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I finally finished The Wall which Ketabcha recommended many moons ago. I had started it a long, long time ago but found it too depressing. Then I gave it another try, from a starting point of 35% in and found it fascinating. The focus on the day to day work of caring for animals even when you're sick, and planting a garden all seemed like my actual life.
After finishing the book, I went back to Amazon to look at the cover and found a comment in the editorial review, about how the book is a "textbook case of clinical depression." That sent me straight into a depression as the book described my everyday life so perfectly and I wondered what exactly had been so depressing, apart from the fact of discovering you're the last woman on earth. I thought the woman had done very well given the circumstances. And today I realised that the comment must have been meant for the story (the wall) as metaphor and I immediately felt much better!
This is the danger of Free on Kindle. While there are some good books, they are outnumbered in a sea of mediocrity. I stick to traditionally published books, because they have at least been through an editing process. Even though some shockingly bad stuff still seems to make it through the traditional publication process, as a percentage that is much less than what you find in the self-published world.
Free doesn't do much for me. The real expense is time. There are so many books I want to read that I don't have time for all of them. The opportunity cost of not reading some great books is too high to spend time with the free stuff. And, if expense is really an issue, there are lots of ways to get books for low or no cost -- obviously, the library, but also at used bookstores, or places like goodwill. Or book swaps, Little Free Libraries, or even borrowing from others. My town has a book shed, where people can drop off books they don't want anymore and people can take as many books as they'd like. I've seen some fantastic books there.
Technically these books were not FREE---
I pay for Kindle Unlimited and they were available as an Unlimited book or you could buy them if you didn't have that service...I have found some excellent books via Unlimited but there are other offerings that often because they are new authors--maybe self-published--that aren't on the level of "notable" writers---
Not to say they aren't worth reading...Personally Dickens is regarded as great author but I would not spend any time rereading "David Copperfield" nor would I reread Bronte's "Jane Eyre"---the prose is just too torturous...
Jane Austin is probably one I would go back to for "Pride and Prejudice", one of the best books ever...
I have bought many books, hardback, paperback, and e-version that turned out to be a waste of time
The latter entries in the Detective Lindley series are a serious disappointment, for example...
I also use the free service Open Library which offers a variety of books-fiction/non-fiction...
I read almost all of Lawrence Block's mysteries on there and was grateful...enjoyed them...
Reread the Travis McGee series (most of them) there on e-version...
I need the magnified font and can't deal with paperbacks, free or not...
Love police procedurals but not when the who-done-it or the major clue is given halfway through the book...
I guess it depends on whether the reader sees it as a "major" clue---
In the second book, I thought it was pretty self-evident, a red flag so to speak but the police certainly didn't see it that way...
And I have read books where the criminal is known or strongly suspected and the tension comes from how the proof is acquired...
It is all about the writing---
Wow. Just wow. I really loved this book. It is quite vicious in parts and I had to quit reading a couple of times because of it. Those scenes were anxiety producing. Still, IMO, the book is basically a love story about two couples and a love story about Alaska.
The characters (and I do mean characters) are so vividly described. We get to know these folks and care about them.
Anywho, it's a good book. I didn't want it to end.
I may be late to the party but I just finished A Piece of the World (Christina Baker Kline who also wrote Orphan Train) and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was so interesting, though I don't love the skipping forward and back, and a very compelling read- it kept me drawn in and I read it quickly (which I don't often do nowadays).
Such a beautiful story.
Location: Montreal -> CT -> MA -> Montreal -> Ottawa
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I'm at 11% of The Foundling: The True Story of a Kidnapping, a Family Secret, and My Search for the Real Me by Paul Joseph Fronczak. I probably shouldn't even bother saying this because I've been wrong at least three times before with other books, but I think it was chicagoliz who recommended this one. I haven't even gotten to the meat of the story yet but it's already crazy and heartbreaking.
I'm at 11% of The Foundling: The True Story of a Kidnapping, a Family Secret, and My Search for the Real Me by Paul Joseph Fronczak. I probably shouldn't even bother saying this because I've been wrong at least three times before with other books, but I think it was chicagoliz who recommended this one. I haven't even gotten to the meat of the story yet but it's already crazy and heartbreaking.
I think it was me who recommended it -- I did read it and oh, so thought provoking. I think I posted about it here (I'm just too lazy to check). There is so much heartbreaking about it.
I’m almost finished with Rules of Civility by Amor Towles. Wow, what a writer. His writing is absolutely delicious. I loved A Gentleman in Moscow and this book is just as grand. I really don’t want it to end. I’m not sure what I will be reading next but I know it will pale in comparison to Rules of Civility.
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And today I realised that the comment must have been meant for the story (the wall) as metaphor and I immediately felt much better! 