Category Archives: Book Talk

Book Talk, Digital Publishing, E-Books, On the Web, Publishing Industry News, Technology

I Bought an iPhone3GS and Now I Want to Read

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Not sure if you looked up in the sky last night, but a rare astronomical event occurred as planets aligned with soon-to-expire cellphone contracts and only a 5-minute wait at the local Apple store… so after many months of waiting… I finally got my iPhone. I spent the evening getting my gMail and Google Apps affairs in order, downloaded a cool typographic wallpaper and now I’m ready to read.

I haven’t bought a book yet, but I grabbed these iPhone apps and a few freebie books to page? flick? thumb? through. What I’m asking is… what reader/app am I missing? I’m coming late to the game and I want to start with everything in the arsenal and then weed out the slackers. So, my iPhone book reading slate on Day One is…

Barnes & Noble Store
Barnes & Noble eReader
Kindle for iPhone
Stanza
Fictionwise’s eReader
Shortcovers
BeamItDown book of Benjamin Button
Iceberg book of Jame’s Patterson’s Maximum Ride

Of course, some of these are eReaders and others are books as apps, which should be fun to try and see what bells and whistles are available. So let me know of any free or paid apps that I need to add. True, I am always looking for good reads, but this time I’m looking for who is getting right and who is presenting the best reading experience on the iPhone platform. Though not my usual genre, I hear I need to check out some Harlequin material, as they have been leaders in the digital space for over a year now, but what else am I missing?

This is going to be fun!

Book Talk, On the Web

Reading and the South

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The Alabama Humanities Foundation has a new blog up and running called the Kudzu Twines Journal and it’s off to a good start! In fact, a recent post there caught my attention as it speaks to a new “book theory” of mine that I’m working on. The more I talk to folks about books and business and life and etc. the more I’m convinced that it’s a good sign if someone reads biographies. I don’t know too many people that start off reading biographies, but all the really smart, passionate, interesting folks I get to know all seem to take the next step and read about the musicians or about the architect or about the author… you get where I’m going.

Anyway, here’s a post from the Kudzu Twines by a “transplant to the South” who picks up on the idea of studying the people behind the stories and the places you visit. She says much more, but I like that.

Book Reviews, Book Talk

Book Review – Beat the Reaper

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This is a faaaaaaaaaast read by Josh Bazell. And I don’t just mean that it’s short or easy writing. I mean the pace doesn’t let up, even with the flip flopping between flashbacks and the storyline. If you’re looking for something deep and heavy with plot, this isn’t it. If your looking for a fast shoot-em-up kinda story for summer, this fits nicely.

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Book Talk, Media, News

Remains of the Day – the Musical

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I found Kazuo Ishiguro‘s Remains of the Day by way of the Anthony Hopkins movie and then read the book. Both are fantastic and this book has long been a favorite of mine.

While, admittedly, I lack the vision that it takes to see this Booker Prize winner translate into a musical, I am very excited about more people discovering Ishiguro’s work. Who knows, maybe I’ll even get to see it one day.