This time last year I took a look at my most popular posts of 2008. Carrying on that tradition, I'd like to do the same for 2009 with a few extras this time around.

As dictated by Google Analytics, here are my most popular posts for the year 2009:

1. Tor Free E-books: The Complete List
2. E-Book File Formats
3. Microsoft Office Live Workspace
4. Book Review: Horizon by Lois McMaster Bujold
5. Sell Your E-books in the Amazon Kindle Store
6. How much does the Kindle 2 really cost?
7. The nook: More competition for Amazon's Kindle
8. Selling Your E-Book Without a Publisher, Par... [More]

The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie is a gritty, in-your-face, rollicking good time of a story. The depth of the various characters is quite well done as they each come alive in their own way and the story, while long (527 pages; this is only the first book of a three part series), is intriguing and suspenseful enough that I had more than a few long reading nights with this one. Abercrombie successfully navigates away from many of the fantasy tropes we all know so well, yet utterly fails to avoid others. Still, The Blade Itself is full of compelling storytelling.

Abercrombie has assembled quite a cast of characters: Logen Ninefing... [More]

Not everyone has a handheld device a la an iPhone or Blackberry. Nor does everyone have an eReader (Kindle, nook, etc.). As of this moment, I don't own either. As of December 25, 2009, I own a Kindle 2. Fortunately for those who aren't willing to pay for one of those options there remain other ways to read eBooks: on your PC or Mac.

Now a desktop or laptop is not the best way to read eBooks. LCD technology by its very nature causes eye fatigue of varying degrees, and few people enjoy curling up in bed with their laptop or tablet. Sitting at my desk, with my laptop open, I rarely do more than read short stories or quickly scan through so... [More]

I'm anticipating receiving hoping to receive an eReader for Christmas this year. Without getting into which eReaders support which eBook formats, I wanted to take a look at what eBookstores are out there and what eBook formats they sell.

Granted, if you own a Kindle you're probably going to get your content from Amazon since they're the most restrictive on format types (for a long time Kindle only supported AZW format, though now it also supports PDF natively, a step in the right direction). But even still it seems as if open standards like EPUB are making their mark while competing eReaders are raising the bar, so I do wond... [More]