| The world has been ending for quite a long time. Ever since the breakout success of Cormac McCarthy’s 2006 novel The Road, the US has been degraded, devastated, and decimated time and time again. It seems the world of post-apocalyptic fiction is having a non-dystopian future. In the last year or so, an avalanche of books have been released that paint a very bleak future of the world we live in. This includes California by Edan Lepucki, Chang-Rae Lee’s On Such a Full Sea, Monica Byrne’s The Girl in the Road, Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, Sandra Newman’s The Country of Ice Cream Star, Kenneth Calhoun’s Black Moon, Laura van den Berg’s Find Me, Benjamin Percy’s The Dead Lands, and Adam Sternbergh’s Shovel Ready. I remember having many talks with friends in the last year, about what we would do if there was a zombie apocalypse or devastating outbreak of some new super bug. We made plans on where we would meet and what type of weapons we could defend ourselves with. Investing in a bug out bag was the first thing we all did, supplies that would last us seven days, solar powered radios and binoculars. I also know enough that if something big was on the precipice of occurring to fill the bathtub with water in order to have a drinking supply once the valves were shut off. I don’t know if any of this would actually help and the best laid plans often crumble when something real happens, but its strangely cathartic. Why do people love dystopian fiction and are enamored with authors such as Hugh Howey? The world feels more precariously perched on the lip of the abyss than ever, and facing those fears through fiction helps us deal with it. They reaffirm why we struggle to keep our world together in the first place. By imagining what it’s like to lose everything, we can value what we have. The Rise of Post-Apocalyptic Literature is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Sunday, May 3, 2015
The Rise of Post-Apocalyptic Literature
How Would You Change the B&N Nook?
| The Barnes and Noble Nook Glowlight first became commercially available October 2013. This was the companies second generation e-reader that featured a front-lit display, allowing people to read e-books in the dark. By today’s standards this device is hopelessly out of date and most of Nooks competitors have all released a slew of new e-readers. How would you change the Nook? The Barnes and Noble Nook Glowlight features a six inch IR touchscreen display with a resolution of 1024 X 758-pixel and 212 PPI. This is a huge upgrade from the previous generation Nook that only had 800×600 for the resolution. Underneath the hood is a 800 MHZ processor and 256 MB of RAM. There are 4 GB of internal memory that you can use to store purchases made from the bookstore. When you take it out of the box for the first time and power it on, there is only 2.1 GB available. If you like to load in your own PDF Files or eBooks there is only 500 MB reserved for user files. Unlike prior models of the Nook line of e-Readers, there is no expandable memory via SD in the Nook Glowlight. The e-reader landscape has dramatically changed since Barnes and Noble last made an e-reader. The Amazon Kindle Voyage and Kobo Glo HD lead the pack in terms of overall screen resolution and clarity. They both employ very modern e-paper called Carta. Indie companies such as Onyx, Icarus, Boyue, and Energy Sistem all have Android driven devices, allowing customers to install their own apps. Not to mention there is plenty of advances in E-paper, such as Fina and Mobius. What would you like to see out of a new Nook e-Reader? Would you like them to stick with the standard six inch device, or try something a bit bigger? Would you like to see a super high resolution display or use ultra modern e-paper? Would you like to see gimmicks like a waterproof e-reader, open Android or an e-ink camera? In essence, what would make you buy a Nook for the first time or switch to the brand? Its your call. How Would You Change the B&N Nook? is a post from: Good e-Reader |
