AboutThoughts on books and the bookish life from an ardent bibliophile and former bookseller. The author, Lisa Guidarini, is the adult program coordinator for the Algonquin Area Public Library and reviews books for a variety of publishing house and periodicals. Lisa is a member of the National Book Critics Circle. Recent Posts:Library Thing
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The Book’s The ThingThe Book’s The ThingAugust 27, 2008 From the Ironic to the LitigiousOne of the co-authors of 100 Places to See Before You Die dies from a fall at age 47.From The Daily Mail online UK:” The man who co-wrote the best-selling adventure travel guide 100 Things To Do Before You Die has died at the age of 47. Dave Freeman had visited half the places mentioned in his book whose recommendations included a voodoo pilgrimage to Haiti and running with bulls in Pamplona, Spain. He died after falling over at his home in Venice, California, and hitting his head. ” The Kindle, and Ebooks in General, are Only Selling More Like Lukewarmcakes Than Hotcakes: Lisa Breathes a Sigh of Relief.From The Register:” The humble paper-based book isn’t burnt just yet. Amazon is keeping schtum as to how many e-books it has sold, but evidence is mounting that predictions of iPod-grade sales and billion-dollar revenues were a smidge optimistic. Earlier this month CitiGroup predicted that Amazon would shift 380,000 electronic books during 2008, and would see annual revenue of over a billion by 2010. But it’s worth taking a moment to see where those figures came from as Amazon won’t release any official figures. ” Salman Rushdie May Soon Have Company on the List of Authors Threatened by a Fatwah: Censorship is Alive and Well.From Guardian.co.uk:” A Danish publisher is in negotiations to buy Sherry Jones’s novel about the child bride of Muhammad, which was dropped by Random House in America and pulled from bookshops in Serbia. The Jewel of Medina tells the story of Aisha, one of Muhammad’s wives, from the age of six to 18 when Muhammad dies. It was bought by Random House US for a reported advance of $100,000, but then dropped after the publisher was told by academics and security experts that publication was potentially more risky than Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses and the Danish publication of cartoons of Muhammad. Last week, Serbian publisher BeoBook withdrew 1,000 copies of the book from shops across Serbia, following protests from an Islamic pressure group. BeoBook also apologised for publishing the novel. ” Speaking of Salman Rushdie.From Guardian.co.uk:” For many high-profile public figures, a visit to the libel courts has become something akin to a trip to the casino: victory triggers a large windfall and a substantially enhanced reputation. Yesterday, Sir Salman Rushdie achieved the latter, but notably turned his back on the chance of a big payday as his legal team forced an apology from a former policeman who had painted a disparaging picture of the author in a sensationalist book. ” posted by Lisa at 10:05 am | Comments (0) July 15, 2008 Meet the “Readius,” the latest in digital books
From The New York Times: ” Now a hallmark feature of these screens — their rigidity — is changing. New technologies are developing that make displays flexible, foldable or even as rollable as papyrus, so that large screens can be unfurled from small containers. One new mobile device, the Readius, designed mainly for reading books, magazines, newspapers and mail, is the size of a standard cellphone. Flip it open, though, and a screen tucked within the housing opens to a 5-inch diagonal display. The screen looks just like a liquid crystal display, but can bend so flexibly that it can wrap around a finger. ” posted by Lisa at 3:41 pm | Comments (0) June 25, 2008 Things they don’t teach you in library schoolOne resourceful librarian catches a thief: From http://www.calgarysun.com/index.shtml: ” He’s the dastardly villain from a librarian’s worst nightmare, slashing rare books with a razor and stealing priceless tomes off lenders’ shelves. Until the sleuthing skills of two American librarians helped police nab James Lyman Brubaker, the 74-year-old Montana shyster had stolen and vandalized thousands of irreplaceable books, including a collection from the shelves at the University of Calgary. ” ************ Reference by cell phone? From RedOrbit.com: ” A new 24/7 service from ChaCha allows cell phone users on the go to ask a wide range of reference questions in conversational English and get answers free of charge. Each question is routed to a human guide who searches the Web for the information and within minutes returns the answer in a text message with a web reference link. The online and mobile search company announced the new voice service in April at CTIA: The Wireless Association’s 2008 convention in Las Vegas. At 800-2-ChaCha (800-224-2242), the service works on any mobile phone that supports normal SMS text and voice capability. ” posted by Lisa at 11:39 am | Comments (0) June 19, 2008 Book News Around the WorldInteresting concept - multi-media story site for children. Though I’m a book purist, this sounds like a pretty good idea to get kids interested. That’s really the main point, after all. From Publisher’s Weekly:
” When Lisa Holton left her post as president of Scholastic Trade Publishing and Book Fairs in early fall 2007, she had the unprecedented experience of having managed the publication of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows under her belt. She had solid know-how about launching major children’s series, having originated and overseen development of The 39 Clues, Scholastic’s much buzzed-about book and Web-based venture, which launches this September. She also had a specific plan of what she wanted to do next in her career, and this week, she announced what that plan was: Fourth Story Media, a “studio” that integrates books and the Internet to develop children’s properties. Holton’s first book publishing partner will be one of her former employers: HarperCollins. *********** Surprise! Harry Potter is making JK Rowling very, very rich. There’ll be no pinching pence at her castle. From Guardian.co.uk: ” The sales figures for the Harry Potter series have long dwarfed that of most other books, excepting of course the Bible, but with news that JK Rowling’s magical tales have topped 400m worldwide, it seems possible that the boy wizard might be catching up. ” *********** The dark side of eBooks… From The New York Times: ” Not to be too 20th century, but I worry that Amazon knows more about my buying habits than my own family. Now comes the Kindle, which also knows how to use my credit card. It is very easy to buy an e-book. Press a few buttons here and there, and presto, a new tome appears. Obviously, an unskilled thumb (i.e., my thumb) could do real financial damage. I can only hope that my bank, which also knows my every commercial whim, would balk at the purchase of anything by, say, Bill O’Reilly. + ********** Publishers are twittering about Twitter. From Galleycat blog: ” Anyway, the reason I bring this up is that W.W. Norton has a Twitter account, which so far the online marketing department has been using as a way to let followers know when their authors are in the news. ” posted by Lisa at 9:45 am | Comments (0) June 17, 2008 Various and sundry book newsOkay, let me get this straight. Violence and injustice around the world aren’t serious enough for the Vatican to expend energy to “ban,” but Dan Brown is? ” Angels and Demons, the latest Dan Brown thriller to be turned into a film, includes key episodes that take place in the Vatican and Rome’s churches. Archbishop Velasio De Paolis, the head of the Vatican’s Prefecture for Economic Affairs, said that Brown had “turned the gospels upside down to poison the faith”. ” ********** The battle rages on for eBooks vs. the real thing. ” In important ways they are better than traditional books: they save paper and can be reproduced at low cost; users can increase the type size and read while eating, using a finger as a page-turner; hundreds of books can be downloaded from the web. On the downside, they are expensive, difficult to lend, easier to steal and could be destined for oblivion if formats change in the future. ” ********** Joanna Trollope on “chick lit,” from her blog at Guardian.co.uk: ” It’s odd, isn’t it, how squeamish we are about love as a topic. It’s fine for a hallmarked classic - Madame Bovary, Anna Karenina - but if the heroine is a modern girl commuting in to a dull job on the Central Line from Epping, we come all over contemptuous. We use words and phrases like shallow and frothy and only fit for women on sunbeds (so RUDE to readers). I don’t believe there’s a creature on this planet - man, woman, straight, gay, any creed or race - who isn’t longing to love and be loved in some way at some point in their lives. It’s the Great Topic we all have in common, and quite right too - get your relationships right and most of the rest of life assumes its proper proportion. ” posted by Lisa at 10:44 am | Comments (0) June 12, 2008 Curiouser and CuriouserIf this isn’t the most stupid and lame idea I’ve ever heard it definitely ranks up there in the top ten. My first thought? They already do this. They call them SOAP OPERAS. Just put them on the internet and add a little text and BINGO. “Will the future novel be more than text on a page?” from Read Write Web “Here Ends the Beginning is much more than a conventional e-book,” wrote Furlong to us in an emailed press release. “The text is punctuated throughout with video clips and photographs of actors recreating the characters and scenes. Music and sound effects further enhance this novel experience.” ****** Personally, before I’d give my kids a hand-held book “reader” I’d shave my head and join a cult. Or vote Republican. “Keep your internet; we want books” “75 percent of kids age 5-17 agree with the statement, “No matter what I can do online, I’ll always want to read books printed on paper,” and 62% of kids surveyed say they prefer to read books printed on paper rather than on a computer or a handheld device.” ****** Hey, does this apply to “Buy Two, Get One Free” offers? And can it be returned for store credit? This from Shelf Awareness.com (text in full): ” Noting that several county clerks in the area have stopped performing marriages–apparently for financial reasons rather than because of the California Supreme Court’s ruling last month that legalized gay marriage–Heather Lyon, owner, manager and buyer of Lyon Books and Learning Center, Chico, Calif., said in her store’s newsletter that she, a recently “ordained minister of the Universal Life Church and, for good measure, the Church of Spiritual Humanism,” will happily perform non-religious marriages in the store. “While for some, a church is the best choice of a wedding site; I hope others will appreciate that special book store ambience,” she wrote. “For me, being surrounded by the wisdom of the ages, new ideas, and the smell of books fills me with optimism and hope for the future. And a wedding is an act of optimism, a leap of faith, a commitment to a partner and the future.” Lyon wrote that the newsletter evoked more responses than any other newsletter she’s written. There were 17 messages in the first few hours, “all positive, no negative.” She asked if Shelf Awareness thought other booksellers might want to learn about her offer and “share the faith.” The answer: “I do.” ‘ posted by Lisa at 10:15 am | Comments (0) June 11, 2008 O.K., but what about the rest of us?The story link below leads to a tale about auction results for the 800 word “prequel” to the Harry Potter series penned by J.K. Rowling. Other writers also contributed pieces to the auction, and all the money went to charity. Pardon me for sounding a little selfish, but wouldn’t other HP lovers give a kidney to get their sweaty hands on that prequel? Seems a bit elitist to me, only offering it at auction. Not to sound like a snot or anything, because I’m all for raising money for charity. Maybe the high bidder will have it published (if that’s allowed by Rowling) and make a few million from it. But what about US? That’s all I really want to know. From BBC News: ” JK Rowling’s story finishes with the handwritten words: “From the prequel I am not working on - but that was fun!” In December last year, another of her stories, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, fetched £1.95m at auction. All 13 cards were sold without a reserve price. The other authors included Margaret Atwood, Lauren Child, Sebastian Faulks, Tom Stoppard and Irvine Welsh. Money raised will go to English PEN, which promotes understanding through literature, and Dyslexia Action. ” posted by Lisa at 10:43 am | Comments (0) June 4, 2008 I can think of other uses for $ 359 (like gasoline, for instance)
From The Tech Herald: ” Potential industry consequences associated with electronic publishing run beyond mere price reductions however, with surging digital book sales perhaps even posing a genuine threat to the traditional book publishing industry. According to a related New York Times article, Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn K. Reidy has said that her company expects digital book sales to more than double in 2008 when compared to 2007. She also noted that digital sales grew 40 percent in 2007 when measured against 2006.” posted by Lisa at 11:20 am | Comments (0) May 29, 2008 Good Gossip Today!: Books are Thriving and We are Book VoyeursSeems too good to be true, but apparently most readers agree with those of us who despise reading in electronic format. Sorry, Amazon. It seems your Kindle is DOOMED (brooo haha hahaha…!!!): Sites such as LibraryThing are tremendously popular. I’m on LibraryThing as MissWoodhouse, but my collection, like the rest of my life, is nowhere near updated. No telling how many books I’ve added since the last time I was over there, nor how many I’ve donated to the library (good soul that I am). Then again, also no telling how many I’ve bought BACK from the library sales as I couldn’t live without them. posted by Lisa at 9:34 am | Comments (0) May 21, 2008 Penguin’s Collaborative “Blog Novel” a Spectacular FailureIf you’re not nauseated now, you will be after you read the first paragraph: ” The deep waters, black as ink, began to swell and recede into an uncertain distance. A gray ominous mist obscured the horizon. The ocean expanse seemed to darken in disapproval. Crashing tides sounded groans of agonized discontent. The ocean pulsed with a frightening, vital force. Although hard to imagine, life existed beneath. It’s infinite underbelly was teeming with life, a monstrous collection of finned, tentacled, toxic, and slimy parts. Below its surface lay the wreckage of countless souls. But we had dared to journey across it. Some had even been brave enough to explore its sable velveteen depths, and have yet to come up for precious air….” posted by Lisa at 7:01 pm | Comments (2) Next Page »
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