Category Archives: Book Talk

The Man Booker Shortlist – 2008

Here’s this year’s list and I haven’t read any of them. Not sure why I feel guilty about that… I think it’s just that I’d enjoy this more if I had a horse to pull for in this race.

Aravind Adiga The White Tiger  (Atlantic)
Sebastian Barry The Secret Scripture (Faber and Faber)                        
Amitav Ghosh Sea of Poppies (John Murray)                                  
Linda Grant The Clothes on Their Backs (Virago)             
Philip Hensher The Northern Clemency (Fourth Estate)                    
Steve Toltz A Fraction of the Whole (Hamish Hamilton) 

Happy International Literacy Day

literacy.jpg

It’s only been around since January 2003, but the United Nations System has put a great amount of effort in building this annual observance. I might have to go over to the Alabama Literacy Council Used Book Shop to buy that Iain Pears book I should have bought Friday night during ArtWalk… you know, just to honor ILD.

Penguin posts new ebook buffet

I haven’t tried it yet… but Penguin is now offering (what they call) ‘ebook tasters’. These are files are from upcoming or newly released books, in a digital download form. It seems they are only available in ePub format which means you’ll need an ereader or Adobe Digital Editions installed on your computer. I’m sure all of this is a DRM move, which I’m not sure is a wise thing, if you’re only giving away samples. Wouldn’t you want to make that as hassle free as possible?

Print must be a zombie

I just started reading Jeff Gomez’s Print is Dead. It’s a strong title, but I haven’t even made it half way through the introduction and he’s already opened a paragraph with “While print is not yet dead…”.

It’s going to be hard to argue with someone who gets to have it both ways.