Suddenly available cheap from Amazon*, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?: The inspiration for the films Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049 by Philip Dick.

While we are on the subject of cheap books, did you know that the popular, and pretty good, “Longmire” of TV started out as a series of books? The Highwayman: A Longmire Story (Walt Longmire Mysteries) by Craig Johnson is also cheap on Kindle, which is the 11th point five in the series (apparently it is complicated). The first is The Cold Dish: A Longmire Mystery. (Kindle edition of the first in the series here.)

I read The Source: A Novel by James Michener a long time ago, so I might have some of this wrong, but…

It is a fun read, not actually religious as some might suggest. The story starts at the beginning and the end at the same time. The end involves a group of archaeologists digging down in a tel (called Tell Makor in the book, but I’m told it might be closest the the actual Tel Dan.) The beginning involves a family of pre-Neolithic people who invent agriculture and domesticate the dog. (I oversimplify, as does in that are, the author.) The rest of the story is a rough approximation of the Old Testament history.

Anyway, relatively cheap for Kindle* (2.99) right now.

I should also mention* that The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, is still cheap ($4.99).

You already own this but in case you want a Kindle version so you can search the text or whatever, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is now 3 bucks, which is slightly less than half the usual price. This is book one, no wait, book two, no wait, book one, of the Chronicles of Narnia series. Book One, in my opinion. Fight me if you want.

While we’re on the subject of books you already own in meatspace but not yet on Kindle, Bratchett’s Equal Rites: A Novel of Discworld is two bucks, way less than half price. Go for it!

Ironic? Maybe, because we know democracy should not be for sale, and never, on sale. Whatever. I’m here to tell you* that Nancy MacLean’s “Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America” is on Kindle right now for cheap, at least in the US, where Democracy and books about it are always on sale!

In an unrelated development, this may be of interest to you as well: Chancing It: The Laws of Chance and How They Can Work for You by Robert Matthews with a forward by Larry Gonick is also cheap* on Kinddle at this moment. This is yet another book about how people with calculators are smart compared to you. But, it has a foreword by Larry Gonick!

You may be interested in these two cheap Kindle versions of classic books.

The Two Towers: Being the Second Part of The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkein* is 3.99. The Fellowship of the Ring and The Return of the King are still ten bucks on the Kindle, tho.

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur Clarke* is 2.99.

As long as we are on the subject of cheap Kindle book, 366 Days in Abraham Lincoln’s Presidency: The Private, Political, and Military Decisions of America’s Greatest President by Stephen Wynalda* is two bucks. I’m not recommending it, I’ve not read it, but I am reading Lincoln, by David Herbert Donald, which I recommend, so it caught my eye.

Slaughterhouse-Five: A Novel by Kurt Vonnegut is cheap on Kindle right this second. Not at some other time.*

But time is relative, so you better also check out The Perfect Theory: A Century of Geniuses and the Battle over General Relativity by Pedro Ferreira, also cheap at this time, relative to other times.*

For kindle, Dune, cheap, at least for American customers.

Meanwhile, of possible interest: Other Worlds Than These by John Joseph Adams.

“We can all imagine such “other worlds”–be they worlds just slightly different than our own or worlds full of magic and wonder–but it is only in fiction that we can travel to them. From The Wizard of Oz to The Dark Tower, from Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass to C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, there is a rich tradition of this kind of fiction, but never before have the best parallel world stories and portal fantasies been collected in a single volume–until now.”

It is an anthology of some kind, I put it here because it looks interesting, but I’ve not read it. Have you?

Two books that you probably already have but just in case you don’t now’s your chance, cheap in Kindle format: Continue reading Reimagined fairy tails, hidden history, books cheap. →

Wizard: The Life And Times Of Nikola Tesla (Citadel Press Book) by Marc J. Siefer is avilable for 3 bucks in Kindle form right now.

And while I have your attention, this might interest you: Our Town: A Play in Three Acts (Perennial Classics) by Thornton Wilder.

In Kindle form, worth checking out if you don’t already have them:

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco.

A Taste for Death (Adam Dalgliesh Mysteries Book 7) by PD James.

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel. Anyone alive in the eighteenth century would have known that “the longitude problem” was the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day-and had been for centuries. Lacking the ability to measure their longitude, sailors throughout the great ages of exploration had been literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land. Thousands of lives and the increasing fortunes of nations hung on a resolution. One man, John Harrison, in complete opposition to the scientific community, dared to imagine a mechanical solution-a clock that would keep precise time at sea, something no clock had ever been able to do on land.

Longitude is the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and of Harrison’s forty-year obsession with building his perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer. Full of heroism and chicanery, it is also a fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation, and clockmaking, and opens a new window on our world.