I read lots of old books

Dec. 16, Thurston Hills Natural Area, BPA transmission tower

Hello blog. A week on from the URL switchover and I’m still liking Blogger aka Blogspot. It’s a little bit loosey goosey, but that’s charming and random-positive. Like, I’m not always sure why formatting happens in certain ways, but I’m starting to learn. Clicking between HTML and Compose views is helping shed light on mysteries.

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Radio Free Random: I have re-upped Mixcloud Pro for 2025—the whole year. If you think in terms of “real” radio, it’s a damn cheap license to broadcast (and covers copyright fees). The total price at $15/month would be $180, but the Mixcloud annual discount price is $135. Well worth it if I’m going to be on the air at least weekly. This week I had three broadcasts. Go to RFR’s Mixcloud profile page for a list of archived recordings.

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If you read on Kindle (or a Kindle app) and buy books for your device, check out ereaderiq.com, a site where you can build a list of books or authors to watch for price drops. I’ve been using it for years, and it’s quite a treat to be alerted to the fact that a $15.00 book, for example, has suddenly dropped to $2.00!

If you are a reader of ebooks on any device, note that January 1st is Public Domain Day in the United States, and a bunch of new (old) books will be entering the public domain—and thus will be free—no cost—to download. Explore Project Gutenberg for public domain titles. I read lots of old books, and there is no reason (except maybe fancy new formatting, new illustrations, or added commentary) to pay money for ebooks over 100 95 years old.

In 2025, books by William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Woolf, Dashiell Hammett, John Steinbeck, Agatha Christie, Robert Graves, and many many more will added to the US public domain. (I use the amazing Calibre software to ensure that my newly downloaded ebooks are in the correct format for the Send-To-Kindle feature on the Amazon website.)