Ebook Readers

I bought Moon+ Reader a few months back and had found myself finishing up a book and wanting to "rearrange the furniture" so to speak so I googled and started looking at different readers just to see what was out there.  Side note: Moon+ is 50% off right now so if you're on the fence it's completely worth the $5 I paid, so grab it while it's $2.50.

Aldiko's Shelf

The one that caught my eye was Aldiko.

So I tried it out for the 2 or 3 bucks and was sorely disappointed.

To start with, it has a more...I don't know..."Kindle For Android" look to it.  But that's where any positive comparisons end, for me.  If that's even a positive, it's merely an aesthetic.

Maybe it's my device (ASUS Transformer Prime TF201-B1) or a collection of 442 books or the app itself but it took over twenty minutes to import my books. The screen timeout on my device is set to 10 minutes and, to keep the process from stopping, I had to tap the screen twice (the second time being at about 97% completion). So that was pretty annoying.  Moon+ had imported and organized my entire collection in, literally, under a minute.

While playing with Aldiko I noticed that it lacks a set of features I find to be the most important of all.

Mmmm...pretty.

The type of reading I do (WWII, The Crusades, high concept thriller writers like Brad Thor, Vince Flynn, Lee Child, Andy McNab, Douglas Preston, Baldacci, Rollins, Connelly, Mills etc etc...the Alpha Males of today's writing) contains a lot of references to historic figures, military, equipment, weaponry and dates.  Moon+ Reader comes with numerous dictionaries and the ability to highlight text in order to either look it up on Google or view, for example, the MH-53j Pave Low's Wikipedia entry - because I'm not nearly as smart as these guys.  I'm willing to lift my W***pedia embargo in this case. Moon+ allows you to google instead of going straight to the Liberal online "encyclopedia" as well, so that's good.  But uhm...back to the lecture at hand (SWIDT?)

Moon+ also allows you to create links on a word or passage.  This allows you  will bring you out to said wiki entry, website or definition.  You can also "mark-up" a page with notes.

This is really only two features I've listed.  Moon+ Reader is filled to the absolute brim with bells and whistles for those of us that like to push buttons.  But it also "just works" for those that aren't as technical.  You can really tell it's a labor of love for the author.

So unless I missed those features in Aldiko I think any reader that can't do those things completely under-utilize the technology afforded us/them and are no better than the standard paperback.

And there's nothing wrong with a good old paperback.

The Inspiration Of Good Authors

Vince Flynn

I'm drawn to conservative fiction and non-fiction writers like Michael Connelly,, Tom Wolfe, Tom Clancy etc.

I decided to start reading Vince Flynn - given all the hype and die-hard fanaticism I've been hearing about the guy.  So I picked up Kill Shot the other day, because that's the one all over the radio lately.

Once I started doing some research, I saw he's written a large amount of books based around this CIA spook, Mitch Rapp.  Much as Clancy wrote Jack Ryan featured books as developed his character.  The first Mitch Rapp book is Rapp's chronological life is "Transfer of Power" followed by The Third Option and then thirdly, Separation of Power.  Then followed by 7-10 more.

Act Of Treason, #7 Chronologically

Here's a short section of his bio from IMDB.com:

Flynn soon created an idea for a book, which would grow into his first best-seller, "Term Limits". Pocket Books seized the opportunity to work with this truly talented storyteller. Realizing that Flynn also had an enormous potential with a national audience, Pocket Books published Term Limits in hardcover 1998. Reviewers instantly hailed Flynn's non-stop action and storytelling as outpacing genre leaders David Baldacci and Tom Clancy. Readers agreed, and when the mass market paperback of Term Limits was released in 1999, it spent several weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. Pocket Books followed this initial success with Flynn's 1999 hardcover, "Transfer of Power", which also garnered wonderful reviews, and when it was released a few months later in mass market paperback, it too spent several weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. In the fall of 2000, "The Third Option" was published and instantly landed on The New York Times bestseller list as well, solidifying Flynn's reputation as a master of the political thriller.

You know how people say, "I couldn't put the book down"?  Well, I mean it.  I couldn't put Transfer of Power down. I read it in two sittings. Once before bed, and then as soon as I woke up - straight through lunch and done.


Incredible book.  I can't recommend it enough and I'm only just more excited to read the rest of this guy's stuff.  He is as spot on as it gets.  He sees the big picture and articulates it incredibly, unlike anyone else I've heard in a long, long time.

Please pick up a book from him...(it would be nice if you used a link above, I might get a nickel for it)...but you owe it to yourself.  You know you're not along when you read this guy.

Some interviews with The Man:

This one is about an hour long, but worth every minute.  I envision Vince in politics, though I'm sure politics sicken him - it's probably simply wishful thinking on my part.