My mom is a high school history teacher. Her students start this week, just in time for the Democratic National Convention, and right on the heels of the Republican National Convention this past week. As has been her custom in past elections, her students can earn extra credits by watching and writing about the conventions [...]
Refunds Coming from the eBook Pricing Settlement
If you purchased an eBook in the last three years, I have some good news! There’s a shot that the publisher owes you a few cents if that title was priced according to the “agency model”. You’re rich! A whole shiny nickel just for you! According to Businessweek: States including Maryland, Ohio and Texas said [...]
Audiobooks.com Gets Download Friendly
Sarah swears by audiobooks as a way to get through her daily commute, but I mainly use them when we are on long road trips. We have flirted with the idea of an audible.com membership, but the library gives us plenty of access for free, and Audible has never struck me as such a great [...]
Abbey Road to Ziggy Stardust, Book Review of Ken Scott’s Memoir
What is it that you want from reading a music industry legend’s memoir? If what you are looking for is basically an expanded Wikipedia entry with a more detailed listing of events and characters … then stop reading now and just stay away from Ken Scott’s Abbey Road to Ziggy Stardust. If on the other [...]
The Magic Bullet Against Showrooming Is in Running Shoes
Everyone in retail wants to bemoan “show rooming” or the tendency of shoppers to check products out in store, only to buy online. It’s a huge problem, and I am not the only person to point out that customer service can often make the difference between someone shopping in store versus hitting Amazon on their [...]
Seven Poets and the Assassin’s Secret Is a New Kind of Novel
When I heard about the iOS app Seven Poets and the Assassin’s Secret, I couldn’t help but be intrigued. It is a unique, real-time serialized novel centered around a fictional terrorist attack on the Olympic Stadium in London during the closing ceremony. Content runs from August through October, when real-time serialization will end. Seven Poets [...]
Publishing Is under Attack from a “New” Technology … Paperbacks!
Publishing is under attack! It’s an economic downturn, and someone is selling books for much cheaper than they used to be! It’s an unsustainable market situation, and books will go down in flames if someone doesn’t do something! I’m not talking about the terror eBooks has placed into the hearts of publishers. I’m talking about [...]
Sony Releases Another Yawner of an eBook Reader
The folks at The Digital Reader have sharp eyes. Sony has yet to officially announce their PRS-T2 ebook reader, but at TDR they noticed said model is already quietly live at Sony Style for $129.99. There have been very few comments, rumors, or leaks about this device, and for good reason. It’s not terribly exciting. [...]
Diane Duane’s Classic ‘So You Want to Be a Wizard’ Gets Updated for a New Generation
My younger son absolutely LOVED the ‘Young Wizards’ books when he was younger. The stories centered around Nita and Kit so captured his imagination that he continued to read them even to the point where he could digest the entire series in a day. He tracked the site and forums and really hoped for the [...]
How Much Do You Weigh? A Book About Women and Their Weight
“You never ask a woman how old she is or how much she weighs.”- I’ve heard this my entire life. When I was a child, getting weighed was exciting. Up until I was in 6th grade or so, I felt like I was in a race to finally weigh 100 pounds; I was a tall [...]
Amazon and Barnes & Noble, Stop Spreading Hate; Remove the Book, “The Synagogue of Satan”
Let us be clear about this from the start: this post is being written by a member of the clergy and someone who is just about as non-religious as you could find. Why is that important? Simple, we come at things from very different perspectives. When we see something and are both equally appalled, something is [...]
Classic Books as Wall Art from Postertext
I’ve always been intrigued by word art, from the days of medieval illumination to more recent modern art using visual language as art, right down to simple nerdy ASCII art. However, the folks over at Postertext.com have put a different spin on word art, taking various classic literature books and printing them out on a [...]
Bookstore(s) Live!
(for those who don’t get the image, here is the Wikipedia entry) The subject of the future of bookstores is one that always hovers at the edge of the ebook conversation. The demise of Borders bookstore may have cast a long, ominous shadow on physical retailers, but not all bookstores are struggling. While I have [...]
























