Tis the season

Posted by trav in Friday Finds, Gifts for Book People      No comments

Nov
30

Books are always my first gift of choice for folks I know. It’s fun to try and match up your friends and family with books they might not have heard of, but you think “are right up their alley”. But this year, I keep getting sucked into “bookish” sites though… like Levenger and such.

That’s when I ran across the pic of the ‘Book Tree’ at Swiss Miss (it’s also featured on Crib Candy). Which all led me back to a post on the Book Covers blog featuring some of the hippest and coolest shelves around. It’s not quite “library porn”, but it’s fun to click through all the sites and check out the designs.

Kindle cancels savings

Posted by trav in News, On the Web      No comments

Nov
30

The folks over at Media Bistro have posed a neat theory: Amazon has started selling mass-paperbacks and some trade papers at full price, rather than the usual Amazon discount, to help push people towards their new e-book reader.

It’s a pretty good theory and after some cursory clicks, I can verify that many paperbacks are now at full price. It makes sense from Amazon’s view, kinda… read more

Who knew?

Posted by trav in Book Talk, On the Web      No comments

Nov
29

While cruising the local Emmet O’Neal Library blog I ran across a post about the ‘official’ US Federal Govt. blog called “Gov Gab: Your U.S. Government Blog”. That’s pretty cool. Especially the post about “all things library in the US“.

I have to agree…

Posted by trav in Book Covers, Book Reviews      No comments

Nov
29

with Bookslut.

Penguin’s new graphical covers for their classics series is great and gets this week’s “Thumbs Up”.

Kidd on the Kindle

Posted by trav in Book Talk, Media      No comments

Nov
29

Chip Kidd has voiced his view about Amazon’s Kindle. And while some folks don’t agree with him, I think I do. I mean, a handheld unit like the Kindle would be nice if I’m a mechanic and referencing specs or manuals while working, but not to read. I agree that digital is the future, but these e-readers just haven’t “gotten” it yet.

“Bad sex” award announced

Posted by trav in Authors, News      No comments

Nov
29

I am always surprised when the “Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction” winner is announced. It’s always a pretty big-name author with a pretty awful excerpt. I can’t believe some of these analogies and descriptions make it through. This year’s is REALLY bad. read more

The Secret is out

Posted by trav in Authors, Birmingham, Book Talk, Events      No comments

Nov
28

Workplay is the venue for an event slated as “FOUND Magazine vs. Postsecret“. All of the sites and printed books/magazines for FOUND and Postsecret are fantastically voyeuristic and comforting at times.

Tickets are $15 a pop (or $40 for the VIP treatment, which includes some kind of ‘smaller intimate setting’) proceeds benefit HopeLine.

{via Pop Goes the City}

A book of book blogs

Posted by trav in Book Talk, New Releases      No comments

Nov
28

I ran across The Bookaholics’ Guide to Book Blogs the other day while doing some holiday shopping. I have seen plenty of online writings about the cottage-industry of “book blogs” and “lit blogs”, but never an actual book. Are there others?

This 254-pager seems to give the backgrounds for some ‘big names’ in the book blog world. It might be a fun read. Here is the synopsis from the UK site (it’s a lot more succinct than the US one. read more

Speaking of Reviews

Posted by trav in Book Reviews, Book Talk, On the Web      No comments

Nov
27

Here is my review of David Silverman’s Typo. Which also happens to be listed in the running for “Best Business Book of 2007″ (click here to vote) as presented by 800-CEO-READ.

It looks to be their first (VERY open) competition, but they have some good titles on there. The first round of voting closes Dec. 15th, with the final winners being announced Jan. 15th.

Reviewing the reviews

Posted by trav in Book Talk, Media, News, Upcoming Titles      No comments

Nov
27

This last weekend I caught a panel of reviewers talking about themselves and book reviews over on BookTV. To be honest, they didn’t say much that hasn’t been said already, just a whole lot of complaining about the “shift in the industry” and how the mega-media companies see no value in printing book reviews.

And then I ran across this story… read more