For several years, I started or participated in a monthly poll on the USA Amazon Kindle discussion boards asking people a simple question: what are you reading on your Kindle? I stopped doing it on the Amazon discussion boards and started hosting it periodically on the blog’s website (on a side note, Amazon stopped the discussion boards a few months ago).
I’ve received some great tips with past polls, finding out what others are reading on their Kindle, and found some “new” authors I generally wouldn’t have found using my hunt-and-peck method. While I have certainly enjoyed the mainstream author suggestions over the years, I’ve also enjoyed a lot of independent authors from each month’s poll I never would have heard of previously.
If you are reading this on your e-Ink Kindle or the blog’s free email subscription – or anywhere other than the blog’s website – and would like to check out the poll and find some new things or, better yet, tell others what you are reading, just click here or type in http://smarturl.it/1217poll into your web browser, scroll down to the bottom of the post, and start typing away in the comments section!
Here’s how this works – on the blog’s website (using the link above) list a book you are currently reading or just recently read on your Kindle, whether you would recommend it, did you get it free, and anything else you would care to share.
Like many in Texas, I have been sequestered for about a week now with the flu – in between napping and feeling miserable I have had a chance to read quite a bit. I literally just started Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race (you can type in http://geni.us/hiddenfigures into your web browser to see it). I watched the movie several months ago with my family and thought it was outstanding; Amazon had the Kindle version of the book discounted to $2.99 (from $9.99) on Thursday, so I grabbed it and am looking forward to it.
I also read four thrillers by Roger Stelljes this month: they were very good and hard to put down. If you are looking to start a new series of engaging thrillers, I would recommend you give his Mac McRyan series a try. Start off with The St. Paul Conspiracy (you can type in http://geni.us/stpaul into your web browser to see it), then progress up through the series. As soon as I finish the Hidden Figures book mentioned above, I will be starting book five of this series (ironically, as I type up this post, it is free in the Kindle store).
Finally, here’s my standard continuation of each request for prior participants in the poll: if you like or dislike a title you have read, in addition to telling us about it in this informal poll, how about writing a book review on the Amazon website? The review will certainly last and be visible a lot longer than this poll will. If you’re like me, you look at the customer reviews in order to see if you want to investigate a book further. Since we are all a little community here, and while I realize each review is each person’s opinion and we may not like the same thing, I know your friends and online discussion neighbors would appreciate your honest assessment of the likes and dislikes without providing a spoiler – I know I would!
Your reviews don’t need to be a long dissertation of the book, I like to keep them short, sweet, and hopefully to the point (some people think I am too blunt on things I dislike, but I am at least giving you my honest opinion!).
We’d really like to hear what you’re reading right now – I, for example, may find something interesting from your list I want to read (It’s been known to happen!). If you are reading this on your Kindle – or anywhere other than the blog’s website – and would like to check out the poll and find some new things or, better yet, tell others what you are reading, just click here or type in http://smarturl.it/1217poll into your web browser, scroll down to the bottom of the post, and start typing away in the comments section!
Anyway, that’s all for this one: have a great rest of 2017!
Michael