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On December 03 2016 21:22 zulu_nation8 wrote:
I've been trying to read PDF scans that have been converted to MOBI and almost all of them become unreadable once converted. Are other e-readers or e-reader formats better for PDFs?
PDFs are just a bitch to read on almost any device. The optical recognition and/or reformatting is not great. Amazon makes some of the public formats intentionally hard to use I think. Protect IP rights and all that.
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Well, it does depend on the PDF. If it's a PDF created of images of pages, then that is horrible (and will look horrible on anything). If it's a PDF with actual text (could be OCR or generated directly in any number of ways), PDF is fine.
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I imported the PDFs in their original format and they were surprisingly readable. It would be nice if there was a zoom-in feature but not a big deal. I'm still having trouble justifying keeping the Kindle though as its biggest advantage over my tablet seems to be the lack of distraction. The screen is nice but I doubt my eyes can get any worse.
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I've been getting back into Sci-Fi recently, namely Space Operas.
I've finished Peter F. Hamilton's Fallen Dragon which wasn't half bad, and now I'm half way through his Pandora's Star.
Rejuvination sounds like such a cool concept :3
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Baa?21243 Posts
On December 01 2016 07:47 farvacola wrote:
Gaddis is fucking awesome.
happy birthday \o/
going through JR right now and it's hilarious.
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![[image loading]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51%2BqjvW8jZL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Wanted to give Sanderson a try as some people praise him a lot. I am half way through the book and have trouble finishing it though. Not my thing at all. Author seems to be constantly putting forward his political ideas in a fantasy setting which is annoying. And the good guys are all way too flawless which makes them boring and unlikable to me.
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On December 10 2016 04:00 Redox wrote:Wanted to give Sanderson a try as some people praise him a lot. I am half way through the book and have trouble finishing it though. Not my thing at all. Author seems to be constantly putting forward his political ideas in a fantasy setting which is annoying. And the good guys are all way too flawless which makes them boring and unlikable to me.
I'm an avid reader of Sanderson books so i'll warn that's not one of his more polished works
i suggest mistborn trilogy or stormlight archives(if you don't mind with there being only two books out of 10)
those are like his best work so far (just go for those books they're the actually refined ones)
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what are his political ideas? out of curiosity
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On December 10 2016 04:18 goody153 wrote:Show nested quote +On December 10 2016 04:00 Redox wrote:Wanted to give Sanderson a try as some people praise him a lot. I am half way through the book and have trouble finishing it though. Not my thing at all. Author seems to be constantly putting forward his political ideas in a fantasy setting which is annoying. And the good guys are all way too flawless which makes them boring and unlikable to me. I'm an avid reader of Sanderson books so i'll warn that's not one of his more polished works i suggest mistborn trilogy or stormlight archives(if you don't mind with there being only two books out of 10) those are like his best work so far
Was about to say. I like Sanderson, but found Elantris borderline unreadable. It gets better in the second half of the book. I'd definitely read the Mistborn trilogy, though. In particular the first book is amazing, but the whole trilogy is great. I quite liked warbreaker too.
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Btw just realized that Blizzard's WoW city Suramar is heavily inspired by Elantris.
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On December 10 2016 05:18 IgnE wrote:
what are his political ideas? out of curiosity
you not gonna answer that question?
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Am a little lazy but ok. :D
For example he heavily emphasizes how a person just needs work (even if menial tasks) to find purpose in his life and he will find his way out of despair. Goes on to show that giving handouts instead to those poor people is very counter productive. Workers need to get a share of their labour's fruit and their effectiveness will multiply. He demonstrates how hate against certain groups is channeled and used to convert people to certain beliefs and control them. But he also shows that religion can be a force for the good when paired with a message of love and serenity.
It is not that I object to these notions. But in the end the whole plot is politics. How to win people's allegiance, how to sway them this way and that way. Which is not bad per se, but I find it misplaced in a fantasy setting and it is overly simplified.
Just googled and I am not super surprised to find he is a Mormon. There are indeed similarities to Orson Scott Card when it comes to the moralizing.
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On December 11 2016 05:27 IgnE wrote:Show nested quote +On December 10 2016 05:18 IgnE wrote:
what are his political ideas? out of curiosity you not gonna answer that question?
srry
it would be wayy too long if i specified everything but it's safe to say he has ALOT of political/society/whatever ideas he implements on his every series
like in stormlight archives he has this woman in the story like do all kinds of scribing, art, academic stuff while men are commonly encouraged to do the more brute stuff like being a soldier (and men are actually frowned upon when they learn to write and to scholastic stuff)
in warbreaker we have these walking gods and not just a conceptual higher being that watches over the people
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but that's the stuff stories are made of right?
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Read "Abolition of the Species" by Dietmar Dath (who is, by the way, one of the most interesting authors in germany).
Reading it was both a chore and a pleasure. Dath's willingness to write and think about stuff which is actually interesting and new makes it worth a read
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I've manage to finish another book before the year ends
![[image loading]](http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1370699959l/18047306.jpg)
book 1 out of 3 from the "Travellers Gate" trilogy by Will Wight . It's alright i guess, i had fun reading but the book cover description totally lured me into reading.
Simon can only watch, helpless, as his family is killed and his friends captured by enemy Travelers—men and women who can summon mystical powers from otherworldly Territories. To top it off, another young man from Simon's village discovers that he's a savior prophesied to destroy evil and save the realm.
Prophecy has nothing to say about Simon. He has no special powers, no magical weapons, and no guarantee that he'll survive. But he sets off anyway, alone, to gain the power he needs to oppose the Travelers and topple their ruthless Overlord. It may not be his destiny, but Simon's determined to rescue his fellow villagers from certain death.
Because who cares about prophecy, really?
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Finished:
![[image loading]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51UvB8qeNEL._SX325_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Honestly, this has been one of the most frustrating books I have ever read. The setup is interesting, you can clearly see that Gaiman knows how to tell a story and everything is very readable. And then he messes it up completely by cheating the reader in a really lame way. Admittedly, cheating people is kind of the main topic of the whole book, so in a weird way it even makes sense. But doing this to your readers after several hundred pages? Definitely not recommended. Stay away from this book!
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not that i necessarily disagree but how does he cheat the reader?
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EPT![[image loading]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51EGdUo92DL.jpg)
![[image loading]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51dLwrAxsUL.jpg)
