If you are interested in reading top quality science fiction here are some places where you can find it for the taking. The books are free. The first place to start with is Baen's Free Library. There are a number of fiction and non-fiction books published over the last 20 years by Baen Books.
The second place, with rather more books and stories, is a technology center in Poland which is one of two places online that has full images of all 23 CD-ROMs distributed over the years by Baen as it published hardback books of general interest to readers of the genre.
All told there are well over two hundred books in all types of e-reader formats that work on every device I own. There are books by Larry Correia, S.M. Stirling, David Weber, John Ringo, Eric Flint and many others. In an even more unusual move, the CDs contain the full series of some of the authors' works.
Rest assured, the publisher offers these books for free as a way to entice readers to buy more books. Clicking on the image will bring up the index and you can either copy the entire disc image or download the books you want individually, one at a time.
I'm sure by this point everyone is familiar with calibre ebook management software. It's free, works on Apple and Windows and automatically puts ebooks into the format to match your reader. It's a great way to store and manage all your ebooks on your computer.
There are countless other places to find books, not to mention places like Amazon and Book Bub but I keep seeing all the titles from the Baen CD-ROMs still on the shelves in the local libraries so I know they are of continuing interest to readers. If not you, perhaps you know some young reader recently gifted with a kindle reader who would like them.
Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
Saturday, January 27, 2018
Wednesday, July 19, 2017
THE COLD EQUATIONS
This is a short story about traveling in space as reckoned about 4 years before NASA started putting together a government program to launch mankind into space. I read it long ago and was reminded of it again this evening. It has been a long time.
It won't be to everybody's taste.
It won't be to everybody's taste.
Friday, June 2, 2017
CITIES IN FLIGHT
A very good read. A dystopian book that I enjoyed. Those are rare. Something I was reading tonight triggered a flashback to the story of New York City in flight under Mayor Amalfi. I think it was the Mad Dogs of Thor V. It was definitely Russian. They drive like my sister.
You might enjoy this no pasaran piece. It talks about the media. As a former, respected member of the media (I used to have a paper route for the astute Newport Daily News), he makes some excellent points about how things are going in my second profession.
On the gripping hand, read and enjoy.
You might enjoy this no pasaran piece. It talks about the media. As a former, respected member of the media (I used to have a paper route for the astute Newport Daily News), he makes some excellent points about how things are going in my second profession.
On the gripping hand, read and enjoy.
Thursday, July 14, 2016
TAKING IN CIVILIZATION AT METROPARKCENTRALIS
We went out this evening to attend one of the last guided tours of William Shakespeare's First Folios which has been on display at the main library in Cleveland which is a wonderment in itself but I'll let Anne blog about that since she was the one that took roughly 2000 very artful and composed pictures of structures right out of Cleveland's Great Age when it was the 4th or 5th largest city in America and definitely one of the wealthiest. The rich turned out to be huge patrons of the Arts and they gave with a liberal hand what was theirs to give and their institutions and endowments continue to glean from the whole wide world some of the best of art and history. I really can't believe that in my secret heart I used to mock this incredible place.
After we left and headed home from a guided visit to the wonderful Shakespeare Exhibit and First and Fourth Folios on display there lead by a most incredible librarian, we went home my way which I'm pretty sure Anne would describe as sideways, dangerously fast/slow, and with ramming speed. We didn't actually head home so much as prospect down superior avenue in search of Case Western Resurv University to get her car which she ruthlessly left behind and which we found, as usual, at the end of the line. I think the British called it the Pale back in the day.
We suddenly rejoined the 21st century at the Wade Oval which is where a lot of the patrons lavished art and history on an unsuspecting populace a long time ago. All of which is in a continuous flux of making it more and larger and better and adding parking of all things! We happened to drive through the Wade Oval Wednesday this day and it was my very first time seeing it. There were literally thousands of people out on the green by the Botanical Garden, Art Museum, wildly expanding Natural History Museum and all for some band they all appeared to be happy to listen to and maybe dance the night away to.
All said, it was eye opening for this rube from California.
I've been taking a page out of the genius of Scott Adam's blog and I'm kind of amazed at the animus against crooked Hillary. Three out of three that might have been reliably counted as very firm democratic party voters told me at lunch that they could not and would not vote for Hillary. Mind you, they won't vote for Trump either but it makes for an interesting cascade of votes on the other side this time as many of the republicans couldn't bring themselves to vote for Romney or McCain and stayed home and gave the election to a complete flubber. It was weird to see it in effect going the opposite way. I was so torn I had to lie down for a couple of hours.
I kind of look forward to next week. Most of the worthwhile buildings are built of stone and the Federal Reserve Building of Cleveland was built to fight off up to 60 days of civil insurrection and they guard the library's east, north and south approaches from across the block. It's an amazing place with buildings and statues designed to house gun turrets.
My kind of town.
After we left and headed home from a guided visit to the wonderful Shakespeare Exhibit and First and Fourth Folios on display there lead by a most incredible librarian, we went home my way which I'm pretty sure Anne would describe as sideways, dangerously fast/slow, and with ramming speed. We didn't actually head home so much as prospect down superior avenue in search of Case Western Resurv University to get her car which she ruthlessly left behind and which we found, as usual, at the end of the line. I think the British called it the Pale back in the day.
We suddenly rejoined the 21st century at the Wade Oval which is where a lot of the patrons lavished art and history on an unsuspecting populace a long time ago. All of which is in a continuous flux of making it more and larger and better and adding parking of all things! We happened to drive through the Wade Oval Wednesday this day and it was my very first time seeing it. There were literally thousands of people out on the green by the Botanical Garden, Art Museum, wildly expanding Natural History Museum and all for some band they all appeared to be happy to listen to and maybe dance the night away to.
All said, it was eye opening for this rube from California.
I've been taking a page out of the genius of Scott Adam's blog and I'm kind of amazed at the animus against crooked Hillary. Three out of three that might have been reliably counted as very firm democratic party voters told me at lunch that they could not and would not vote for Hillary. Mind you, they won't vote for Trump either but it makes for an interesting cascade of votes on the other side this time as many of the republicans couldn't bring themselves to vote for Romney or McCain and stayed home and gave the election to a complete flubber. It was weird to see it in effect going the opposite way. I was so torn I had to lie down for a couple of hours.
I kind of look forward to next week. Most of the worthwhile buildings are built of stone and the Federal Reserve Building of Cleveland was built to fight off up to 60 days of civil insurrection and they guard the library's east, north and south approaches from across the block. It's an amazing place with buildings and statues designed to house gun turrets.
My kind of town.
Friday, February 5, 2016
NEW ROMAN STATESMAN
I see that somebody in The Atlantic has figured out just how it was that empires survived for so many generations. Pick a warlord of subjected people and then back him to the hilt as he destroys all who would oppose the empire. It's how Rome created and held together two empires for almost a thousand years.
Putin is the Russian Emperor and has been now for many years. In Chechnya he finally terminated a festering civilization-destroying war by turning the nascent state over to a Chechen warlord who will back Putin in return for nothing but Putin's acceptance of him as the overlord of Chechnya. Whitmore calls it a Faustian pact but unless he means that Putin is the Devil, he is wrong.
The reason that Pax Britannica and later Pax America fell is because the first forgot how and the latter never could pick warlords of any use at all. In the case of America, our leaders picked just about the worst possible men to run countries in both their and our interest. Putin has chosen fearsome satraps. We installed L. Paul Bremer and other shiftless, useless drones who failed to accommodate the will of their people or the warlords and were seen as weak and spineless tools of America.
America was still going strong right up until JFK and his democrats decided that Diem was repugnant and had him assassinated only to watch and view with alarm as Vietnam destroyed itself under less and less able self-selecting dictators. The Soviets had Ho and Mao. We got nobodies and Chiang Kai-Shek. Nobody alive even knows the name of the American satrap in Afghanistan and nobody cares. It really is a damned shame that Ahmed Shah Massoud was killed by al-qaeda two days before 9/11.
Yes yes, I know, left to their own inept incompetent devices the State Department mandarins who chose Bremer to rule Iraq would have passed over Massoud to find a suitable mouse to install in Kabul but I'm confident Massoud would have swept through Kabul an instant later and taken the throne.
This cheerful thought brought to you by the master of words, Rudyard Kipling.
The Winners
What the moral? Who rides may read.
When the night is thick and the tracks are blind
A friend at a pinch is a friend, indeed,
But a fool to wait for the laggard behind.
Down to Gehenna or up to the Throne,
He travels the fastest who travels alone.
White hands cling to the tightened rein,
Slipping the spur from the booted heel,
Tenderest voices cry " Turn again!"
Red lips tarnish the scabbarded steel,
High hopes faint on a warm hearth-stone--
He travels the fastest who travels alone.
One may fall but he falls by himself--
Falls by himself with himself to blame.
One may attain and to him is pelf--
Loot of the city in Gold or Fame.
Plunder of earth shall be all his own
Who travels the fastest and travels alone.
Wherefore the more ye be helpen-.en and stayed,
Stayed by a friend in the hour of toil,
Sing the heretical song I have made--
His be the labour and yours be the spoil.
Win by his aid and the aid disown--
He travels the fastest who travels alone!
If
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
Putin is the Russian Emperor and has been now for many years. In Chechnya he finally terminated a festering civilization-destroying war by turning the nascent state over to a Chechen warlord who will back Putin in return for nothing but Putin's acceptance of him as the overlord of Chechnya. Whitmore calls it a Faustian pact but unless he means that Putin is the Devil, he is wrong.
The reason that Pax Britannica and later Pax America fell is because the first forgot how and the latter never could pick warlords of any use at all. In the case of America, our leaders picked just about the worst possible men to run countries in both their and our interest. Putin has chosen fearsome satraps. We installed L. Paul Bremer and other shiftless, useless drones who failed to accommodate the will of their people or the warlords and were seen as weak and spineless tools of America.
America was still going strong right up until JFK and his democrats decided that Diem was repugnant and had him assassinated only to watch and view with alarm as Vietnam destroyed itself under less and less able self-selecting dictators. The Soviets had Ho and Mao. We got nobodies and Chiang Kai-Shek. Nobody alive even knows the name of the American satrap in Afghanistan and nobody cares. It really is a damned shame that Ahmed Shah Massoud was killed by al-qaeda two days before 9/11.
Yes yes, I know, left to their own inept incompetent devices the State Department mandarins who chose Bremer to rule Iraq would have passed over Massoud to find a suitable mouse to install in Kabul but I'm confident Massoud would have swept through Kabul an instant later and taken the throne.
This cheerful thought brought to you by the master of words, Rudyard Kipling.
The Winners
What the moral? Who rides may read.
When the night is thick and the tracks are blind
A friend at a pinch is a friend, indeed,
But a fool to wait for the laggard behind.
Down to Gehenna or up to the Throne,
He travels the fastest who travels alone.
White hands cling to the tightened rein,
Slipping the spur from the booted heel,
Tenderest voices cry " Turn again!"
Red lips tarnish the scabbarded steel,
High hopes faint on a warm hearth-stone--
He travels the fastest who travels alone.
One may fall but he falls by himself--
Falls by himself with himself to blame.
One may attain and to him is pelf--
Loot of the city in Gold or Fame.
Plunder of earth shall be all his own
Who travels the fastest and travels alone.
Wherefore the more ye be helpen-.en and stayed,
Stayed by a friend in the hour of toil,
Sing the heretical song I have made--
His be the labour and yours be the spoil.
Win by his aid and the aid disown--
He travels the fastest who travels alone!
If
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
Saturday, September 6, 2014
TEXTING WHILE SLEEPING
This tragic story from the BBC has an interesting twist which leads me to believe that she didn't bother to read the text she had written for this article or she was asleep when she wrote it. I think in the old days news and wire services struggled mightily to be accurate. Nowadays, they struggle mightily to remain relevant and akracy can go to the devil.
1 September 2014 Last updated at 14:17 BST
A lorry driver who killed two charity cyclists in Cornwall has been jailed for eight and a half years.
Truro Crown Court heard that delivery driver Palmer, 32, of Bude, in Cornwall had almost definitely fallen asleep at the wheel when he hit Andrew McMenigall and Toby Wallace on the A30 in 2013.
He had had no proper sleep for 24 hours and was texting at the time the accident occurred.
Leigh Rundle reports.It's one or the other Leigh but you aren't allowed to say both.
Friday, August 15, 2014
Thursday, April 10, 2014
BAD BOOKS TO LEEWARD
I just found myself cuing up the next book and then I noticed that it was by a man for whom I have great professional distaste. After a moment of reflection I decided he could join the other crappy books I've thrown over the rail into the waters of the Pacific Ocean. Back in the days when any reading material was precious to me, throwing books into the sea was a real testament to how awful they were. I don't remember their names but this one, I know him. He probably deserves to be eaten by sharks.
As terrible as they were, their consumption won't harm fish or other marine life and they're probably easier to swallow with a little salt anyway.
As terrible as they were, their consumption won't harm fish or other marine life and they're probably easier to swallow with a little salt anyway.
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