As I’m sure at least some of us have observed by now, the holiday season is upon us. Jingles are jingling all over town, lights are popping up in many a neighborhood, and you can no longer approach a shopping mall without a certain sense of trepidation. As in the case of the Amazon Black Friday Deals, use of the internet(and in this case specifically the Kindle Store) can save you loads of hassle. We reported a while back that it was now possible to send out any Kindle eBook as a gift so long as the intended recipient has a valid email address. Seems like a great way to avoid the crowds, if somebody you care about happens to like their Kindle.
Here’s a couple that struck me as good places to start, given the people I have to buy for this year:
Storm Front – Jim Butcher
This series, The Dresden Files of which this book is the first, took me by surprise. I’m told that Butcher has an impressive following these days, but I was only turned onto him recently by a friend.
It’s a fun mix of urban fantasy and detective fiction set in modern day Chicago. Just this first book dishes up sex, drugs, demons, vampires, mob bosses, angrily overworked police, and even a life or death car chase of sorts. You can tell that the author was still figuring some things out in this first book, but it would be a hard book to dislike. This one’s going to my younger brother, who claims he “isn’t into reading” and just got his Kindle for the internet utility and its usefulness as a storage space. I think i can turn him around.
The Kindle Edition is $9.99
Lamb – Christopher Moore
Chances are good that you’ve heard of this book before. At least, many of the regular readers I know seem to have at least had it recommended at some point. There is a reason for this! A good book will often get a chuckle out of me from time to time. This book had me laughing so hard that I had to catch my breath. This was a regular occurrence!
Yes, this is a book about Christianity in its way. As such, it will upset some people by default. Others, specifically a certain type of Christian, will see it as offensive if they choose to take it literally. To these, I say that it is fiction, it is hilarious, and I can’t think of a single person I know who won’t be getting a copy whether they think they’ll like it or not.
The Kindle Edition is $10.99
All this is predicated on the assumption that your gift recipients have the ability to read eBooks, of course, but if they don’t have a computer, cell phone, tablet, etc, maybe they need a Kindle device more than they need the books, eh? Anyway, for a lot of people this time of year is where you get your best chance to share your favorite reads with the people around you. Not a year has gone by since I was a kid when I haven’t given and received dozens of books. If you are similarly inclined and perhaps interested in sharing some quality Kindle reading material, drop me a line.
If I get some good responses, I’ll do what I can to spread the word. I can’t promise that every book recommended will be read or reviewed, but I will do my best to get through at least a book a day for the next month or so. Just please, no Tom Clancy…
I got a Kindle for my wife for Xmas and was looking for some good books to put onto the Kindle. Thankyou for the suggestions. I am definitely going to buy Christopher Moore’s Lamb as one of my wifes favorite books at the moment is Christopher Moore’s A Dirty Job. Thankyou.
Butcher is great! He wrote “Storm Front” while still in writing school, mostly as an exercise to show his teacher how something she was telling him to try just wouldn’t work out. I’ve read every book in the series, and in my opinion they keep getting better and better! They were even made into a one-season TV show by SyFy a few years ago.
Both of these books can be found for much less in their paper forms. Great recommendations, lousy e-book pricing.