Reading Recommendations

May 20, 2009 at 16:57 | In Books | Leave a Comment
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I know I am Book Worm and more than crazy for books!! So sue me…(Quote from Harry Dresden)

My taste vary from my mood to mood about books but mostly I like to read Paranormal Romance Books, Young Adult Fiction, Adventure, Thriller and so on, I mostly cover all genres except Strict Historical Fiction.

While reading the post of some other people and book worms like me, an idea formed in my mind that I should share the books I liked most and you people can contribute your favorite books!!

If you want to contribute then please only recommend books that you’ve read and think that they are really good, not suggest every book you’ve read!

These all books are my favorite; I am listing them without any specific favor order. So the numbering is only for reference.

1. The Great Impersonation by Edward Phillip Oppenheim

(Highly Recommended for everyone! Spy/Espionage plot.
story about a broken noble man, whom the others want to use for their own purpose. For that they want him dead and send one of his friend who resemble him to Impersonate him for gaining secret info about his country! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

2. American Gods by Neil Gaiman

(A good book but with some philosophical center, mostly Adults will like it but teens may have a little different opinion.
The books concern the lives of new American Gods like sex, technology and their conflict with the older Gods!
And how a simple yet mysterious man is caught between all this)

3. The Adventure of Jimmie Dale: Alias Gray Seal by Frank L. Packard

(Adventurous book with a wealthy hero! Work like Batman but only with his intelligence and reflexes.
A wealthy man using his night time to do some naughty things for adventure and get caught by a mysterious woman who ask him to do some works for her.
She knows everything about him, but he is always one step behind to reveal the identity of that woman.)

4. The Time Traders by Norton Andre

(Sci-Fi book based on time traveling but different than other time travel book and it’s really great! Instead of future the most part of the story takes place pre historic world.
The story revolves around a thief turned government operative who tries to reveal the secrets that are vital to keep everyone safe.)

5. A Quick Bite (Argeneau Series Bk 1) by Lynsay Sands

(Paranormal romance book, love between Vampire female and human male, different concept of vampires.
They concern Vampires having a genetic advantage gained by research from an ancient civilization.
This one is very good but all the other books got repetitive with almost same plot! But you can try other books from the series too.)

6. The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne

(A great Adventure novel, Set in some 19th century start, Four people stuck on an Island without the means to escape. The story is about how they try to make themselves comfortable and how they fight with the difficulties. There is also something on the island which seems to always help them in grave situations. Join them in their quest to find that mysterious being!!
And hey it’s the same author who wrote “Around the World in 80 days”)

7. The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians Bk 1) by Rick Riordan

(Based on Greek mythology and half-human and half-god concept, a great series! Adventure and life of a boy named Percy Jackson after he finds that he is a demi-god.
How he is caught between the conflict of Gods and their pawns.
Harry Potter lovers will surely like it and everyone else will also like it.)

8. The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians Bk 2) by Rick Riordan

(Second book in the series and even better than first one!
Percy’s adventure when his first friend in the Camp Half-Blood is captured by some Cyclopes, and how he found about his flaws and powers.
Alas I still haven’t found the next three parts!! But I am sure they will be better!)

9. The Titan’s Curse (Percy Jackson and the Olympians Bk 3) by Rick Riordan

(Update 23-May-2009: Hey I find and finished the third book and it’s again more interesting and tragic. Percy goes on a quest with other demi-gods and find himself more caught between ongoing turmoil of deception and deceit.
Thsi time the writer also added some love interest thing to Percy’s life. Vampire Academy Lovers also gonna find it really interesting!)

10. The Dresden Files (Series) Bk 1 – 11 by Jim Butcher

(Update 25-May-2009: Just finished the 11th book Turn Coat in the series. I can’t believe that I have finished the all available books in just one and a half week! The books are first person narrative from a wizard Harry Dresden, his life as a PI, how his own people fear him though he is a good man, how his love life always messed up! These books have every juice you can long for in a Good series!! The best para-nortmal/mystery series I’ve ever read. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

11. Dark Prince (Dark Series Bk 1) by Christian Feehan

(Great Book, first in the Dark series often called The Carpathians Series. Introduce vampires as quite different from described in movies.
The book concerns the love life and struggle to remain sane of the Carpathian Prince Mikhail Dubrinsky. Romantic and thriller plot.)

12. Dark Desire (Dark Series Bk 2) by Christian Feehan

(Second book in the series and again a good work, quite long love scenes but it’s a great read!
This time the book centered on Jacques Dubrinsky, younger brother of Mikhail Dubrinsky! When he’s tortured and buried alive, his only hope is the connection with an unknown girl!)

13. Dark Magic (Dark Series Bk 4) by Christian Feehan

(Fourth book in the series. There are almost 20 books in the series but I liked only these three because others just become repetitive as the series go on. But this one is great! In the Dark Magic Gregori Daratrazanoff, often called The Dark One and friend of Mikhail find his soul-mate which is Mikhail’s daughter!
But both new couple has to find a way to understand each other and remain clear of bad vampires and human hunters.)

14. Morganville Vampires Series by Rachel Caine

(One of my most favorite series starting with the book The Glass House. Imagine living in a city secretly controlled by Vampires and you can’t tell this to others! This is great series, everyone gonna love it. I’ve read the first six books of the series and waiting for the next.)

15. Vampire Academy (Vampire Academy Bk 1) by Richelle Mead

(First book in the highly popular series! I’m not much of a Harry Potter fan myself but Harry Potter series is nothing compared to this series! Fast pace, Action, Love, Tears and everything that can make a book really enjoyable. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

16. FrostBite (Vampire Academy Bk 2) by Richelle Mead

(Second book in the VA series! Even better than the first one. Character, Plot and feelings got more pace and you feel lost them yourself. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

17. Shadow Kissed (Vampire Academy Bk 3) by Richelle Mead

(Twilight Fans are you ready to take the competition? Third Book in the VA series and superb writing skill!!
In this book Rose found herself and her relation with her mentor Dimitri takes a new turn.
Event causes her to attain a friendly nature toward Christian whom she hated first. I am madly waiting for the next book! This book just makes you really merged in the story. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

18. Eragon (Inheritance Cycle Bk 1) by Christopher Paolini
(Christopher Paolini started writing this book at the age of 15!! Can you believe this?
I’ve read many reviews saying that his writing skill has less maturity and the books are not so good.
But I started reading the book and believe me this is great! Eragon is first in the series, tells the story of the farm boy Eragon who finds a Dragon egg and become the dragon’s rider.
Although the book is three times long as usual fantasy books but you never get bored or never find the slow pace. You must check it out!)

19. Eldest (Inheritance Cycle Bk 2) by Christopher Paolini
(Second book in the series. In this one Eragon struggle to learn about himself and also in this book the identity of his parents is revealed. His relations with Dwarfs and Elves also grew more.
Read the adventures as Eragon join the elves for his and Saphira’s training.
It’s easily seen as the skill with which Paolini hold his characters, increases in the book as it grows.)

20. Brisingr (Inheritance Cycle Bk 3) by Christopher Paolini
(This book is even better than first two books, Eragon and Saphira find their strengths and weaknesses.
Also many secrets are revealed in the book which was of greater importance for Eragon and keeping his goal firm.
This book also tells the rising of Roran, Eragon’s cousin in Varden and how he changes the battle tides.
This book is so good that I am too eager for the final book to release.)

21. A War against Them by Jose A.Vazquez

(I thought what the hell can I find in a Zombie/Living dead book??
But the author and this book proved me wrong. This is an awesome book about how the characters feel, how events turn out after an ancient virus start turning people to Zombie like creatures! I Highly Recommend this book for every type or age reader. Try it and you’ll thank me for pointing out.)

22. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

(One of the best work of the Author. Really interesting. Although the plot is centered on revenge but the book contain everything like adventure, emotional contents, cunning and love. I really loved how the main character feels that in his revenge is he playing good or bad with other people’s life. No magic, No spells, No fantasy tale but one of the great books I’ve read!! Highly Recommended)

That’s for now! I am a little busy and I will add my other favorite books soon. Enjoy reading!!

Book Review: Blood Promise(Vampire Academy Book 4)

August 24, 2009 at 17:28 | In Book Reviews, Books | Leave a Comment
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So I just finished Blood Promise today; the fourth Book in popular Vampire Academy series.
I was really eager to read it and to know how events would turn out. And I can say that the author Richelle Mead has done a great job. I was hooked up in the novel from the first chapter and just finished it in two readings in 24 hours.

Dimitri: Rose’s true love has gone Strigoi(a bad vampire) and now she must find him and kill him to fulfill his once stated wish that he’d rather die than be a Strigoi.
But will she be able to find him? And if she found him, will she be able to kill a man she loved so deeply?

The book is written in a way that you are always in touch with all characters and as it is very difficult to narrate a book through first person narrative: Mead has done superb job there. The way she explain things, emotions, events, decisions and the places are just incredible. Okay the whole book is great but I just couldn’t stop myself from admiring the end of the book. I will not spoil your day by revealing anything here but really the end is superb.

The main character is almost like us, not perfect, always wondering about her life and her deeds and her past works and about future to come.
I really felt the joys and the change in feelings as the main character Rose felt them and this is no exaggeration of the good work of the author. The wide variety of emotions, action, and mystery really caught you in the passion of this para-normal romance book.

The way Rose weigh her decisions on right or wrong and the way the appearance of new characters never feel strange or stupid like some other books are the great factors to be considered. I really like the new mysterious character Abe in the in the book, and the way some turns in the book make you really surprised/shocked or whatever you can say.
Nothing seems ridicules or out of sense in Mead’s world of Moroi/Strigoi as in some other para-normal genre books; like you can imagine and foretell everything as they just make anything possible  but in Mead’s work everything is new and nothing can be said about any event or character until she reveal the truth or the lead.

Those who have read the previous three books, rest assure that you will not be disappointed by this one but will be really surprised and enjoy the book.
Those who haven’t yet read the works, you must give the series a try. I bet you’ll thank me for pointing you out for that.

Rating: 4.5/5.0

e-Book Readers for your mobile

August 8, 2009 at 21:42 | In e-Book Readers | Leave a Comment
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E-Book Reader software for your mobile phone!!

There are many e-Book readers available for almost all mobile phones.

Although Symbian/Smart phones have a little more advanced reader available for them.
But other mobiles supporting Java MIDP 2.0 and access to File System(JSR-75) also have many good and free readers built for them.
Almost all new phones have support for File System access(giving the application access to phone’s own or flash memory).
I am listing some of the reader applications I use or I have used, here.

AnyView:
AnyView is a free ebook reader for mobile phones. AnyView is written in Java, therefore should run on any phone that supports Java, and supports the JSR-75 standard. It is known to run successfully on more than 100 phone models from SonyEricsson, Motorola, and Nokia.

Features:

  • It can read files of type TXT, HTML, PDB and UMD comic format as well as display GIF, JPEG and PNG files.
  • Can handle UTF-8, GB2312 and Unicode – so can display Spanish and other language texts.
  • Fully touch screen enabled (for those phones with touch screens)
  • Very fast and responsive
  • Can open files directly from your phone – no need to add text file into jar file (as you have to do with most other ebook readers)
  • Has great page turning capability – you use 2/8 keys (or touch page) for page scroll and 4/6 keys (or use joystick) for line scroll. You can also turn on automatic scrolling.
  • Has Search, Jump to and bookmark features – everything you would expect of an ebook reader.
  • It supports reading directly from ZIP files – so your ebooks can take up less space on your phone.
  • Provides flexible customization capabilities with more than 50 user-customizable settings such as font size, colors, screen layout, etc. These preferences can be saved in Settings files and you can set up multiple settings files for use with different document types.

You can download the application below. If the FULL version doesn’t work the try the LITE version.

Download AnyView LITE:
AnyView-LITE.jad
AnyView-LITE.jar

Download AnyView FULL:
AnyView-FULL.jad
AnyView-FULL.jar
(If the language is other than English then press Menu>4>3 to change it to English!)

ReadManiac:
Read Maniac is a commercial quality freeware. It has almost same features a AnyView but also some diffrences. Read Maniac also support reading books from Internet(sometime the developer’s server is down).

Features:

  • ReadManiac FULL can search and download new books from internet – and this makes it a true library in the pocket.
  • Besides standard phone’s fonts, ReadManiac can use custom small fonts for comfortable reading on small phone screen, including ability to create and embed user fonts.
  • Program has powerful options for text formating, allowing to use a small phone screen in full;
  • Bookmarks and search features are supported.
  • On Siemens phones, and phones with JSR-75 or Motorola FileAccess API, ReadManiac FULL has a build-in file browser to access phone’s file system. Text file size is limited only by available space in FLEX memory or on MMC card.
  • TXT, ZIP, PDB, PRC* and TCR formats are supported.
  • Can read from ZIP archives.

Download ReadManiac:

For Siemens: Jad Jar

For Nokia: Jad Jar

For Sony Ericsson: Jad Jar

For Samsung: Jad Jar

Generic MIDP2.0 JSR-75 Version: Jad Jar

Enjoy Reading!!!!

Oh! And always feel free to contact me for any help. I will be more than happy to help.

Wattpad: For Book Worms and Writers

March 22, 2009 at 16:35 | In Books, e-Book Readers | Leave a Comment
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Book Worms and Writers, may I have your attention please..

While searching for some Authors and Book I came across a cool website named Wattpad.
They have a cool mobile application of the same name for searching, downloading and reading e-books.
There are plenty of books on their database. You just need a GPRS/EDGE/3G connection to search and read e-books, you can even download the e-books toyour phone and read them offline.
As I travel a lot, so this application has become my first choice for my mobile. Now I don’t have to worry about long travels, I just download my favourite books and read them on the go.
One can also upload his/her books to Wattpad too. This is a good feature for new authors for showing their work and getting feedback.
There are books on almost every subject and if you can’t find your choice, just make a request and someone will upload it.
Its really cool. I’ve downloaded and read many books in past three months.
And writers of stories, novellas, novels, books, poetry etc. etc. can upload their work for free. In an instant your work will be in reach of millions of readers like me! This is really gret and I’ve seen it working. So go and try it guys and gals…
And the fact that this is all for FREE..!!!
No COST at all…
You must give it a try and I can bet that you will like it.
Here are the links for the website:

Wattpad Application for mobile

Wattpad Mobile Website

Wattpad Website

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