Children's publishing and online content

The Washington Post sums up the situation. The reading of childrens' books leads to the reading of adults' books. But there are enormous numbers of distractions from reading for kids these days, and publishers are adjusting by incorporating online content to support their books. Will it work? Nobody knows. But do we need to develop tomorrow's readers today? No question about it. (Via.)

Danielle Trussoni

I'm literally in the middle of reading Angelology, so I was pleased to discover that the author, Danielle Trussoni, is the guest blogger this week at Powell's. The book is about the war between humans and, well, a certain offspring of angels. More I will not say, but I will admit to enjoying it.

Books in the age of the iPad

So much is written about digital publishing these days that we've almost stopped following the subject. Wouldn't it be better if we could just fast forward a couple of years and see what happened? I'd hate to have bought the wrong e-reader! Anyhow, this article discusses the classic concept of "the medium is the message," applied to books and, specifically, iPads. If it's all text, it doesn't matter much, but if it's gorgeous layouts and illustrations, then aren't we talking gorgeous hardcover book? And if it's video or music, then maybe it's iPad? As I say, if we could only fast-forward a few years...

Nicholas Sparks and Miley Cyrus

I've seen a lot of articles on Nicholas Sparks, and people either love him or they don't. USA Today does a piece on him and the star of the film he just wrote, and for once it all sounds so real. (Link.) Although as always, Sparks goes out of his way to distinguish romances from love stories. "(Romances) are all essentially the same story: You've got a woman, she's down on her luck, she meets the handsome stranger who falls desperately in love with her, but he's got these quirks, she must change him, and they have their conflicts, and then they end up happily ever after...The themes in love stories are different. In mine, you never know if it's going to be a happy ending, sad ending, bittersweet or tragic. You read a romance because you know what to expect. You read a love story because you don't know what to expect."

The movie, The Last Song, will be released next week.

All about the good "doctor"

All right. He wasn't a doctor. But in this interview we learn why Theodore Geisel adopted the name Seuss as a young man. And we learn a lot more too. Fascinating!

The Second Pass interviews Donald E. Pease: "From 1925 to 1940 he was one of the best known adult humorists and satirists. He contributed regularly to magazines such as The New Yorker and Judge, and developed a reputation as a quick wit. He made most of his money by producing ads for an insecticide called Flit, and he produced an ad campaign that used the punch line, “Quick, Henry, the Flit!” that entered into popular culture...During the Depression, Geisel had what today would probably be the equivalent of a $500,000 income because of the work he had done for Madison Avenue." More...

The most beautiful bookstore in the world?

Judge for yourself: Link.

What makes a bad book?

AmericanBookReview.org has published a series of 40 small essays on the subject of bad books, which names some names, some of which don't strike me as all that bad, although others might disagree. Some, on the other hand, are dreadful. One does wonder why some books remain popular despite their seemingly objective lack of quality, but how objective is quality, anyhow? Here's the pdf of the list.