Good Read: "The Martian" by Andy Weir

[wp34]

This is why I don't read the P N' R forum. 

Word.  I even stopped using Tapatalk for KLOV because of it.

[Locke141]

This is why I don't read the P N' R forum. 

Yep, so any way the trailer looks amazing. I can what to see it.

[Slippyblade]

I've got the book on reserve at the library...  I'm like number 79 or something.

[Locke141]

I've got the book on reserve at the library...  I'm like number 79 or something.

He was giving it away as a e-copy from his web site but I don't see that as an option any more. It's also looks like they took it down from the Amazon kindle store.

[dkersten]

I've got the book on reserve at the library...  I'm like number 79 or something.

He was giving it away as a e-copy from his web site but I don't see that as an option any more. It's also looks like they took it down from the Amazon kindle store.

http://www.amazon.com/Martian-Novel-Andy-Weir-ebook/dp/B00EMXBDMA/ref=sr_1_1_ha?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1443753053&sr=1-1&keywords=the+martian

It is now published by Random House, and they don't play nice with Amazon.  And there is no way they will allow him to give it away or even discount it, so don't expect any deals in the near future.

[pbj]

Easily available as epub/pdf.  Who the hell reads a physical book anymore? 

[adder]

... Who the hell reads a physical book anymore? ...

my mum     i just had to order some biography's for her including john wayne and burt reynolds (i know i know)

[pbj]

I celebrate your mother's great taste.

[dkersten]

Easily available as epub/pdf.  Who the hell reads a physical book anymore?

Considering Amazon still sells around 4 BILLION dollars in physical books in a year, I would say quite a few people.  Roughly 30% of their book sales are ebooks.
In the world market, around 40 billion dollars in books are sold annually.  Some analysts say upwards of 35% of those are now ebooks, but the most recent numbers suggest ebook market share might be slipping backwards. 

A study was done recently to compare ebooks to paper books and ebooks were superior to paper in every aspect except one: people reading paper books tended to understand the content better than if they read it on an ereader.  The irony of this result is akin to saying the British health system is superior to everyone else's in every measure except one: they don't actually save more lives than anyone else.

As for "easily available", I assume you mean via pirate sites.  It is true that even content protection does not even slow down piracy and my own book has had more downloads on pirate sites than I ever sold on Amazon.  It might bother me if I didn't know that people who steal rather than buy would never buy anyway, so at the very worst piracy can only result in more exposure.  Perhaps some of my sales came from people who heard about my book through someone who pirated and read it.  Just be careful, about 95% of the sites that claim to have these books for free are virus laden websites that will only get you infected.

[pbj]

The author gave it away for free on his website.  The horse is out of the barn.  He's made plenty of money on the subsequent sales and selling of the movie rights.

[Slippyblade]

Sometimes I like e-book, sometimes I like physical.  Depends on my mood, to be honest.

[yotsuya]

I prefer book book 100% of the time over e-book, but I'm not a Luddite, either. Whatever's convenient. 

[BadMouth]

All the books I bought and haven't read take up a lot less space on the kindle.
Most of the books I make it through are audiobooks.

[dkersten]

I prefer book book 100% of the time over e-book, but I'm not a Luddite, either. Whatever's convenient. 

I never thought I would do ebooks, but one day I just transitioned and I have never looked back.  I can read a book at home on my paperwhite, then the next day if I am stuck waiting somewhere I can fire up the app on my phone and it takes me to where I left off last night on the other device.  To me that is priceless.

[yotsuya]

I prefer book book 100% of the time over e-book, but I'm not a Luddite, either. Whatever's convenient. 

I never thought I would do ebooks, but one day I just transitioned and I have never looked back.  I can read a book at home on my paperwhite, then the next day if I am stuck waiting somewhere I can fire up the app on my phone and it takes me to where I left off last night on the other device.  To me that is priceless.

To me that's convenient. Ain't nothing wrong with it.  But given a choice,  I'll take the book every time.

[dkersten]

The author gave it away for free on his website.  The horse is out of the barn.  He's made plenty of money on the subsequent sales and selling of the movie rights.

He gave it away for free for a limited time to promote sales and build readership.  Doesn't mean anyone has the right to give it away for all eternity.  Of course, we are all pirates here with Roms, so it's a bit hypocritical to argue the point.  As someone who downloaded my fair share of pirated content in my younger years, my perspective changed when suddenly I was the owner of the copyrighted material.  Karma's a ---smurfette---.

[knave]

I have gravitated to ebooks more and more over the years. Every once and a while I want to hold a real book.

I can check out either from my local library. in fact the selection of ebooks has gone from awful to great in the last year or so. And I can't loose it or turn it back in late.

[yotsuya]

I have gravitated to ebooks more and more over the years. Every once and a while I want to hold a real book.

I can check out either from my local library. in fact the selection of ebooks has gone from awful to great in the last year or so. And I can't loose it or turn it back in late.

That's a good point, Knave. As the selection of ebooks has increased and gotten better,  it makes it an attractive alternative.

[Slippyblade]

My wife works for the city library and is her branch's e-book "ambassador".  She's the poor monkey who gets to teach the luddites how to work the system, DL the ebooks, how the DRM works, etc.  It's gotten a LOT better in the past couple years. When they first started doing e-books, it was a total nightmare.

[wp34]

My wife works for the city library and is her branch's e-book "ambassador".  She's the poor monkey who gets to teach the luddites how to work the system, DL the ebooks, how the DRM works, etc.  It's gotten a LOT better in the past couple years. When they first started doing e-books, it was a total nightmare.

Wow.  That must really be fun at times.

[Slippyblade]

Sometimes she enjoys it.  It's a pretty cool thing when you see the light come on and the person suddenly "gets" it.  Other times it drives her mad cause the person she is dealing with has the intellect of a garden rock.

[pbj]

The movie is pretty good, we both enjoyed it.  I did not care for the ending.

 

[brihyn]

Anyway, going on a tour of Johnson Space Center these days is a real eye opener.  Looks like it hasn't been touched in 30 years.  Stuff I used to climb on as a kid is now roped off with security watching you carefully.  We were in for ~$100 just for two of us to wander around. 

The NASA employees I interact with (well, they're all contractors I suppose) have certainly failed to impress.  I'm not real sure what the hell any of them actually do.

Finally got to see Johnson earlier this year.  While it does indeed look like stuff hasn't been touched in years, man, what a great tour. If you're looking for a "wow" factor type tour, go to Kennedy. If you want to see a working facility, this place is great.  Didn't get in to one of the VIP tours...definitely giving me reason to go back.

And I can now say that I've finally seen all 3 remaining Saturn Vs

[Ginsu Victim]

Never read the book, but really enjoyed the movie. My friend actually read it, and after the movie, he claimed they did a great job and barely changed anything (nothing important). His only gripe was the way Donald Glover played that character. He said it was a bit over the top compared to the book.

[BadMouth]

I enjoyed the movie, but I'd have enjoyed it more if I hadn't listened to the audiobook first.

They did squeeze a lot in (which the author has insisted in interviews).

For the most part they didn't so much leave things out as just simplify them.
In the book, he needs to make more area to grow enough potatoes.  In the movie he just plants the main room.  The process of getting water is abbreviated.
In the book, he can only receive replies from the communication equipment in the rover and still must rely on sending his side of the conversation via the camera.
In the movie, they can just type back and forth from the rover. 

They start to cut things out during the trek to the Ares 4 site, which is where I was getting tired of the roadblocks anyway.
He ends up frying pathfinder so he can't communicate any longer.  It doesn't really affect what he needs to do.
The rover flips on the way to the Ares 4 site.  It wasn't like there was anything all that clever or interesting to digging it out and getting it flipped.

Overall I think they did an excellent job and the author should be very happy with the treatment it got.

In the trailer they made it look like Watney had a wife a kid.
I was relieved to hear the author say in an interview that it was just clever editing of the trailer.
It wasn't so much that I cared if Watney was single or had a family, it just made me afraid that the whole story had gotten the Hollywood cookie cutter movie treatment.

[pbj]

Yeah, they simplified a lot of the story but a lot that stuff you mentioned got a little boring in the book...

One aspect I found rather excruciating was listening to Matt Damon say something out loud, watch him type it out on his screen, watch it appear letter by letter on Earth, and have the recipient read it out loud.  This happened a LOT in this movie and it wasn't like it jumped mid-sentence.  I remember some crummy Cameron Diaz movie that did the same thing and it felt like filler there, too. (The Holiday?)



 

[Cakemeister]

I saw the movie this past weekend and really enjoyed it.

I recommend not spending the extra dollars for the 3D, just see the 2D movie.

[Ginsu Victim]

I saw it in 2D at the Warren Theatre in Moore, OK. They have a luxury experience known as the director's suite, with reclining, heated seats. They serve food and drinks at the press of a button, and no one under 21 is allowed. For long movies, it's worth it ($22 a ticket, reserved in advance).

[knave]

I saw it in 2D at the Warren Theatre in Moore, OK. They have a luxury experience known as the director's suite, with reclining, heated seats. They serve food and drinks at the press of a button, and no one under 21 is allowed. For long movies, it's worth it ($22 a ticket, reserved in advance).

That is pretty nice. We don't have anything as nice as that but we do have a vintage theater that serves beer and wine.

[Vigo]

That is a nice theater.

[dkersten]

Anyway, going on a tour of Johnson Space Center these days is a real eye opener.  Looks like it hasn't been touched in 30 years.  Stuff I used to climb on as a kid is now roped off with security watching you carefully.  We were in for ~$100 just for two of us to wander around. 

Finally got to see Johnson earlier this year.  While it does indeed look like stuff hasn't been touched in years, man, what a great tour. If you're looking for a "wow" factor type tour, go to Kennedy. If you want to see a working facility, this place is great.  Didn't get in to one of the VIP tours...definitely giving me reason to go back.
And I can now say that I've finally seen all 3 remaining Saturn Vs

Just got back from Florida, went to Kennedy on Thursday.  Wow.  It was  my 3rd time there since 1986 and I have to say that I think I appreciated it more this time than any other.  There was more to do and see and experience than a day at Disneyworld.  We did a launch control tour, went to the command center where they launched a whole lot of shuttles and rockets and then saw the launch pads up close.. pretty amazing.  It's all multiuse now, spacex has leased one launch pad and the launch room is reconfigured for 4 commercial companies.  Seeing the Saturn V again was awesome and the new Atlantis building and presentation is incredible.  Well worth the money and I wish I had planned for more than 6 hours there. 

What made it even cooler is that my girlfriend is a caregiver at an Alzheimer's clinic and she takes care of Frank Borman's wife.  I recognized the name when she told me a few months ago that he was an astronaut but didn't know much about him.  To see his name and face on so much of the history was pretty awesome.  She was super excited and is looking forward to the next time she talks to him.  It added more to the experience.  We even found a plaque dedicated to him in the Mission:Space ride at Epcot, which was cool.

They mentioned the Martian during the tour.  Having just seen it before leaving for vacation just added to the awe.  It was the best part of the trip, which surprised me since we hit Universal and Disney World.  When we got home yesterday, we watched Apollo 13, lol.  It was fun seeing scenes that were filmed at Kennedy, especially having been in some of the same places just a few days ago.