If you are in the technology business and you work on web applications (or even non-web applications), you need to give “Getting Real” a good solid read.  It is filled with principles, that while might seem strange at first, are excellent rules to live by in this “Web 2.0″ world.  The ideas of “underdoing your competition” and “release early and often” might seem strange in a business that has long believed in outdoing your competitors and waiting till the product is “perfect” (which can only be achieved with 10 managers, 50 developers, business analysts, and about 1,000 pages of useless documents) but in a place like the world wide web, mean little.

The main arguments presented in the book aim to keep things small, easily adaptable, simple, and even on occasion releasing crudely looking products (with the intent of cleaning up over time) are things that I have been discussing with a friend of mine for many years.  The book is in some ways an anti-big business book, and isn’t to be considered a rule book, but it is a game changer.  It’s ideas will cause some people to laugh, laud, and dismiss it entirely; for these people they will do so at their own peril.  This book causes one to think about an internet business in a different way.  It’s really not about the pumping up the stock option price so you can sell to Google, it’s about how to run a successful business on the internet so you don’t have to sell to some company with deep pockets.  It’s about starting and running a business and how (as a small company) you have an advantage over your larger competitors.

Overall I throughly enjoyed reading this book.  The essays are short (less than 2 pages in most cases), concise and get their point across quite well in their minimal space.  If you’re looking at doing web applications either in an existing company, or you are considering starting your own, this book is a “can’t miss” read.

Introduction
DailyLit.com
Audiobooks
eBooks
eBook Readers
Social Networks for Readers

If you have questions that were not answered in the series, please feel free to leave a comment or reach me via email. I will try and answer any questions as best as I can.

Social Networks for Readers

The two websites I want to look at today are Shelfari and GoodReads. Both are social networks in that they allow you to add friends and share your reading interests with those friends. The concept for both sites is very simple. You use their search feature to find books via title, author, genre, or even ISBN number. You then add books to your shelves depending on what category they fall into. You can also rate and review the books as you add them to your shelves and as you finish them. Both sites allow you to have multiple “bookshelves” so that you can sort your books by the things you have read, the books you are currently reading, and the ones you plan to read in the future.

Shelfari

Shelfari is probably the more popular of the two sites that I will be looking at today. Out of the two sites, it is also the prettiest. It actually shows you a picture of a bookshelf with the covers of each book nicely displayed so you can easily find the books. The website is pretty but almost every action causes a complete page reload making the site a bear to use. An attractive website is kind in this Web 2.0 world but having a site that is easy to use and responds quickly to my actions is paramount in having a successful site. While many people will point and say things like “oh look it’s so pretty” they will eventually tire of the pretty when they have to spend so much time waiting for pages to reload after each click.

That’s not to say that Shelfari is without its merits. In fact they have a few. They offer a newsletter that lets you keep up with what your friends are reading and what they have finished. If they reviewed a book it will give you a nice synopsis in the newsletter. Also, Shelfari seems to have the popular vote going for it. More people use it so it has the larger user base (at least it seems this way to me). When it comes to a social site, having users is a big deal.

GoodReads

The second site, GoodReads.com, is nothing like Shelfari. Sure, you have shelves, but these shelves are really no more than lists of books. There are no pretty interfaces, just straight, to the point design. But while Shelfari prides itself on the pretty, GoodReads focuses more on the functionality. You can quickly find, add, edit, and review books without too much fuss or muss. The site is responsive and uses just enough javascript that it makes the website work while keeping the pizzazz to a minimum. That of course does not mean that GoodReads does not look good, quite the contrary. GoodReads offers a nice mix of looks and functionality. The site is not flashy but functional.

One of the things that makes GoodReads nice, is the use of RSS feeds as you update your lists. If you move a book from your “currently reading” list to your “read” list, anyone subscribed to those RSS feeds will get the update in their RSS reader. I have attached my lists to my Jaiku liftstream so any changes I make get posted to my Jaiku account. GoodReads also has an API based around these RSS feeds, so if you are a developer looking to code something around GoodReads, then you are in luck.

Which One do I Use?

Out of the two websites mentioned above, I actively use GoodReads. I like it better than I like Shelfari for the reasons mentioned above. You can access me on GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/profile/mkoby. From there you can see what I’m currently reading and what I have already read. I am trying to keep it as up to date as possible and even trying to review books as I finish them. So be sure to add me as a friend after you grab an account.

Conclusion

This concludes the series “Get Your Reading On” and I hope that you found some of the information helpful. If you have any questions, please feel free to comment on any of the posts or email me using the link towards the top of the page.

Kinds of eBook Readers

As I mentioned earlier, there are two kinds of electronic book readers hardware readers and software readers. A hardware based eBook reader would be something like Sony’s Reader or the Amazon Kindle. These are physical devices that you can hold in your hand that allow you to read an electronic book, anywhere you can take the device. Software readers, like Microsoft’s Reader or MobiPocket’s Reader can be installed on your computer or mobile device (like a BlackBerry or Windows Mobile device) and allow you to read eBooks without having to purchase yet another device to carry around.

Software Readers

We will start our look at electronic book readers by looking at software based readers. These are the easiest to grab since neither of the two we will look at will cost you any money. Let us begin with MobiPocket’s Reader program.

MobiPocket Reader

The MobiPocket Reader is one of the most popular free electronic book applications out there today. Several eBook websites sell MobiPocket Reader compatible files, including MobiPocket themselves. The great thing about the MobiPocket Reader is that it is available for a wide range of portable devices including BlackBerrys, Palm devices, and Windows Mobile. There is also a PC version that you can install on your desktop that will let you sync your eBooks as well as RSS feeds to your mobile version of MobiPocket Reader. You can also use the MobiPocket Reader to access your favorite electronic bookstore and purchase new titles to read. This is especially helpful if you finish all your books while on the move and need a new book to read.

The downside to MobiPocket Reader is getting the books to look “pretty” and have pretty names if you just drop PDF files and TXT files into the PC application. You need to use MobiPocket Creator to get files that you have created into the friendly, pretty looking MobiPocket format. The people who designed the MobiPocket Reader went with a more straightforward approach when designing and laying out how a person would use the application. This is great for most people, but for those that like to dig around and hack at things, it can get a little annoying.

Microsoft Reader

Yes, even Microsoft has not left itself out of the electronic book game and does in fact have its own Microsoft Reader application. Reader, by Microsoft is about as straight forward with no-frills as you can get when it comes to a desktop electronic book reader. The application does have a Windows Mobile counterpart so that you can sync books between your PC and your mobile device. However, Microsoft being the company that it always has been sells books in its own proprietary format (.LIT). Granted most eBook vendors do this, some try to have their files work with as many readers as possible. Microsoft electronic books work only with Microsoft Reader. However, the program does exist and it is free so that is why I mentioned here. However, I prefer the MobiPocket Reader for myself.

Hardware Readers

Hardware electronic book readers are devices that have a single purpose of allowing you to read an eBook. Think of them as iPods for books. You can store multiple books and some even let you access RSS feeds for reading your favorite blogs on the go.

Amazon Kindle

The Amazon Kindle was released to a firestorm of blogging promotions. There was not a technology blog on the internet that did not have an opinion on the electronic reader put out by Amazon. Amazon set out to make an eBook reader that would allow its users to read books, purchase (and download) new books, and even get instant up-to-date access on some of their favorite online news sources. Amazon has a fairly decent first generation product in the Kindle, so good that since its release it has been on consistent backorder.

The cool thing about the Kindle is the fact that when you buy it, you get a device with a mobile internet connection. While that connection is limited to buying books and grabbing news articles from newspapers and RSS feeds, that connection does exist. To top things off, when you buy a Kindle, you do not have to pay for that connection. The connection is included. Currently though, the Kindle will only read electronic books purchased from Amazon’s own website and they are DRM-ed (contain Digital Rights Management) so you can’t transfer them to other Kindles or share them with your friends. Some have argued that this hurts the very concept of reading, how you read a good book and then loan it to your friend because you think they will enjoy it. However, a part of me understands why Amazon would do this.

The Kindle currently sets you back around $400, but with an constant internet connection, the price isn’t too far-fetched. And since Amazon can’t seem to keep the thing in stock should tell you they have a hot product.

Sony Reader

Sony’s Reader is very similar to the Kindle in many respects. The both offer eInk screens (the display technology used). They both offer ways to read the news and RSS feeds. And most importantly they both store a decent amount of electronic books for your reading pleasure.

The main differences between the devices are: the price and the internet connection. In Sony’s case, it is the lack of internet connection. The Sony Reader will set you back $300 but with your purchase from the Sony Store, you will score 100 free “eBook Classic Titles” to start you on your new eBook collection. However, the Reader’s ability to read RSS feeds and newspaper articles is limited in how often you connect the device to your computer. Also keep in mind that the books purchased from the Sony Connect store contain DRM technology so again, no sharing. You can put a title on up to five devices (one has to be a PC), however.

If you do not need a constant connection to RSS and news and you don’t mind a Sony product, the Sony Reader is a good compromise.

Other Readers

If you would like to see a list of other eBook readers, then I recommend looking at this list on Wikipedia.

Conclusion

As I hope you can see now, there are many ways to read an electronic book. You can do it on your computer, cell phone, and even buy a eBook reading device. When we come back, we conclude our “Get Your Reading On” series with a look at some online social networking (think MySpace or Facebook) that center around reading.

• Gone over books in email & RSS… check
• Gone over audiobooks and the places that sell them… check

So now it’s all about electronic books. Electronic books are also known as “ebooks” (yea it’s that whole e is short for electronic, thing). But what is an ebook? Is it something you hold in your hand, or is it a text file that you can read on your computer? Is it both? Well it is or rather it can be all of these things. There are sites that allow you to purchase and download ebooks, we’ll get into those in a second, but let us define exactly what an ebook is. 

What is an eBook?

Simply, an ebook is an electronic version of a book.

To further explain, an ebook, is a file that contains the contents of a book in a computer file. An ebook can come in several formats including (but not limited to) text, HTML, LIT, PRC, and even Microsoft Word’s format. While many purchased ebooks are going to be in a proprietary format specific to that vendor (or reader), there are places to download free ebooks. These can either be in the vendor’s proprietary format, or they can be in an open format that would allow you to read the book using a web browser or one’s favorite text editor.

Why Download & Read eBooks?

A 300 page book in hardcover can take up a lot of space. Heck, even a 300-400 page paperback has its own thickness to it. These things can take up space. You have to purchase shelves to keep them on, or put them in boxes to be forgotten about until you move or have a garage sale. Books take up space. As much as we enjoy them, enjoy holding them, we eventually grow tired of having stacks of the all over our house. Electronic books solve this problem in a big way. You don’t have to worry about finding storage space for books that you bought and will never have time to read, and you don’t have to worry about what to do with the books you have already read.

Another reason electronic books help is that you can store a large number of them in a relatively small amount of disk space. For example, Neil Gaiman’s book, American Gods is 641 pages in trade format (according to Amazon.com). My ebook file for the same book is 641 kilobytes (or a little over half a megabyte in space). Of course, American Gods is a slightly longer book. My digital copy of William Gibson’s Virtual Light is only around 340 kilobytes. Basically in about 10 megabytes of space I can store on average around 15-18 books depending on their length and how they were processed. That’s a lot of books in fairly small amount of disk space. This makes carrying a large number of books with you fairly easy when you consider flash media is getting into the 8-12 gigabytes at the consumer levels.

Where Do You Find eBooks

There are several online stores dedicated to selling electronic books. Amazon is among them, but their books currently only work with their Kindle Reader. The sites that I want to look at today are mobipocket.com, and gutenberg.org.

MobiPocket.com

MobiPocket is two-fold solution. What I mean is they not only sell ebooks, but they have a free ebook reader that works on several platforms. They offer a robust selection of books that are both free and cost money. If you were to look at their front page there is not a book priced over twenty dollars. All of their books can be read on their MobiPocket Reader application for both the PC and several mobile devices.

There are several other websites out there that sell ebooks in MobiPocket’s format. Since the MobiPocket Reader works on computers as well as several mobile devices, it makes sense. So, if you do not want to grab books from this website, you can try sites like eBooks.com or Fictionwise.

Gutenberg.org

Gutenber.org offers free electronic books for books that have fallen out of copyright within the United States. This means that you can grab a lot of classic books in electronic format for free. They offer the titles in HTML, text, and Plucker formats. A free repository of ebooks is good to have because you never know when you might need to grab something for a quick on-the-go read. Gutenberg.org offers over 20,000 free books. That’s a lot of books. So if you want to give electronic books a whirl but don’t want to drop cash to do it, grab yourself MobiPocket Reader and the HTML or text files from Gutenberg.org and you’ll be well on your way to seeing what ebooks are all about.

Conclusion

Next week, we’ll pick up where we left off and take a look at electronic book readers. We’ll look at both the hardware and software available and help you decide what direction you need to go for your reading pleasure. So check back next week as we finish up this series about getting your read on by looking at eBook readers and some social networks set around books and reading.

This is where DailyLit.com comes into play. DailyLit.com makes reading on a daily basis a snap. You simply sign up for an account (they will send you a registration verification), pick the book (or books you want to get in your email, and the next day you begin reading the books you’ve always wanted to read.

What Books Are Available

Right off the bat you will notice that there are two kinds of books available on DailyLit.com. The free ones and the ones that cost you a small fee (I went through about 100 titles and nothing was higher than about $10). The classics, titles like Tom Sawyer, Tale of Two Cities, and The Prince will run the nice high price of absolutely nothing, while other titles like DailyLit’s Spanish Lessons will run you $6.95. While the selection is definitely not Amazon.com huge, the selection is at least big enough for you to catch up on all the classics for free. The classic novels are some of the hardest to get through if you were to read them in standard book form. However reading them in small chunks in your email daily, makes them a little easier to get through. This is how you can read some of the greatest stories every put to paper, without too much trouble.

Other Features

As the pieces of the books come into your email on a daily basis, what happens when you get to those really good parts? You know the parts where if you were reading an actual book it causes to you to forget how to move your arm in a downward motion? Well DailyLit.com takes care of that. At bottom of every email there are some links, one of which is a link that will send you the next installment of the book to your email immediately. You also have the ability to suspend the book temporarily, say for example, if you were going to be out of town and without email access for a short period of time. All the links are there for you to control exactly what happens with the book you currently have “open” and control is an important feature.

However, that’s not the only extra feature available. What about those of you who don’t really like email. In fact you hate it but you love reading you some RSS feeds in your favorite RSS reader like Google Reader or Bloglines? Well DailyLit.com also offers the ability to read a book daily in via RSS. So all you need to do is select the RSS option for the book in question and you are on your way to some literary RSS reading. So as you can, you have options, and who in their right mind doesn’t like options.

Conclusion

By now, you have probably already head on over to DailyLit.com to check it out. It’s a great way to catch up on your reading. However, I would like to see the catalog grow. Maybe they need to make more deals with more publishers. I’m sure publishers really do not like the idea of people having a book sent to a customer in pieces. Pieces that can be stored somewhere for later reading. However, publishers should keep in mind that times are a-changing. More people are relying on technology and many are starting to read less physical books. A program like DailyLit.com is fantastic for those people who don’t want to sit down and hold a physical book in their hands. Most of those people are already reading their email on a daily basis anyway. Why not sell them something to read while you are at it. I encourage you to check out DailyLit.com and start reading books via email today.

Join us in a couple of days when we will take a look at audiobooks. Where can you buy them? Where can you buy ones that you know will work on your portable player? We will answer these questions and a couple of more, so stay tuned…

I personally have recently picked up reading again. I’m currently listening to an audiobook in my car while driving, reading an eBook on my BlackBerry, reading a book via DailyLit.com, and I’m reading a physical book when I’m at home. This has inspired me to write a series of post centered around reading. Over the next week few days or so, we will take a look at things like digital audiobooks, eBooks (and eBook readers), ways to read books via email and RSS, and we will even look at a couple of social networking sites that are centered around reading. There is a lot out there in technology when it comes to reading and expanding one’s mind. Join me as we take a look at some of that technology.

It seems Christians (whom I would consider “my people”) are still tackling the Harry Potter issue with every movie and book release.  Fortunately they have run out of books to complain about but we still have two more movies to get through and we can expect that Christians are going to continue to complain about them.

I want to begin by making note, that I somewhat understand these Christian’s arguments.  The Bible is very explicit about magic, witchcraft, and things of that nature.  The Bible explains that these things are very real and evil.  Okay, so they are real and we as Christians should avoid them.  Fair enough.  Does this mean that Christians should avoid good juvenile fiction on the subject?  Well I guess that would depend on how far you want to take the Bible’s view point.

I am completely okay with a Christian parent telling their children they can not read Harry Potter due to the wizards and witches in the story.  What I have a problem with is the typical Christian hypocrisies that comes with it.  If you will not allow your children to read or watch Harry Potter because its a world of magic that contains wizards and witches, then why is it okay for those children to read the Chronicles of Narnia series or even Lord of the Rings.  Certainly you would not let them watch the movies either right?  Wrong.  Most Christian families who speak ill about Harry Potter are letting their children read books by Christian authors that contain the same elements they acknowledge as evil in Harry Potter.  Chances are, they are also letting their kids (and themselves) watch movies based on these writings.

The thing is, most Christian parents do not teach their children about the concept evil in the correct way.  You teach your children that in real life magic is to be avoided and that it is not all great fun like the Harry Potter books show.  These parents do not demonstrate to their children the difference between fiction and reality.  It is a very necessary distinction that needs to be made.  Children need to be taught that fictional stories involving fictional characters are just that and have no bearing on real world events.

Another issue is that most Christian parents throwing a fit over the popularity of Harry Potter  have not bothered to read the books themselves.  The books are juvenile mystery stories where good often triumphs over evil.  The books teach the value of friendship and even respecting your elders overall.  Yes, around the end of the fourth book, the series becomes a little darker, but that is when the big evil returns completely.  They are light hearted fun, nothing more.  Also, parents in an uproar miss the fact that children are standing in line at bookstores at midnight waiting for a book to be released.  They were not waiting on the newest video game or movie, but rather a book that had actual words that needed to be read.  This is a huge deal.  Children actually wanting to read instead of play video games, watch TV, or go to a movie.

I think Christians that have an issue with Harry Potter need to lighten up in a big way.  They also need to really look at the games they probably let their kids play.  They might also want to look more closely at some of the Christian authors writing stories with similar characters before passing judgment on something as trivial as Harry Potter.  It is not like the books of Harry Potter are teaching children real magic spells that they can perform on their friends.

While many will argue that what is said in Killer Flagship Content has been said before by just about every blogger teaching others how to blog, it is nice to have the high points in one fourteen page supplement that new writers can be pointed to for easy reading. Chris puts everything in very simple terms and makes it easy to understand where he is going within the first five pages. The lists, tips, and insight he gives is something that I wish was available to me before I launched this website. Granted, I am not ashamed of anything I have done so far, I just feel that I could have started out better rather than learning 4-6 months later what I should have been doing from the start.

The idea of flagship content, is something that new bloggers need to focus on. There is a lot of "doing what that guy is doing" in the blogosphere these days. Having original content to point new readers to is something that is very important for a new writer to focus on. If you are new to blogging or known someone who is thinking of getting into the market, then you should point them to ChrisG.com where they can subscribe to the RSS feed and get a free copy of Killer Flagship Content. They will definitely want to add ChrisG.com’s RSS feed to their favorite RSS reader since Chris specializes in helping bloggers succeed.

For more information on how to obtain a copy of Killer Flagship Content, please visit ChrisG.com.

[Technorati Tag: Book Review]

• 5) Under the Hood – There was nothing more traumatic to Batman then the loss of the second Robin, Jason Todd. The loss of Jason is something Batman considers to be his biggest failure, and has a consistent reminder of that failure in the form of a glass case displaying the Robin costume of Jason Todd. All of that comes to a head in Under the Hood. In this story Jason Todd has returned from the dead, I will not spoil the surprise as to how this happened since it is in the final part of Volume 2. The reason that this is such an important story is it means that Batman has to face his failure head on. However, I believe that leaving Jason Todd dead would have been a better move.

• 4) KnightFall – Back in the mid-ninties, DC was on a mission to kill or severely disable several of its top heros. None is no more memorable than the Death of Superman storyline. But like I said before, Batman and Superman are probably equal in popularity so if they did something drastic to Superman, you can expect it to happen to Batman. So it came to pass that DC came up with a new villain for Batman named Bane. Bane was a hardened criminal that had been used for experiments for a new drug called Venom. This drug gave Bane superhuman strength. Bane set is sights on Batman and formulated a plan to bring him done. This ended with Batman having his back broken. A new Batman emerged, if only for a temporary time, and eventually defeated Bane. The KnightFall/KnightsEnd trilogy is a must for any Batman fan. Available in a three part paperback edition.

• 3) Hush – Jeph Loeb has written some of the best Batman stories ever to grace a comic book’s page. While many will argue that Hush is not one of those, I disagree. While it is definitely not Mr. Loeb’s best work it is good work none the less. In Hush we learn more about Bruce’s mysterious past. More importantly we learn about his friend Thomas Elliott. After a near fatal fall as Batman, Bruce calls on Tommy, who is a world renown surgeon, to fix his injuries. After Mr. Elliott returns to Bruce’s life a lot of Batman’s enemies start targeting him in weird ways and not always directly at Batman. The mystery of Hush is never fully solved by the time everything is wrapped up but you are left to wonder, is Thomas Elliott really Hush? This story is available in a two part paperback edition or the hardcover Aboslute Edition.

• 2) War Games – Ever wonder what Batman does when he is not flying over rooftops? No, he is not running around pretending to be a clumsy playboy billionaire. War Games gives insight into this side of Batman. When the recently fired Robin (Stephanie Brown aka Spoiler) takes it upon herself to implement one of Batman’s plans all Hades breaks loose. What ensues is the biggest gang war Gotham has ever seen and not everyone is making it out alive. Available in a three part paperback editions this story makes some major changes to the Batman family.

• 1) Face to Face – After the events of Infinite Crisis all the DC books did a jump to one year later. The first Batman story of this post-Infinite Crisis world is by far the best Batman story in probably the last 10 years. Batman returns to Gotham to find that someone is killing the most deadliest of criminals and all evidence points to Two-Face who has not been seen since Harvey Dent had surgery to repair his face. Batman and Robin work to solve the mystery and utilize new methods that they worked on during the year abroad. The series ends with a major (but good) change to the Batman and Robin relationship. Available in paperback in a single volume.

[Technorati Tag: List]
[Technorati Tag: Comic Books]
[Technorati Tag: Batman]

Most people have seen the Sin City movie by now and while the movie does do the comic book justice (especially the special edition DVD), there are so many more wonderful stories in the Sin City universe. This book comes in at number five, only because if you’ve seen the movie, you’ve pretty much seen the comic book.

Number 4 is a tie between Runaways Volume 1 and Ultimate Spiderman Volume 1. Both are available in nice hardcovers and both contain awesome stories. Runaways is about a group of teenagers who discover that their parents are part of a organized crime group that’s got roots in the occult. Their solution is to runaway and defeat their parents. Ultimate Spiderman Volume 1 collects the first story arc of the Ultimate Spiderman series. The Ultimate line from Marvel Comics is basically a way for a new reader to jump on board with some of Marvel’s more popular characters without having to know 50-60 years of back history. While the last story arc for Ultimate Spiderman was less than stellar, Volume 1 gives insight to the beginnings of a great series.

Coming in at number three is Vertigo/DC’s Bite Club. The cover is probably a perfect introduction to what this book contains but not what it is about. Bite Club takes place in Miami where a vampire family “runs” the city. When the leader of this family is brutally murdered it creates a power vacuum among the remaining family and what happens is something like the Sorpranos meets vampires. Great book, superb writing, and a story so good that you want more at the end.

Number two is Astonishing X-Men written by the man Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly/Serenity) himself. Picking up where Grant Morrison’s horrible run leaves off, Whedon quickly brings wit and humor back to the X-Men. This story is good and with what takes place after this arc it’s only getting better. At the end of Morrison’s run, the X-Men are shattered and Professor X is no where to be found. Cyclops and Emma Frost come up with a plan to get the X-Men back together with the intention of “astonishing” the world again. Joss Whedon is doing some of his best writing here and it is not to be missed.

And finally, the number one graphic novel everyone should read is The Dark Knight Returns. This tale spun by Frank Miller takes a look at a Batman who has aged well into what is probably his eighties. At the time this story was written this was an almost entirely new concept, no one had ever thought about what Batman would be like in his later days. The result is probably one the best and most notable Batman stories ever. This book is not to be missed.