Posted in
Tech on 14/10/2008
The alternate title of this post is “The British Pop Culture Invasion.” 
Ah, to make up for the lack of recommendations for the past few weeks, here are three books I downloaded with my subscription from Audible. The first is a Diggnation recommendation from Kevin Rose titled Predictably Irrational. I got this version as it was cheaper on audio than it was on the shelf (Phoebe bought the tome version), and it’s narrated by this British guy with a strong James Bond accent. Winner.
Why do our headaches persist after taking a one-cent aspirin but disappear when we take a 50-cent aspirin? Why does recalling the 10 Commandments reduce our tendency to lie, even when we couldn’t possibly be caught? Why do we splurge on a lavish meal but cut coupons to save 25 cents on a can of soup? Why do we go back for second helpings at the unlimited buffet, even when our stomachs are already full? And how did we ever start spending $4.15 on a cup of coffee when, just a few years ago, we used to pay less than a dollar?
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Posted in
Geek on 22/07/2008
There are some books that aremeant to be turned into graphic novels and Coraline fits the bar. I bought this over the weekend at Fully Booked in Rustan’s Makati for P640.00. The imagery - especially that of the “button eyed other mother” is disturbing. The graphic novel is illustrated by the award winning P. Craig Russell, who also did Ring of the Nibelung and The Dream Hunters.
Posted in
Books on 19/03/2008
There’s something bugging me. When I started subscribing to Audible three months ago, I noticed that my search field for books greatly diminishes when I’m logged in. For instance, when I do a search for Neil Gaiman on Audible without signing in, I get a good size of his past works including Anansi Boys, Neverwhere, “M” is for Magic, and Fragile Things. Oh Fragile Things - this is what started it all. I logged into my account thinking I could buy the audio which was one of his great compilations of short stories (sort of like Smoke and Mirrors) and … and … the book just disappears! Is Fragile Things channeling David Blaine?! It sucks even more that this book is read by Neil Gaiman himself and I can’t download it!
I emailed Audible.com and this is the answer I got:
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Posted in
Books on 10/03/2008
I tried to make it a habit to post my monthly audiobook download. So far I’ve recommended three titles (Stephen Colbert’s I Am America and So Can You, Bob Newhart’s I Shouldn’t Even Be Doing This, and the dramatization of Sweeney Todd and the String of Pearls) in this blog and I by far have accumulated two more credits in the last two months, including this March.
The problem dear reader is that I’ve come to realize that there are some books that are well represented in audio whilst other should be read under the leisure of coffee and a rocking chair (or something that simulates the sensory experience of the latter endeavor). I have not mustered the guts to download, say, the audio version of Shadowdivers as it spans more than ten hours worth of audio and I’ll probably be burnt out long before my iPod battery runs out. But then again I could be wrong.
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