Somehow in the last two or three days I have acquired one of those vile throat viruses that make me feel as though evil gnomes have carefully sanded my pharynx overnight and are steadily working their way down. (Clearly they’re not English gnomes, who would down tools every few hours for a good chin wag and a pint of tea. These are industrious little suckers.) Everything feels raw and swollen. Swallowing hurts. Talking hurts. Even smiling bravely hurts–which I do a lot, because then I get fussed over with weak tea and luscious soft fruits and delicately poached salmon. (Nope, my appetite isn’t affected. That takes more than a few runty little gnomes.)
But here’s the cruelest cut of all: I can’t eat chocolate! Tuh.
So I’m pissed off. My toe has just about recovered, and I’m ready to exercise, stretch out, rebuild some strength–and now this reduction to viral puddletude. I have so much to do but have to settle for huddling in a corner cradling my thumping head and looking pitiful.
My solution: load up Kindle with free books–seriously crappy offerings for seriously compromised minds. First up: Sidney Sheldon. (Dear god that man wrote some rubbish.) I expect I’ll be done with it by this afternoon, so I need to find something else. Riproaring reads that are either free or seriously inexpensive (less than $2) because the kind of thing that will make sense to me right now isn’t worth more than that.
Any suggestions? I’ll read anything from shopping-and-fucking (Judith Krantz!) to sword-and-pony (where’s the next George RR Martin, anyway?) to ticking-clock-thriller to angsty-lesbian-lurve to noble-historical to YA-chosen-one to gunslingers-at-noon. It’s just got to have a story that clips right along.
PG Wodehouse. Though it doesn't really fit into any of your categories, and I'm not sure if it is available in eBook form.
The downloads on my NaNoWriMo “novels” are free.
http://stores.lulu.com/mordicaicaeli
If you are looking for a nerdy laugh.
{{{hugs}}} Hope you get to feeling better soon!
If you go to amazon.com, click on kindle store, then under “special features” on the left-hand side click on “Free Book Collections,” there are a lot of free books and excerpts from books.
Over on http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/scores/top they list the top 100 downloaded books. (Oddly enough, The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana is number one. At least it's the Richard Burton translation… Of course they also have The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (which is quick reading) and The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, which is always fun.
I spent fifteen minutes this afternoon downloading freebies from Amazon. After looking at half a dozen of them, I'm beginning to think you get what you pay for…
I hope you feel better soon. I just got over a really stupid ear infection, so I feel you. I was reading The Bell Jar while I was sick & it really made me feel insane inside. So yeah, I hope you are feeling some semblance of your optimal self soon.
Mordicai beat me to it, but mine's free as a download too.
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/lucifers-scar-a-love-story/6235516
There is *some* fucking, but it is what it is. Like you say, “You get what you pay for”… *grin*
I found a site that talks about downloading books from Project Gutenberg to a Kindle (http://ireaderreview.com/2008/01/18/getting-project-gutenberg-books-on-your-kindle/) that has links to some other sites. Also, though you probably know about it, there are free e-books from the Baen Free Library site (http://www.baen.com/library/) Hope you're better soon.
Anon, I forgot about Baen–than you.
I love Wodehouse, any time. He got me through my pnemonia last winter.
As for Sidney Sheldon, don't forget, he also gave us I Dream of Jeannie.
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Have you been reading Shadow Unit?(http://shadowunit.org)
Past seasons, as well as other Kindle downloads, are available here: http://www.spontaneousderivation.com/kindle/
Hope you feel better soon!
Alas, I'm allergic to chocolate, so I share your pain…
An allergy to chocolate? Blimey, I'll never complain again…
I'd recommend J.A. Konrath. I read and enjoyed his book WHISKEY SOUR, a serial killer police procedural. That busts your budget at $2.99 but I think he has some books at $1.99. I like him for the same reasons I like Max Allan Collins mysteries or Asimov's SF. Despite the relative artlessness of the prose, the plot really chugs right along.
Konrath of 'I make $6k a week (a minute? a month?) from Kindle sales' fame? Cool. Will check it out. Thanks.
The free-or-nearly-free downloads are, I suspect, a BIG part of Amazon's suspect announcement that e-books are outselling hardcovers. If I were to speculate as a private citizen.
As a new Kindle convert I cannot resist: manybooks.net
Until recently, Amazon had a page with sources for free books – it is now gone. Weird.
Thanks for the great blog Nicola, hope you are feeling better.
Get yourself over to http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
Lots and lots of very free stuff there.
The Price of Blasphemy:
Love, Sex, Religion, Insanity.