Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
9/1/10
8/22/10
A little ebook for your kind perusal ...
Last week I put out a little booklet compiled from my Twitter posts: Write to Learn. Write to Lead. 100 Tips for Using Email to Improve Your Work Life and Build Your Career. Here's the download link. Please let me know what you think.
7/23/10
Don't know if I care for this bug ... feature ...
Kindle books want to let you know when you have highlighted what everyone else does. Hmm.
7/14/10
7/12/10
6/11/10
Found at last ... the veritable garden of Eden ...
Rev. Van Slyke’s booklet said it all and more: Galesville and Trempealeau, Wisconsin, are great little places. The photo I use as the masthead for my blog was taken at Perrot State Park, in the area Rev Van Slyke describes fulsomely.
“Although apparently not formally ordained, Van Slyke read the Bible from cover to cover more than 20 times and preached wherever a group of believers wanted him. He became convinced that the Garden of Eden as described in the Book of Genesis had in fact been located at Trempealeau, Wis. He makes that claim in this tiny (ca. 3x5 inch) pamphlet which he published himself in 1886.”
“Although apparently not formally ordained, Van Slyke read the Bible from cover to cover more than 20 times and preached wherever a group of believers wanted him. He became convinced that the Garden of Eden as described in the Book of Genesis had in fact been located at Trempealeau, Wis. He makes that claim in this tiny (ca. 3x5 inch) pamphlet which he published himself in 1886.”
5/17/10
Taking "printed" out of print publishing ...
Or "Honey, I shrunk the bookcase!" This morning Don and Jack and I got to talking about a local music publisher and I trotted out my latest take on print publishing. (Credit to blogger Mike Cane. Be warned: Mike writes “explicitly.”) When I read his comment that publishers are ignoring technology, the idea sunk in. Unnerving in its implications. Really.
My rendering: Book publishers giving their content to the Amazons, Apples, and other hardware vendors of the world because they don’t know how to produce hardware is comparable to their handing over their content (and revenue) to book printers because they don’t know how to print books. The tablet is the new print delivery vehicle. So just as publishers go to China to print their books, they need to partner with Chinese hardware companies to produce their own inhouse tablets.
Of course scale will matter, and publishers like Hal Leonard, the largest music print publisher in the world with institutional buyers, get to be first. The Kindle will be just one of three or four tablets per household. One for music, one for Bibles, one for other books, one for cookbooks, and so on. Each tablet will have its own focus, features, and store.
And they will be free with a subscription to the publisher's wares.
[Mike Cane linked to this post. My apologies on edits to the quote he excerpted. Didn't change the substance of the thought, just the styling.]
My rendering: Book publishers giving their content to the Amazons, Apples, and other hardware vendors of the world because they don’t know how to produce hardware is comparable to their handing over their content (and revenue) to book printers because they don’t know how to print books. The tablet is the new print delivery vehicle. So just as publishers go to China to print their books, they need to partner with Chinese hardware companies to produce their own inhouse tablets.
Of course scale will matter, and publishers like Hal Leonard, the largest music print publisher in the world with institutional buyers, get to be first. The Kindle will be just one of three or four tablets per household. One for music, one for Bibles, one for other books, one for cookbooks, and so on. Each tablet will have its own focus, features, and store.
And they will be free with a subscription to the publisher's wares.
[Mike Cane linked to this post. My apologies on edits to the quote he excerpted. Didn't change the substance of the thought, just the styling.]
5/11/10
Its feats show it, they're iPads ...
Dunno what that means. Just to say, the iPad is a cool tool reading machine.
4/30/10
How Lincoln learned to read ...
Nice title, eh? Nice book cover too. By Daniel Wolff:
“Part of what I hope to do with How Lincoln Learned to Read is simply to broaden the questions we ask about learning. To acknowledge that some people learn best in the backyard with a tin can and an irrigation ditch, and some people learn best with a text book and a clock ticking. I think we all know that; we just don’t say it very often.”
“Part of what I hope to do with How Lincoln Learned to Read is simply to broaden the questions we ask about learning. To acknowledge that some people learn best in the backyard with a tin can and an irrigation ditch, and some people learn best with a text book and a clock ticking. I think we all know that; we just don’t say it very often.”
4/27/10
Listening to Neil Gaiman on writing stories ...
Lovely talk.
“Best-selling comic book and science fiction writer Neil Gaiman speaks at Stillwater High School as part of a new Twin Cities-wide program to celebrate reading. Gaiman is the award-winning author of "Coraline," "The Graveyard Book," and the acclaimed DC Comics series ‘Sandman.’”
“Best-selling comic book and science fiction writer Neil Gaiman speaks at Stillwater High School as part of a new Twin Cities-wide program to celebrate reading. Gaiman is the award-winning author of "Coraline," "The Graveyard Book," and the acclaimed DC Comics series ‘Sandman.’”
2/17/10
And then the ampersand ...
Here’s a quickie: The ampersand is credited to Cicero’s secretary Tiro and developed as a ligature out of the letter “e” and “t” in the Latin word et, meaning “and.” And Wikipedia says this about the word itself:
“The word ampersand is a corruption of the phrase ‘and per se and,’ meaning ‘and [the symbol which] by itself [is] and.’”
“The word ampersand is a corruption of the phrase ‘and per se and,’ meaning ‘and [the symbol which] by itself [is] and.’”
Following Christopher Fowler ... through peculiar times ...
Christopher Fowler is a favorite crime writer of mine. His “Peculiar Crimes Unit” series, now relabeled “Bryant & May” is blend of great characters, tight plots, and lots of tidbits of London history.
“In the last few years, the role of the writer has changed. It’s no longer something you get around to doing when things are a bit quieter, it’s not enough to write a book and send it off to a publisher. You are required to play a complicated game with the media that involves a lot of planning and projections, because the ground is shifting. Publishers do a lot of things for me, but the thing they do most these days is apologise. ‘We can’t', ‘we wish’, ‘it’s not cost effective’, ‘it’s an uncertain climate.’ That’s fine, they try to help get me published and it’s all you can hope for. In England there was a long tradition of the Actor-Manager, and now there are Writer-Managers, but here’s the thing – the more a good writer does that isn’t actually writing, the worse s/he gets.”
“In the last few years, the role of the writer has changed. It’s no longer something you get around to doing when things are a bit quieter, it’s not enough to write a book and send it off to a publisher. You are required to play a complicated game with the media that involves a lot of planning and projections, because the ground is shifting. Publishers do a lot of things for me, but the thing they do most these days is apologise. ‘We can’t', ‘we wish’, ‘it’s not cost effective’, ‘it’s an uncertain climate.’ That’s fine, they try to help get me published and it’s all you can hope for. In England there was a long tradition of the Actor-Manager, and now there are Writer-Managers, but here’s the thing – the more a good writer does that isn’t actually writing, the worse s/he gets.”
1/28/10
Looking at the Apple iPad ...
I hear it’s a very fast, and obviously fun, user interface. UI is Apple’s bag and it’s putting down a big bet on shiny, speedy computing. Not a bad price, and in a year this device may be under $400 for an iPod with real Mac apps like Pages and Numbers; like the iPods it requires a Mac/PC as a mothership. (Hmm, so that’s why they call them ‘pods.) Looking at the photo below this morning, I’m wishing Apple chose a smaller, Kindle, book sized screen on the principle that the only good computer is the one I have with me. Throw in the docking keyboard and a camera and I’d be good. I guess that Apple doesn’t want us to take this mobile Mac any further than the couch. [Updated 4PM]
Deconstructing this model name, the ‘pad refers to the weight we can gain sitting around using it. Or perhaps it’s an Apple credal statement: I pad, as in, I can be found at my place using this gizmo anytime.
SOURCE: Gizmodo
SOURCE: Apple Inc.
Deconstructing this model name, the ‘pad refers to the weight we can gain sitting around using it. Or perhaps it’s an Apple credal statement: I pad, as in, I can be found at my place using this gizmo anytime.
SOURCE: Gizmodo
SOURCE: Apple Inc.
12/17/09
My top ten crime novelists this year and any year ...
A friend asked for some recommendations yesterday. So here’re my all time favorites, listed lightest to darkest as to their tonality, with one book title for reference purposes. Maybe later I will annotate this list. Do start with Camilleri: His are lovely little books, wonderfully written and translated.
Andrea Camilleri (Sartarelli), The Terracotta Dog
Christopher Fowler, The Water Room
David Liss, The Coffee Trader
C. J. Samson, Revelation
Michael Dibdin, Blood Rain
Vikram Chandra, Sacred Games
Michael Robotham, Suspect
Peter Høeg, Smilla’s Sense of Snow
Martin Cruz Smith, Gorky Park
Tom Rob Smith, Child 44
Andrea Camilleri (Sartarelli), The Terracotta Dog
Christopher Fowler, The Water Room
David Liss, The Coffee Trader
C. J. Samson, Revelation
Michael Dibdin, Blood Rain
Vikram Chandra, Sacred Games
Michael Robotham, Suspect
Peter Høeg, Smilla’s Sense of Snow
Martin Cruz Smith, Gorky Park
Tom Rob Smith, Child 44
12/13/09
Listening to a Neil Sheehan interview ...
Years ago I sat next to Neil Sheehan on a flight to DC. Ashamed to say, he expressed more interested in my work than I did in his. Very nice guy. Here’s an interview on his new book.
11/5/09
Note from the revolution: ebook readers and applications
So, as noted yesterday, I need to revise the matrix on ebook readers. This gives me a chance to rave and rant briefly.
* On the rave side, in this revision, Stanza wins. And it is a winner. Try it on your ‘puter if you don’t own a ‘pod. Stanza’s ability to convert web documents into ebooks, with its bookmarking and annotation tools, is big. Bigger yet is Stanza’s lack of DRM, digital rights management, limits, which I scored heavily. Others might disagree with this weighting.
* Which leads to my rant about DRM. It’s simple: If I can’t sell a tune, book, film, app, whatever that I have purchased, then I don’t own it in the first place; I am merely leasing its use. So all the DRM types out there are, for me, categorically wrong headed. This is particularly true of books, which we are used to giving, lending, donating, and reselling as part of any given book’s life cycle. Resale of property is an inherent trait of ownership. Those media vendors that mess with that piece will not succeed finally. On the other hand, the first place (my guess is Amazon but why not eBay?), that lets me resell my s. And make a pile of geld.
* On the rave side, in this revision, Stanza wins. And it is a winner. Try it on your ‘puter if you don’t own a ‘pod. Stanza’s ability to convert web documents into ebooks, with its bookmarking and annotation tools, is big. Bigger yet is Stanza’s lack of DRM, digital rights management, limits, which I scored heavily. Others might disagree with this weighting.
* Which leads to my rant about DRM. It’s simple: If I can’t sell a tune, book, film, app, whatever that I have purchased, then I don’t own it in the first place; I am merely leasing its use. So all the DRM types out there are, for me, categorically wrong headed. This is particularly true of books, which we are used to giving, lending, donating, and reselling as part of any given book’s life cycle. Resale of property is an inherent trait of ownership. Those media vendors that mess with that piece will not succeed finally. On the other hand, the first place (my guess is Amazon but why not eBay?), that lets me resell my s. And make a pile of geld.
11/4/09
Note from the revolution ...
Today I revised and reposted a chart analyzing the current generation of ebook readers. Stanza, mentioned, is not a reader but an application for use on a ‘puter or ‘pod. Unnoted in my analysis is a terrific feature, whereby Stanza will pull in text from a website and recreate it as an ebook for use on ‘puter, ‘pod, or kindle. I have sized the screen shot below to my ‘pod. Note that the font size can be enlarged; this shot displays my preference. Anyway it’s a deal-maker ingredient for any ebook reader or app. (That said. I have to revise the chart again.)
More on ebook reading devices and programs ...
Well the revolution is here. Maybe four ebook reading devices were announced in the last week. I think they are all trying to get positioned before the Apple Slate shows up in the spring. Here’s a revision of my analysis sheet. It’s not comprehensive; it includes the main contenders.
10/13/09
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls ...
The further along in Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood the more the title begs the question whether saving Hollywood was a good idea. Here’s the pith from a review: “As the great '70s directors who dreamed they'd make the next ”Citizen Kane'' found themselves living it instead, Biskind reveals the human cost of such God-sized ambition.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)