link to your post!
• Ask 10 questions for the blogs you nominate to answer in their post.

 Questions from highway-Y.A.How long have you been blogging? I made my first post 12/6/2010, so am closing in on three years.

What inspiration do you get from blogging? Blogging is the release for me. The inspiration comes from all of the bloggers I follow and read. There is such diversity and interest and passion.

What is your favorite book series? My favorite series is still The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien created a world complete with languages, traditions, and history. Notice the plurals.

If you could meet one author which one would it be? Piers Anthony. He is much more than an author. His intelligent observations of the world and his life as a part of the world he lives in, connected, would make for a fascinating conversation.

While you are reading which is better: Coffee or Tea? As with my reading my beverage of choice is eclectic. Sometimes coffee, sometimes tea, sometimes beer or water.

Besides blogging what other things are you passionate about? I love to write. I have three thin volumes of poetry published as well as nonfiction articles and historical fiction shorts.

What book would you like to see turned into a movie? None. I am so often disappointed by the movie.

Paranormal Romance or Science Fiction? Science Fiction.

What is considered to be the perfect day to just cuddle up with a good book? Any day with no other responsibilities.

What is your favorite genre of books? Favorite depends on mood. History, Western, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery, Poetry, General Fiction, Classics can all fit the bill at different times.

Questions for my nominees:

Paper or ebook?
Where do you prefer to read?
What is your favorite book?
What is the first book you remember reading?
How have your reading habits changed over time?
Who (character or author) would you most like to meet?
Who is the best new author you've read this year?
What is your favorite thing about blogging?
Why did you start blogging?
How much time do you spend on your blog?

 

My nominees:

 


Friday, November 15, 2013

Feature and Follow - Movie Better That the Book?

8474595901 873f4993f4 Feature & Follow #137

Definitely. The ORIGINAL Star Wars movie was better than the book. After that, not so much. A lot of the follow-on books are better than any of the follow-on movies. But the first...ah, the movie hands down.

I would have to also throw into that Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy and the Harry Potter movies, mostly, in all of these cases, because the books were too dense for me to dig through. The movies simplified the plot and tore away many of the subplots. The story lost some of its richness but gained a lot in "readability".

Looking forward to comments!!

Friday, November 8, 2013

Review - Who's Bigger?


Who's Bigger by Steven Skiena and Charles B. Ward. Published by Cambridge University Press. Available at most retailers.

This is a fascinating book with an extremely interesting concept. The authors use the incredible power of the internet, Wikipedia, and Google's Ngrams to create a mathematical rating system (significance) for people, both current and historical. They then use these data to compare people in many areas, professions, and times. They explain their processes and calculation very well and then provide comparisons with "experts" and "Top 100" lists, etc. to validate that what they measure is actually doing the job.

Then they delve into literally scores of categories to compare the most significant figures. Was Thomas Edison more significant than Alexander Graham Bell or Eli Whitney? Who was the most significant world leader between the world wars? Which King or Pope had the most long-term significance? They do admit that the data in Anglo-centric, all of the data is in English, and they have made a correction for recency.

All in all it is fascinating to wander through their tables and graphs and see where my personal favorites fell. One criticism I have is that there is really too much data and too many categories and too many comparisons. It would have been better to focus in more depth on fewer categories and dive deeper into the data, leaving the more esoteric areas to another volume or to the internet (they have a very nice companion website).

For everyone interested in history and interested in numerical comparisons (for any area - baseball, business, the arts, etc.) the book is highly recommended.

This blogger received a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.