FireDemon

It involved a guy who'd just gotten out of prison. He had a girlfriend who was an air-stewardess or something, and she wouldn't sleep with him till he got STD-tested. He knew people who would car-jack and someone or the other hits somebody else with a pipe in a post office.

The whole book is written in an odd way, as if intending to say that the narrator spoke in some lower-class patois.

Also, if there is, is there an explanation for exactly what is going on when this happens? I've been browsing a couple of forums lately and a lot of people there are talking about having to let their headphones run for x hours before they sound good. Searching only yields 'audiophile' websites (which put a very strong emphasis on very subjective views) and one website which wanted to do an experiment but didn't finish it.

• Does it actually exist?
• What sort of process will cause this change in sound quality?

I get the feeling there were a lot of people at this university or school or whatever, and that this character wasn't even the most important of them all. I read the book about 3-4 years ago. There is a supporting character who is this boy who doesn't seem very brave or courageous and every time he gets upset, he creates these big holes in the ground.

I have a vague feeling the protagonist was female, but I'm not sure about this. It's a fantasy novel of some sort, and I think there was a guy who dealt with dragons whose name started with B (something like Blade). But these bits might just be me mixing things up.

• For books, I use Flipkart and have only good things to say so far.

• For electronics, I buy locally or occasionally on ebay.in (which is usually overpriced), but this isn't exactly an optimal solution.

• For music, I have to buy locally. There isn't a single music store that's any good to use. I prefer CDs to individual MP3s.

Anyone have any suggestions for the latter two options?