Knights & Knaves Alehouse

I'm reading Sir Richard Francis Burton's translations of _The Book of a Thousand Nights and a Night_, on my new-ish Kindle (which was a gift from Juniper for working there 10 years). While in Europe the first half of the month, I re-read the first 5 Mars books by ERB, which was fun.

The Kindle's not as friendly as a real book, but it's great for travel, since I can carry oodles of books with me without the bulk (or the beating up of the books).

grodog wrote:I'm reading Sir Richard Francis Burton's translations of _The Book of a Thousand Nights and a Night_, on my new-ish Kindle (which was a gift from Juniper for working there 10 years). While in Europe the first half of the month, I re-read the first 5 Mars books by ERB, which was fun.

The Kindle's not as friendly as a real book, but it's great for travel, since I can carry oodles of books with me without the bulk (or the beating up of the books).

Any troubles getting it through security?

In this day and age, I wouldn't be surprised if they confiscated anything electronic, *and* any print matter. Pretty soon they will inject passengers with a heavy sedative and have them hand-cuffed, stacked up in the cargo-hold like limp, submissive sardines.

I read some of those back in college, but I had heard that the most famous stories among them were fabricated by 19th century authors, perhaps including Burton himself. The authentic ones go back to Persia and even back to ancient India! I'm sure that EGG knew a fair share of them when he was growing up.

grodog wrote:I'm reading Sir Richard Francis Burton's translations of _The Book of a Thousand Nights and a Night_, on my new-ish Kindle (which was a gift from Juniper for working there 10 years). While in Europe the first half of the month, I re-read the first 5 Mars books by ERB, which was fun.

The Kindle's not as friendly as a real book, but it's great for travel, since I can carry oodles of books with me without the bulk (or the beating up of the books).

How good is the Kindle at footnotes? My copy of Burton's translation has a ton of footnotes, and they are often the most interesting thing on the page.

- Jeff

simrion wrote:Any troubles getting it through security?

None, I don't even pull it out of my backpack while travelling in the Baltic states the last two weeks---just like my cell phone, my son's Nintendo DS, and the oodles of chargers, European current converters, 30' ethernet cables, and plug adapters, among other gadgets and oddments.

ThirstyStirge wrote:I read some of those back in college, but I had heard that the most famous stories among them were fabricated by 19th century authors, perhaps including Burton himself. The authentic ones go back to Persia and even back to ancient India! I'm sure that EGG knew a fair share of them when he was growing up.

I haven't studied the textual history of the editions of the Arabian Nights tales, but I haven't heard issues with the Burton translations being unauthentic (unlike say, quite a bit of the "work" of Joseph Campell).

jallison86 wrote:How good is the Kindle at footnotes? My copy of Burton's translation has a ton of footnotes, and they are often the most interesting thing on the page.

My printed versions do as well. The footnotes are seemingly in there but I haven't figured out how to access them on the Kindle yet. I'm working from the Project Gutenberg .mobi file @ http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3435 so it's also possible that they list the fact that the footnote markers are there, but the notes themselves aren't. It's probably me though: I just haven't played around with the Kindle much, and certainly haven't read any of the product documentation yet, outside of their quick start guide.

grodog wrote:The Kindle's not as friendly as a real book, but it's great for travel, since I can carry oodles of books with me without the bulk (or the beating up of the books).

I've viewed ebooks with suspicion and disapproval, but I recently read Dean Karnazes's Ultramarathon Man with Kindle software on my Mac and iPhone. I was surprised at how natural it seemed. I was especially surprised at how well it worked on the iPhone, which I expected to be too small. However, it worked fine, much like reading a column of text in a newspaper or magazine. I also enjoyed the convenience, and the ability to pick up right where I left on, whether I was reading on my Mac or on my phone (the Kindle software uses the Internet to sync between the two devices). I can definitely see myself reading more books this way.

Nevertheless, I find the pricing for the Kindle books to be dismaying. There little to no savings, in many cases, over a physical book.

(Also re-read Stirling's Island in the Sea of Time -- not on Kindle, just the mass-market paperback.)

Just finished up Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, which was pretty good but hewed a little too closely to established Campbell/Hero's Journey formula (this was, I believe, Gaiman's first novel and it seems he was more concerned with atmosphere and characterization and mostly took the plot for granted). It's not swords & sorcery, but is another entry on the long list of dungeon-like settings (and mythic underworlds) in non-D&D fantasy literature.

Really enjoyed the BBC television series version of Neverwhere (which is available to watch on MSN Player at the moment), but never got round to reading the book.

Heh. As opposed to all you scholarly types, I'm reading Butcher's Codex Alera series.

I just finished Paul of Dune by Brian Herbert. Not bad, but not quite up to the Old Man's standards.

Nothing at the moment. Swamped IRL and what little free time I have is given over to my PbP gaming fix.

Just finished the 3 book omnibus of The Black Company liked it but not in a way I expected.

I'm gonna go with Almuric or The Jewel in the Skull next.

Reading Lance Armstrong's It's Not About the Bike. Also picked up Eight American Poets: An Anthology, again. I've read it, before, but poetry is one of those things you can return to again and again.

I just finished Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Yeah, tough read, eh? It's a fun little story though.
This post is also largely to let you guys know I'm not dead or anything!

I logjammed my electronic reader that I received as a present with so many bookmarks that I lost track.

PLANET OF ADVENTURE by Jack Vance

CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess

DAMNATION ALLEY by Roger Zelazny

TARZAN OF THE APES by Edgar Rice Burroughs

but I lost track of what else is on there. Lots of fantasy. I was considering getting Tolkien and doing the whole ride again but I still think the movie memory has to subside to really enjoy it again.