On hiatus

We won't be posting for a couple of weeks. We will return around the middle of August. See you then.

New uses for books (other than reading)

In surfing the web for interesting book-related stories, one site just naturally leads into another. Boing Boing is the connection we got to the offbeatearth.com site, and their illustrated guide to uses for books (other than reading).

Traffic jam in big Fall books

There are books coming out this autumn from Dan Brown, Michael Crichton, Audrey Niffnegger, to name just a few. Things will be jumping—maybe against each other—in the bookstores, according to the New York Observer.

NYO: “I have never seen another year like this,” said Sarah McNally, the owner of the popular Soho bookstore McNally Jackson. “I can hardly bear to think about fall’s books, it’s like looking bare-eyed into the sun.”

“I can’t really think of any time since I’ve been in the business, when I had a sense of the degree of anticipation for upcoming books, that would equal this fall,” said the Gernert Co. literary agent Chris Parris-Lamb.

With optimism, however, comes worry—particularly because shoving every major release into the same three months could very well result in a traffic jam that will benefit no one. More...

A culture of confusion on the e-book front

The booksquare blog sums up the situation with e-books, with B&N announcing its entry into the fray. The thinking here makes sense to us. Things are going to be, for a while, really complicated.

Booksquare: What is happening — to the surprise of very few — is an ever-increasing Landscape of Confusion. This doesn’t, actually, help publishers achieve their apparent goal of creating a competitive marketplace. Now if the goal were chaos, we have a winner! All these devices, all these formats, all these stores…and readers are reeling because they simply don’t know what formats work with what device (or, heck, operating system). More...

Wrap-up of the Romance Writers of America meeting

Publishers Weekly sums up the whole thing, which we've been touching on over the last few days.

PW: RWA is three days of hard work. Authors attend tense rapid-fire pitch sessions with agents and editors (one called it "speed dating for writers") and countless workshops on the writing craft and the ins and outs of publishing. Hallways, lobbies, and the nearby bars and restaurants are crowded with people—mostly women—clutching piles of free books, handing out glossy promotional cards and pamphlets, and sharing valuable insider gossip. Fans mob the daily autograph sessions and get dressed to the nines for the Golden Heart Award and RITA Award ceremony, the Oscars of the romance world. More...

Conundrum: E-readers need real bookstores

Jason Young of PCMag.com discusses an interesting problem. He's a committed e-book reader, but he finds his next book to read by wandering brick-and-mortar stores. With e-books killing brick-and-mortar, where's the future in that?

JY: A good bookstore brings an incredible wealth of inventory to bear. The ability to "sample" in person is far better than in digital format. Great bookstores are also strong gathering points for discussion and guidance from experts and actual authors.

Here's the problem. The culmination of my bookstore experience is the process of taking my Kindle out and downloading the book(s) I've discovered through the wonders of the retail experience. That's financial ruin for the bookstore. More...

Classic children's books. Not.

Normally I like to celebrate the good things in books, but some ideas are just too appealing. Like the worst children's books ever, on TheAmericanScene.com.

TAS: So while we’re making lists, how about one of the most overrated children’s books? Not really the “worst” ones, I guess – much better to put together something along the lines of Noah’s list, with the targets limited to books that are regularly described as “classics,” as “beloved,” etc. After a bit of thought about the matter, I’ve got two from my son’s bookshelf that deserve a calling-out. More...