On the Same Page

Posted by trav in Book Talk, Digital Publishing, E-Books, On the Web, Technology      No comments

May
30

I have just finished reading Clive Thomspson’s WIRED artcile on the Future of Reading. The notion of unleashing the book online to prod readers into interacting with text sounds like fun and I like the idea of focusing on the reader. I look forward to all the variations and trials that publishers put forward in the coming months, but there is one aspect of books that I hope they maintain in all their experimentation…

read more

For those of us not at BEA

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

May
29

Yes, once again, it’s that time of year and BEA is in full swing up nawth in New York. And once again I’m down south… not at BEA. But the bourbon is cheaper here and I didn’t have to stress over what books to pack as my “trip books”, so I guess I have that going for me. Well that and BookTV, which has a great line up of live and delayed BEA coverage all weekend long. So check out the schedule to see what you can see. One note, I see that Pat Conroy was in the lineup on an author panel, but today had to pull-out due to his still recovering from surgery.

Punny Book Contest

Posted by trav in News, On the Web      No comments

May
27

I saw this via @weknowbooksetc Twitter feed… and it made me laugh.

I warn you though, you must be able to handle REALLY bad puns to click through this year’s offerings at this year’s Edible Book Contest hosted by the Duke Univeristy Library System. You have been warned… Ha!

Secret Student-Run Library

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

May
27

In the vein of “if it’s on the internet it must be true”, here is a private schooler running a blackmarket lending librray from their locker. Basically, the school banned and pulled a bunch of books. Many are titles on everyone’s banned lists The Catcher in the Rye, Catch 22, The Evolution of Man, etc. So the student has been sneaking the books into the locker and lending them out.

I am heartened at the idea that books could mean so much to the younger kids running around, though I became suspect when the student claims that the Twilight series is banned, but won’t be in the secret library as

“…I don’t want that polluting my library.”

I thought all kids were required to worship at the alter of Stephenie Myer?

Allowing Comments to in-progress Manuscripts

Posted by trav in Book Talk, Digital Publishing, New Releases, On the Web, Publishers, Technology, Upcoming Titles      No comments

May
22

O’Reilly Media’s Programming Scala won’t hit bookstore shelves for a long time. But the entire working manuscript has been posted to their site! Each and every paragraph, sidenote, chart and graph has a comment box underneath it. They are hoping that the community will contribute knowledgeble bits of information and ideas, which the author will vet and toss or incorporate. The idea is that this crowdsourcing filtered through their expert author will produce a more auhtoritative work.

Not too mention the marketing side of things. I guess one side could say “you’ll sell fewer books, because all of your hardcore readers have been reading while it’s been written”. Which might hold true for a few folks. But can you imagine the buzz this would build within the programming community? Or how much of a boost the book might get from folks talking about/buying a book that they were involved in producing? The system has a sign-in for commenters so that they can be credited in the final book, if their contribution is used. O’Reilly also provides RSS feeds for the various sections so that a commenter can keep up with that specific section of the text.

Obviously, this idea wouldn’t work for every type of book and the progamming community is a good place to start. It’s not the first book to be published from crwodsourced information, but it’s the first time, I’m aware of, a major publisher has added a crowdsourced component to the traditional publishing workflow. Which means that it gets checked and balanced by author and editor, which may be enough to sway a few naysayers.

I wonder what Andrew Keen would think of this community/professional mashup? Ha!

Books, Beans and Candles MS

Posted by trav in Birmingham, Bookstores      5 comments

May
18

Books, Beans and Candles MS is in an old Birmingham house going up 20th on your way to Vulcan. It’s on the righthand side, just after you pass the “Y-split”. Owners Mitchell and Darby Hagood have been at this location since August 2008, though they’ve been in business for two and a half years. Ever since seeing the sign out front (it starts with the word books!) I’d been trying to find time to stop in and see what it’s all about and finally was able to make it in and get some photos.

The view from the street.

Mitchell Hagood sums up the shop with one word… “metaphysical”. (photos after the jump)

read more

Poor Kindle-Laden Students

Posted by trav in Book Talk, Digital Publishing, E-Books      2 comments

May
13

I read this post this morning and thought about students being forced to use Amazon’s new Kindle DX. While I don’t shy away from eBooks and think the Kindle DX is a step in the right direction for textbooks and newspapers, I really think this is a bad move, for one major reason. That is usability.

It’s true that the screen is bigger and as a dedicated reading device the Kindle is pretty good. But reading texts for school is a TOTALLY different type of reading and the Kindle is only going to slow students down and tick them off.

I mean have you ever tried to cross reference something between two separate works on a Kindle? It’s the worst. The device is just not made for easy navigation. Even if you have the forsite to use the bookmark feature and know exactly where the info you need is (remember no page numbers) and you are only using two books for your work, it could take you almost a full minute to close a book, navigate to the other book, find reference, make a note and navigate back and load original text. Killer!

That little flip-flop between titles would take seconds with two books open side-by-side on a desk. The Kindle is just not built with usability in mind. It’s built to deliver books and ease eye-strain. So until they fix the navigation and allow multiple texts to be loaded into the RAM all at once, I’m afraid it’s going to be slow going.

I’m all for saving the environment and spreading the eBook love, but not at the expense of time and productivity.

Alabama Booksmith Sells eBooks

Posted by trav in Birmingham, Bookstores, Digital Publishing, E-Books, On the Web      No comments

May
12

I just noticed this on the Alabama BookSmith website, you can buy ebooks from them.

The interwebs are all a Twitter with the new IndieBound iPhone app, but I had not read deep enough into all the news to realize that the stores had started competing in this space too.

Though they may not have many customers via the ebooks channel yet, it’s smart that they are making it an option to site visitors and store customers. Even though they’re hands are tied by the DRM publishers and distributors have on their books, I thought that the eBooks FAQ was pretty informative for the everyday newbie.

Patsy Riley signing at Milestone Books

Posted by trav in Authors, Bookstores, Events      No comments

May
7

Alabama First Lady Patsy Riley will be at Milestone Books this Saturday, May 9th, 10am-12pm. She’ll be signing her new cookbook When the Doorbell Rings at the Governor’s Mansion. And if you want that book, you better go to Milestone because I can’t find it on Amazon or Indiebound.org. It seems to only be available at the Montgomery Gift Shop and select local bookstores.

Why Twitter only allows 140 Characters

Posted by trav in On the Web, Technology      No comments

May
6

Having been bitten by the Twitter bug, I found this article interesting. I mean, in this day of streaming HD video over wireless networks, why are text messages limited to 160 characters? The answer is so practical (that it is borderline boring) and it dates from the 1980′s.

SMS-father Friedman Hillebrand pounded out random statements, questions and thoughts on a typewriter. He kept an average character count. His team also found that the average message on the back of a postcard was under 160 characters.

Whereas Twitter used the exact same rationale as Hillebrand except they kept the first 20 characters allotted for the sender’s name.

To be honest I was hoping for something more tech inspired and exotic than the reasons given. But I can’t tell you how pleased I was that a typewriter was used in determining the optimal length of “useful” message.