Books, Publishing and Birmingham - headsubhead.com » Uncategorized

Reading 5 books a day

trav — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 04:41:49 +0000

According to this cool article/interview, Amazon’s most prolific customer reviewer has posted 12,000 reviews in 7 years. That’s unbelievable and a lot of folks in the industry have been taking note. Though an English professor interviewed for the article admits that she has, on occassion, read 5 books in a day!

I don’t think I can drink enough coffee to get me to that pace.

Early bird gets the book

trav — Thu, 31 May 2007 04:14:34 +0000

LibraryThing has teamed up with Random House for a new program. You can read all about it in the Early Reviewers Group. Basically, you agree to read and review whatever book/ARC they send to you.

That’s it. Just sign up and they’ll put you on the list to get a book.

It’s almost too good to be true.

Update: here’s the latest from LibraryThing.

A sound design?

trav — Thu, 31 May 2007 03:29:52 +0000

I’m really not crazy about this cover. Though I think the process is VERY cool. If I understand it correctly, then every book has it’s own cover, since each was “recorded” at a different place and time. I just wish that the designers had chosen different symbols, patterns, etc. for the machines to manipulate.
I realize none of this makes any sense. That’s why you should watch the first video on their site. The last video on site, is cool too, since it shows all the graphics being pushed around by the city’s sounds.
(via book covers)

I’m not one for poetry

trav — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 19:38:50 +0000

I have never really enjoyed poetry. I think I’m too lazy. I’ve always had to exert too much effort in trying to figure out what the poet is saying.

But I read this yesterday. And I went back and read it again. Today I went back and read it again. So I thought I would share the gem that she had found.

The Blookers

trav — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 20:14:20 +0000

Lulu.com has announced this year’s shortlist. Fifteen books total. Six fiction, six nonfiction and three comics titles. I didn’t know that web-comic sites were eligible. I’m going to have to pick up a copy of a Lulu book someday to see if they really are just as good as books vetted by publishing pros. Though the panel of judges this year seem to know a lot about content and power blogging.

I guess I’ve just been brainwashed, but I really do like knowing that someone has edited and thoughtfully published the book I’m considering buying and not just formatted a bunch of ramblings. But then I haven’t read one, so I could be way off base. We’ll just have to see who wins this year.

Buchanan’s B’ham Show

trav — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 20:59:33 +0000

Local print artist Charles Buchanan has another show at Naked Art. He’ll be at the gallery Friday, January 12th, 5pm-9pm and then again Saturday, January 13th, 1pm-6pm.

Over on his blog, Charles has been keeping us posted on his latest creations and work, for this show. We’re looking forward to seeing what he brings out the show.

But now is the time to snap up some of his prints… for I fear he’s been “discovered”.

That’s good for him (and Birmingham), but bad for us with small pocket books. He’s already giving city tours to New York Times reporters and will appear on HGTV’s “That’s Clever” the season. Who knows what the new year holds for him.
So we’re glad we’ve been buying his prints over the past couple of years! At least, we’ll be able to say ‘we knew him when’. And who knows, once he’s uber-famous we’ll auction off a piece and retire.

Trolling for titles

trav — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 14:57:27 +0000

Here’s a list of lists, with a few more lists.

Pretty cool. I’m not gonna reveal how much time I burned over the weekend clicking though all these links and scrolling through the sites.

A neat resource if you’re looking for a little-known title that has garnered some acclaim.

Don’t forget…

trav — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 13:58:18 +0000

to check out this weekend’s BookTV schedule.

Six degrees of…

trav — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 01:29:32 +0000

There’s a new online tool for tracking down authors similar to those near and dear to your heart. Just type in your fave scribe into the The Literature Map and it will form a breathing author cloud around that person. By measuring proximity, you can judge who this program things you’ll enjoy most.

Thanks to Book, Inq. and Books, Words, and Writing for letting everyone know about this.

Book Break-Beats

trav — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 14:02:05 +0000

Apparently, some big name authors are tossing in soundtracks with their books now?!?!? Somehow I’ve missed this trend, but GalleyCat pulls it all together from WSJ articles and blogs.

Folks like James Patterson, Michael Connelly,Lemony Snicket and Bret Easton Ellis are tossing in the tunes with their books. Most of the cd’s are just collections of songs we’ve all heard but may be “inspired by” the book? Some of the authors offer “listening lists” on their sites too.
I’m betting we’ll see more of this cross-media manipulation as behemoth companies gobble up all the music and book companies under one roof. It’d be a boon if they could use their books to sell cd’s and cd’s to sell their books.

We’ll just have to wait and see if this trend will succeedor flop.