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

Just try it — Reading on an iPhone

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Seriously folks, let’s all give reading a book on an iPhone a try. I mean it’s free and eBooks and digital publishing aren’t going away. So, just try it. You don’t have to like it. In fact, you may not. Which is fine. But at least you’ll know.

So, if you have an iPhone, just do this:

1. Download the Amazon Kindle app, from the App Store. It’s free.

2. Find a free book to download, I recommend starting with fiction. I read about five non-fiction books for every one fiction. But I have found that it’s easier to read on the small screen if the book is written to pull you along, rather than making you stop, think, take notes, etc. So for my non-fiction books I’m still a traditional pBook kinda guy. (I’m reading The Templar Legacy. Not exactly five-star, but it is fiction and free as of right now).

And I know I do my fair share of not-so-fond of Amazon posting, but these steps are quick and painless. There are a ton of other eReading options as well. Here is a fantastic post about reading books on the iPhone. All of the apps mentioned in that post are worth your time to download and check out!

Let me know what you think, if you give it a go.

Birmingham, Bookstores, Events, Publishers

WordCamp Birmingham is This Weekend!

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One of my favorite events of the year is this weekend. It’s the annual WordCamp Birmingham! The schedule is jam packed with great presentations and even a “genius bar” styled workshop. So I hope to walk out with some uber-cool ideas and improvements to the site soon.

Of course, topping the cool chart this year is the State of the Word address by Matt Mullenweg and the closing keynote by Esra’a Al Shafei, founder and exec. dir. of MideastYouth.com.WordCamp Birmingham already has an active Twitter feed and you’ll be able to follow all week and weekend with the hashtag #wcbhm09.

See you there!

Birmingham, Book Talk, Bookstores, Events, library, News, On the Web

Four Bookish Dealings of a Timely Nature

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I just wanted to take a moment to make sure that some of these things are on your radar, as they all have deadlines and dates attached to them. I think it would be fun if everyone promoted and participated in these events! Let us know of anything else cool going on that we could follow.

This week (September 14-18) has been Book Blogger Appreciation Week. Many, many cool blogs have been mentioned and awarded. Congrats to all who participated and won! My RSS reader overfloweth now. Too many great new blogs to keep up with

Publishers Weekly has declared November 7th as the first annual National Bookstore Day. They promise lots of industry coverage and hometown events are in the works. So I’ll pass along any bookstore specific events I hear about here in Birmingham.

Also, head over to Fictional Stimulus site. It’s a new reading-online experiment that kicks off on September 22nd. I honestly have no idea what is in store there, but I’m excited. Basically, you sign up and they send you 12 emails over four weeks which are designed to dole out “introductory tasters” for digital reading. So if you’re curious about the future of reading, books and publishing, you should check it out. It’s a ning site, so let me know when you get your profile set and we can connect. I do hope it’s good. Lots of potential there!

You have just 13 more days to take advantage of the JCLC’s Food for Fines program. That is, for every canned food item you donate to the library, one dollar will be subtracted from your ‘overdue materials’ fines (up to $10). I think all Jefferson County library locations are accepting the can goods donations. It runs through the end of September.

Books, Publishing and Birmingham