Book Log 27/2012 - Cory Doctorow: A Place so Foreign

[jacey]

A short story - or maybe novelette (hard to judge the length on a kindle where progress is marked in percentages not pages) - set in a universe where time travel is changing the past. The future is percolating backwards so that 1975 is futuristic. James lives in 1898 in rural Utah, but his father is an ambassador to 1975 and during a visit to the future Dad disappears. With his mother about to remarry James is left to figure out his own life, combining lessons learned in both time periods to work out what he really wants to do. He's a child of both worlds, but doesn't really belong in either

I didn't intend to read this right now, but the first paragraph dragged me in and wouldn't let me go. It's a gentle story about identity and finding your place in the world with some neat forays into the potential effects of time travelling.

Comments

[del-c.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised by the percentages problem. Do they even say what it is a percentage of? words? lines? pages? total bytes? total sectors? We can hope the technology sorts itself out so that later models count English words instead, so it can say it's 10,000 words into a 100,000 word novel.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

You have a bar across the bottom that tells you what percentage of the book you've read. This includes any intro or info that comes with the download (a fair amount of stuff about copyright on Cory's free downloads, which is understandable). Of course pages are irrelevant on a Kindle because how many words you see on a screen depends on the size of font you select.

I like reading on a Kindle but I do wish that downloads included the cover illustration (black and white is fine) and the cover copy. I find that reading the back cover copy generally sets the mood and expectation before reading the book. Also it would be nice to know in advance if there's a glossary at the end, since you obviously can't spot it by flicking through. The biggest improvement for me would be all that plus a contents page with a 'go to' facility.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I believe that some versions of Kindle books now have page numbers, by which I mean that if you press the menu button it will tell you what page that would be in the print edition.

As I read Kindle books on an iPod Touch, I don't have that option. I suppose it's designed for people who want to quote references for academic or review purposes. I just used the location (which you can easily jump to if you're also reading on a Kindle) and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I don't lose marks for it in the final assignment of the Children's Literature course I've just completed. Normally, with the Harvard reference system and ebooks, you would quote chapter number, but the stupid Monsters of Men didn't have numbered chapters, so it was a bit of a problem.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

I've (so far) only come across a couple of books with actual page numbers.