Book goodness

I've run into quite a bit of fun stuff in the online book world today. To wit,

Michael Chabon has an amusing Writer's Notebook on the NYT book blog. I am always happy to see a Paul Atreides reference.

SF Signal links to some free scifi novels in PDF form. They are the starters to a number of series, so it provides a nice try before you buy or borrow. I recommend His Majesty's Dragon which sounds ridiculous, but is quite a bit of fun. Imagine, if you will, an Aubrey and Maturin story in which they are in an 1805 RAF, instead of the RN, and Maturin is a dragon. That gives you some sense of what it is like.

The US Army War College has put out their recommended reading list. It is a wide ranging list with books from AEI and Noam Chomsky. Something for everyone! (via Blog them out of the Stone Age)

Finally the latest Powell's Indiespensible is interesting. It features a chapbook and ARC from Glen David Gold, he of Carter Beats the Devil fame. You can read about his eight year gap between books here. I like the Indiespensible concept, where you subscribe to get all sorts of literary goodies. I wish they had a nerd version that focused on scifi/fantasy and perhaps crime. I would be all over that.