As a former communist activist and as a communist sympathizer since I
dropped out of activism for a total now of about forty-five years it
wouldn't surprise me at all if the NSA is aware of me and I am just
about certain that the FBI has been aware of me for a very long time.
On 7/7/2017 8:25 PM, andy shields wrote:
Evan,
Yeah, I'm sure that THEY are hot on the trail of the subversive Roger after that Che Guevara posting. I always appreciate a reply that makes me laugh, especially these days, when (seriously) some things aren't as innocent or as funny as they used to be. (Sigh.)
I've wanted to write to you for a while because you're involved with the science-fiction discussion group, and I figure you're probably quite familiar with books and authors in general. I have some questions about the availability of specific books, and hope that if you can't answer them, you'll have ideas about where else I could look.
I'm a Braille reader, with the BrailleNote Apex, unless I have no other choice. There are 3 books by Kim Stanley Robinson, sometimes called the "Orange County trilogy"-The Wild Shore, The Gold Coast, and Pacific Edge-that are either available in audio from NLS, or in DAISY-TEXT versions from Open Library with a lot of scanning errors. It surprises me that Bookshare hasn't got them, since they have access to just about everything else he's written, from the same publishers, and the books are very popular and well-known.
I could write a long essay about my next search: "I, Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay", by Harlan Ellison. As far as I know, and I've looked thoroughly for 5 years, it can only be found in a DAISY-TEXT edition from Open Library that's so error-filled that it's distracting (frustrating, really.) I don't know if you've ever read this, but it's been described, rightly I think, as "the greatest science-fiction movie that was never made." It was originally serialized in Asimov's Magazine in 1987, and my original copies are pretty worn-down from rereading, but that's how good I think this is. I have that DAISY version, but can only understand parts of its text through familiarity with the material, that's how bad the scan is.
Finally, there's a novel by Howard Waldrop, Them Bones, that's not out of print but might as well be, since as far as I can tell it's not available anywhere in any accessible format. Again, a very popular author, so it's surprising to me. I submitted that one to the Bookshare Wish List with no result. I think textbooks and titles with more of a practical demand might have a priority; but having said that, in the last few months there are literally hundreds of fantasy books for kids and teens, or young adults, added to the "science fiction and fantasy" category, and it seems to me that's a little imbalanced, so who knows.
Anyway: sorry to go on. Is there some kind of list or website for blind SF fans where other Braille readers, especially from outside the U.S., might know of other sources for books? Also: I've asked this question more than once on the BrailleNote users' list, and so has another member, without a definite response: can Kindle books be read in any way with the Apex? I don't mind having to convert them to a readable format if that's what it takes, I'm familiar with file-conversion sites, though some, like online-convert, are no longer accessible to the Apex (well, you can get there, but no button you press to complete the conversion has any effect. I suspect it's the ancient browser again.)
I didn't want to bother the discussion group with questions like these. Thanks for any help you can give me.
Andy
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