Booksville

Book Editors and Literary Agents on Twitter

2011-12-05T10:07:00.000-05:00

If you're a writer, here are a couple of resources that might help you.

From GalleyCat ("The FirstWord on the Book Publishing Industry"):

Sometimes, following the right person or people on Twitter can make all the difference in the world.

Triple Agent, Triple Crossed

2011-11-16T12:07:00.000-05:00

Book Review:

The Triple Agent by Joby Warrick

The al-Qaeda Mole Who Infiltrated the CIA

This is the gripping non-fiction spy thriller about Humam Khalil al-Balawi, a Jordanian physician turned underground blogger turned counterspy who in December of 2009 actually because a counter counter spy and blew himself up at a secret CIA base in Afghanistan known as Khost, killing not only himself but a number of CIA and allied assets. Joby Warrick is a Pulitzer Prize winning staff writer for the Washington Post with a knack for detail and storytelling, spreading out this story like a novel and recounting every turn of this gripping tale. I read the electronic version, which was 1060 pages. I highly recommend it for its descriptive detail, historic perspective, clear character development, and well-paced storytelling. This is great reading about the battle that goes on in Afghanistan and Pakistan against al-Qaeda, a most difficult and pernicious enemy.

Review by
Alan Eggleston
Writer, editor, bookseller of leisure and business books

Follow me on Twitter: @Booksville

Publishers Weekly's Best Books 2011

2011-11-06T10:32:00.000-05:00

Publisher's Weekly presents its list of "Best Books 2011: The Top 10", including brief synopses.

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
After the Apocalypse by Maureen McHugh
Bossypants by Tina Fey
Catherine the Great by Robert K. Massie
There but for the by Ali Smith
Hemingway's Boat by Paul Hendrickson
One Day I Will Write About This Place by Binyavanga Wainaina
Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens

See what the publishing industry thinks are the year's best reads.

___

Follow me on Twitter: @Booksville

Rowling Dumps Longtime Literary Agent

2011-07-10T19:55:00.000-04:00

Harry Potter's J.K. Rowling has dismissed her literary agent, Christopher Little. It's a stunning development discussed today in London's Daily Mail: "The announcement in the industry journal The Bookseller stunned the literary community and industry watchers, who had always regarded the Rowling-Little partnership as one of the strongest and most enduring in the business. Little, a fiercely private man, would say only that he was ‘disappointed and surprised’ by the ‘premature news’."

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2012997/Harry-Potter-author-JK-Rowling-dismissed-Dumbledore-book-agent.html#ixzz1RkX1GHUn

A Book Series for the Non-Reader?

2011-06-18T10:43:00.001-04:00

If you have a non-reader in the family - someone who doesn't enjoy the process of reading or who is more visually oriented than word oriented, a new non-fiction book series may be their answer. It's called For Beginners Books.

Here is how their website describes themselves:

"Every book in the series serves one purpose: to present to the reader in a straightforward, accessible manner the works of great thinkers and subjects alike. With subjects ranging from philosophy, to politics, to art and beyond, the For Beginners^® series covers a range of familiar concepts in a humorous comic book-style, and takes a readily comprehensible approach that’s respective of the intelligence of its audience. This series is for those who want to know more about a subject, but don’t want to get bogged down in dry facts. Each book is painstakingly researched, written and illustrated in a style that best suits the subject."

I bring it up because I think everyone should have the opportunity to "read," and a discomfort with the traditional book shouldn't be a reason not to. If something new comes along that will open them to the world of discovery that is the book, then by all means take it! If graphic novels, For Beginners Books, or even comic books introduce you to the joy of reading, have at it.

Credit to Jason Sadler of iwearyourshirt.com for bringing For Beginners Books to our attention.

Lord Hornblower Is a Great Adventure in the Forester Tradition

2010-11-27T09:52:00.000-05:00

Lord Hornblower
A Book Review
By Alan Eggleston, writer and editor, business books, leisure books

C. S. Forester’s Hornblower was the first Age of Sail series I’d read, and in 2002 I bought the last two books of the 11 book series. At the time, I didn’t realize there were other authors also writing Age of Sail books, and not wanting to run out of books to read, I set these aside for some future need. I’ve since discovered Patrick O’Brien, Dudley Pope, and now Julian Stockwin. So I’ve begun the final journey with Hornblower.

Lord Hornblower is Forester’s 10th masterfully written book. In it, Horatio Hornblower, now knighted and a Lord, married to his second wife, sister to people in high places, is living the high but un-seaman-like life on land. He gets the call from Admiralty to scuttle a mutiny on board a frigate off the coast of the enemy, France, that threatens to hand the ship over to the French if every man isn’t given amnesty and the Captain court martialed for cruelty. But discipline at sea requires the men responsible be punished without mercy.

Lord Hornblower (Hornblower Saga)

Only Hornblower’s ingenuity can save a ship, her crew, and England from losing face to Napoleon. Yet this is only the beginning of a tale that takes Hornblower to service on land to confront Napoleon’s Army and face eventual death by firing squad. In the meantime, his wife goes off to Austria with her brother to reunite Europe against Napoleon, leaving Hornblower to fall in love with the daughter of an old French ally. These are the waning days of Napoleon’s attempt to build an empire, and you are there to witness the effects on the countryside and its people.

This story is full of brave sea tangles, edgy land battles, daring escapes on horseback, and dear friends lost. It’s a great adventure in the Forester tradition.

(I purchased these books and was not compensated in any way for this review.)

My next read in the series:
(Links: commission may be paid on purchase)

Victory by Stockwin Wins the Day

2010-10-05T14:37:00.003-04:00

A Book Review
By Alan Eggleston, writer and editor, business books, leisure books

Why do you read? Is it to rip through a book a day and move on to the next, or is it to lose yourself in a story with amazing characters living under incredible circumstances? For most people, I suggest, it’s the latter. And if you’re a reader like the latter, I suggest you read Victory by Julian Stockwin, his 10th novel in the rousing Thomas Kydd series.

• (Search Amazon.com for julian stockwin kydd sea adventures)

In Victory, Stockwin takes his two signature characters – and, thus, us – onto the decks of Britain’s most venerated flagship, the HMS Victory, to get to know her most famous leader, Lord Horatio Nelson, the Admiral who defeated Napoleon’s navy in the Battle at Trafalgar. We see him in the eyes of the nation who depended on Nelson for their survival, the men and officers who looked to him for inspiration and leadership, and the newly promoted frigate captain, Thomas Kydd, who looked to Nelson for mentorship.

What you look to Stockwin for in his books is authentic description of battles, of the daily life at sea, of the language and attitudes of the men and officers in service, of what ships and seaports were like, of how people lived at the time and how they saw the world. In Victory, there is that aplenty and more. Right from the beginning there is a consequential battle whose description takes you in “living color” to the times of fighting sail. Then you’re transported to 19th century England and the life in Britain awaiting certain invasion by a menacing Napoleon whose massive and experienced army had already gathered across the English Channel. Finally, you’re swept to distant places with a British Navy pursuing a restless enemy desperate to be unleashed from blockade to gather strength for invasion, and once unleashed difficult to track despite their size. It culminates in the build up to and action in the Battle of Trafalgar, told from the eyes of a young Midshipman serving on Victory and Kydd whose frigate provides intelligence. You’ll live life at sea and in those times throughout this novel.

Much has been written about the Battle of Trafalgar. Much has been said about Lord Nelson. Be there, meet him, in the pages of Victory by Julian Stockwin.
____________

For the sake of transparency, I’ll admit at the outset that I’m a big fan of Stockwin. I have been disappointed on occasion and have written about it in my reviews, but on the whole I find Stockwin gives great value for the money you pay for his novels. He has written that he spends 50 percent of the time he devotes to writing a story to research, which results in deep levels of authentic detail to his stories. He travels the world visiting the places in which his stories take place, where he runs into diaries, letters, and historical records, facts and artifacts from which appear as observations or intimate details in the stories. In addition, Stockwin served in the British Navy, so he is knowledgeable about the history and traditions of British seamanship, which is a rich part of the detail of each novel.
____________

Julian Stockwin publishes a monthly fan newsletter. In it he held a drawing for a free copy of the book for anyone willing to write a review. I was one of the lucky winners. Thus, I didn’t purchase the book for this review. However, if I hadn’t won I would have purchased it.

Links to Victory: Commission may be paid for purchase.
____________

Tweet me at Booksville or AlanEggleston

BiAlien: You Need to Look at this New Book

2010-08-07T13:44:00.001-04:00

Book Preview for
BiAlien by Vlane Carter

There’s a new book I think you should take a look at: BiAlien. Admittedly, I’ve only read the first chapter myself, for lack of adequate time with my other writing and editing duties. But if you’re interested in science fiction and like science fiction art, or if you have been thinking of exploring science fiction or science fiction art, this is a book you should see. You can do so easily through the author’s very imaginative website and Facebook page.

The author, Vlane Carter, has tried very hard to make it a space adventure readable for every kind of audience. Says Carter, “My novel was written for the non-science fiction, fiction and sci-fi book readers. My facebook friends who don't read sci-fi, the novel is well explained and even has a glossory of definitions at the back of it.” He also isn’t shy about trying new techniques to engage the reader, such as using the present tense rather than the typical past tense to give you a sense of watching the action in-the-now, like watching a movie. The artwork, which Carter personally art directed, is very creative and lends to the unique flavor of the storyline. See samples on the BiAlien website, including a link to chapter 1.

In addition to the book website, Carter is very active on his Facebook page. There he frequently interacts with readers discussing the book. This is a great attribute for an author. Every author ought to be accessible to his or her readers. I know that’s sometimes difficult, especially when an author’s fandom reaches into the hundreds of thousands, but Carter, from New York State, currently has just over 160 members and manages the exchanges well. He’s erstwhile about his creation, and readers can catch – and enjoy – his enthusiasm there.

Take a few minutes and browse the site and the Facebook page, and give the book a look. Let me know what you think.

Update: The author, Vlane Carter, put together a superb video showing some of the incredibly imaginative artwork from the book. Have a look.

(Not a paid or compensated endorsement.)

written by

Alan Eggleston

writer and editor, business books and leisure books

say hello on Twitter: @booksville

A Note to Spammers

2010-08-07T13:26:00.000-04:00

I moderate the comments on this blog for a reason, which is to avoid posting spam. This blog continues to be inundated by commenters entering Chinese text accompanied by long sets of periods, each period with its own link to various kinds of spammy links. Presumably they link to illicit sites for sex or phishing expeditions or identity theft or viruses. I don't post those or any similar comments -- ever! Try as you might, I read the comments and if I suspect foul play -- spam -- I delete the comment and report it as spam. So, you might as well save yourself some time and effort, because your entry will never make it onto my pages.

Twain Autobiography Re-released Unedited for Brand

2010-07-12T15:04:00.000-04:00

Mark Twain Autobiography Re-releases November 15

Did you read the article in this weekend's New York Times about the new Autobiography of Mark Twain? It's worth your reading (available online) if you haven't.

Twain (Samuel Clements) recorded the material in 1910, then had it heavily edited to protect his image at the time. He hoped that in time it could be re-released in its original form to show the real Twain, in an era when he could be viewed as himself without degrading his brand or his family. Today is that time.

Twain fans and history mavens should be delighted. This is as close as we will be so long after Twain's passing to get to know the real Mark Twain and his times.

Alan Eggleston
Writer and editor, business bookseller, leisure bookseller
Follow me on Twitter: @booksville or @a_copywriter

"Sex Dungeon for Sale!" Rates a Movie

2010-07-09T19:35:00.000-04:00

Patrick Wensink's "Sex Dungeon for Sale!" Is Now a Film
By Alan Eggleston, writer and editor, business bookseller, leisure bookseller

Back in November, I wrote a review of Patrick Wensink's new book, "Sex Dungeon for Sale!" Seems this well received humor title has also attracted the attention of some filmmakers. Says Patrick, "I thought you would also get a kick out of this. Some filmmakers took the title story of my book and made a hilarious film." Courtesy of the author, here's "Sex Dungeon for Sale!" Let us know what you think.

Follow me on Twitter: @booksville

First million e-book author

2010-07-09T13:58:00.001-04:00

According to his publisher, U.S. thriller writer James Patterson is the first novelist to sell more than one million electronic books (e-books). His titles have frequently shown up on Amazon's bestseller list in the Kindle store. More and more readers are investing in e-book technology, including iPads, Kindles, and Nooks. See the full Yahoo News article.

Follow me on Twitter: @booksville
...
Examples of popular Patterson e-books
(commission paid on purchase)

Author Christoper Moore News II

2010-06-30T10:49:00.001-04:00

Author Christopher Moore Returns to the Stage
By Alan Eggleston, writer and editor, business book seller, leisure book seller

In an e-mail to fans, humorist author Christopher Moore announced Wednesday, June 29, that he would be returning to the stage to do another live reading.

Said Moore, "By popular demand, I'm doing another dramatic reading of Fool with my commentary in San Francisco on July 24th.

"I’ll be on stage at the Brava Theater in San Francisco with a group of actors from the American Conservatory Theater, there will be readings from Fool, King Lear, I’ll tell stories and lies, take questions, and sign books.

"All proceeds benefit LitQuake, San Francisco." (LitQuake is San Francisco's literary festival.)

Tickets through http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/116373

Moore closed with this encouraging suggestion:
"There are no shows planned for other cities right now, so please to write to ask. I could happen, but I have a book to finish."

Not a paid endorsement, not a paid review.
...

Are you a Christopher Moore fan? What's your favorite Moore book? Follow me on Twitter: @Booksville

...

Prepare by reading Fool, if you haven't already

(commission may be paid for purchase)

Saying No to Mildew

2010-06-11T17:05:00.000-04:00

Mildew: remove it before it spreads
by Alan Eggleston, writer, editor, bookseller

If you clean out the garage or basement and run into forgotten books, look them over for mildew and other forms of fungi. Fungi like warm, moist climates and will continue to grow unless removed. And if you move contaminated books in with clean books, the fungi won't hesitate to move to the new food source (books = paper = organic matter = food) and multiply there under the right conditions.

According to AbeBooks.com, you can battle mildew in a couple of different ways. One is to remove the books from the environment -- a cool, dry place is best. Books like a humidity level of 60% or less best. If the room is warm, turn on an air conditioner. If it's damp, turn on a dehumidifier. Another is to apply a dry cleaning pad to the affected area. If the mildew is just beginning, you can also try using a hair blower set on low.

Follow me on Twitter: @BizBooksPlus @AlanEggleston @a_copywriter

Neil Gamon Announces House on the Rock American Gods Weekend

2010-04-05T14:03:00.005-04:00

Neil Gamon's American Gods to Return to House on the Rock?
By Alan Eggleston, writer, editor, bookseller

Neil Gamon, award-winning author of the immensely popular Coraline book (and movie) and The Graveyard Book just announced via Twitter (@Neilhimself) a House on the Rock American Gods Halloween weekend.

Gamon featured House on the Rock as the setting for his 2001 novel, American Gods. You can read more about the October 29 and 30 event and a little bit of the background on the House of the Rock blog. This sounds like a wonderful event if you liked the book and you like his works.

I visited House on the Rock many times as a college student, when my parents moved to Madison, Wisconsin. I actually attended Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, then spent holidays and summers in Madison. My parents lived in Madison until about 1985, and we would go to the House on the Rock near Dodgeville, Wisconsin, as it grew in size and complexity every year. The House on the Rock is a modern architectural splendor that sits atop a rock pillar, but it is but a small part of what became a much larger collection of wonderful artifacts of invention and art, including pneumatically driven instruments, a large room filled with doll houses, a gigantic clock and the world's largest carousel. Last I knew, it was a county park property that people could pay to go inside and tour -- and well worth the price of admission.

Correction
With reference to the statement that the House on the Rock was a county park property. The House on the Rock was built and operated by Alex Jordan until he sold it in December, 1988 to Arthur T. Donaldson, a Janesville, WI businessman and friend of Alex. It has always been under private ownership.

We are looking forward to Neil Gamon's return to the House on the Rock!

-A. Donaldson, June 22, 2010-

Review Disclosures: Commission may be paid on purchase from book links only.

A Beverage for All Seasons

2010-03-23T23:11:00.000-04:00

A Glass of Wine, a Good Book, and Thee...
By Alan Eggleston, bookseller and wine seller?

We are quickly moving from the hot tea, coffee, or cocoa and a good book season into the iced tea, coffee, or soft drink season. The combination that bridges all seasons is a good book and a savory glass of wine. After a long day at the office or behind the counter, nothing relaxes like a well chosen glass of wine, and nothing takes us away from the cares of the world like an adventure into the other world of the book.

Some Suggestions
Set back on your lounger with your romance novel and a glass of Rose and a chocolate.

Cava Rose Duo with Godiva 8-piece Chocolates - Wine Collection Gift

Follow the clues in your mystery novel with a variety of snacks and a delicious Pinto Gris from Oregon.

Harry & David Party Pack - Gourmet Gift Basket

All these available from wine.com with great deals on wines. (Commissions may be paid on purchases.)

Back to the Basics of Faith

2010-03-13T11:45:00.000-05:00

Book Review: The Year of Living Like Jesus
By Alan Eggleston, writer, editor, and bookseller

My usual Lent is spent trying to avoid something: chocolate, fattening foods, or something else that I like but that isn't good for me. I usually fail, and early into Lent I give up. Often, Lent is disappointing because I set myself up from the beginning to fail. This year, rather than take something away that I'm destined to give in to, I decided to give myself into something from the beginning: reading something that might enrich me spiritually.

I stumbled into The Year of Living Like Jesus by Ed Dobson on the new books table as I walked into Schuler Books in Grand Rapids, MI. The idea of living like Jesus intrigued me, and I wondered how a pastor of an evangelical wing of a traditionalist Protestant church would approach the subject. I am Roman Catholic, so I was wary of buying a book that might easily spend more time exploring the ills of Catholicism than how Jesus lived, but that's not the way Dobson approached the topic. He really explores Jesus' life and times, and he explores it through the practices of various other faiths including Roman Catholicism, the Orthodox Church, and Judaism. I found I actually had much in common with Dobson that I didn't expect to, and I learned a lot about Jesus, his own faith, and the times he lived through, as well as other faiths and peoples. This is a deeply personal journey made more resonate because of his battle with ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease).

This book isn't at all preachy, for anyone who might shy away from such a read for that concern. It is an exploration of a man's personal faith through exploring the roots of Christianity. It is full of interesting insights. It is written by a man of amazing wisdom and observation, who isn't afraid to buck convention.

The one fault I found with the book is that the chapter on July is very short. He didn't spend much time exploring the topic that month and I felt a little jilted. Otherwise, I felt The Year of Living Like Jesus was a valued read. I hope to reread it next year, but to read it over a year, month by month, trying to prolong the sense of his experience by spending more time thinking about what he went through instead of speeding through it for one Lenten season.

Find me on Twitter: @BizBooksPlus @AlanEggleston @a_copywriter

Review Disclosure. No compensation received for reviewing this book or author. Link to book above through my online bookstore: commission may be paid for purchase.

I Support Google Fiber for Grand Rapids

2010-03-08T16:32:00.001-05:00

I support Google Fiber for Grand Rapids, a movement to encourage technology leader Google to build their incredibly fast test fiber optic broadband network in Grand Rapids. If you haven't already joined the Google Fiber for Grand Rapids Facebook Fan page, please do so today. And please go to the Google Fiber page to nominate Grand Rapids for this program.

Google already has offices in Ann Arbor, so it would make sense to expand their reach into Michigan by coming to Grand Rapids for this test. They are also working with Grand Rapids independent book store Schuler Books printing books-on-demand with their Espresso Book Machine at the 28th street store from Google's vast repertoire of Google Books, so they have connections here.

Furthermore, Grand Rapids' medical, art, technology, university, and other data-heavy industries makes it an ideal candidate for Google Fiber. What they need is our encouragement and examples of why we'd make suitable partners.

And follow Google Fiber for Grand Rapids on Twitter: @GoogleFiber4GR

Cesar’s Way Becomes My Way

2010-01-27T08:21:00.002-05:00

Book Review: Cesar’s Way
By Alan Eggleston, writer, editor, and bookseller

In the summer of 2008, we bought a Scottish terrier from a breeder in the Thumb area of Michigan and brought her home to West Michigan. For the 32 years my wife and I had been married, we had always owned Scottish terriers and they had always proved to be a loving, quiet, loyal family pets. They were always standard black Scotty, but calm. This year, our 22 year old daughter wanted something different, but we weren’t ready to give up on Scotties. The compromise was a different colored Scotty -- wheaten.

McKenzie as a pup.

We were told that McKenzie was the calmest, most endearing of all the litter. Wheaten Scotties are hard to find and we’d gone as far away as Kansas to order one, but the litter failed. Suddenly we found this litter and it was practically in our back yard. And the one puppy not spoken for was the calmest. We brought her home and what developed was a puppy with an attitude. She not only liked to play, it was all she wanted to do. She was always full of pep and energy and she continually nipped at us. Furthermore, nothing on the ground was safe from her, especially tissue paper, including tissue wrapping paper. And nothing discouraged her. She crawled all over us when we kept her with us on the sofa and she wouldn’t settle down. Outside, she barked at everything that moved. When we went somewhere, she barked incessantly. In the mud room where we kept her kennel, she chewed on the woodwork. Paper training was out of the question because it never remained in one piece.

Then one day I noticed a program on the National Geographic Channel called The Dog Whisperer. At first I was just fascinated, but then I realized the host, Cesar Millan, worked with dogs who often had similar problems to our McKenzie’s. They were never all the same problems, so it took a long time to watch enough programs to knit all the pieces together, but over time I’ve seen close to a complete picture.

Cesar Millan has a website where he also deals with dog “issues” and where you can get help, including books and DVDs. And one day while browsing my favorite book store, I also found three of his books. One of them is Cesar’s Way by Cesar Millan with Melissa Jo Peltier. I’ve been reading it and trying to apply it to our McKenzie. It’s helped a lot, although McKenzie is still a work in progress.

What I really appreciate about Cesar’s Way is that Millan explains everything about dogs, their habits, and their way of looking at the world. Then he turns that into solutions for the issues that dogs develop because of the way humans overindulge their pets. It’s about problems and their solutions. And it explains many things you see on The Dog Whisperer but don’t often get expressed. For instance, on the show Millan sometimes puts a doggie saddle on a dog when they go on walks, but he didn’t always explain why it’s effective on the dog. In the book, he explains that the dog looks at carrying a saddle as doing a job and it accepts the psychology of going on a walk more easily by wearing one (it isn’t always necessary, because going on a walk is a job in itself).

Cesar’s Way contains helpful recommendations along with their sound reasoning. It also contains examples stories of real people and their dogs that show how his theories and solutions apply. And it contains diagrams and pictures showing how to do certain things.

I’m glad I ran into The Dog Whisperer and I’m glad I ran into Cesar’s Way. I hope I’ll be able to find solutions to McKenzie's "attitude" by applying all I’m learning from both. If you have a dog with “issues” I’d highly recommend both. Also available: Cesar’s Way Deck 50 Tips for Training and Understanding Your Dog (like flashcards or index cards for quick reference.)

(Note: I just discovered I had written this some time ago and forgotten to post it. I have since bought two more Cesar Millan books that I will review in the future. This guy is amazing. If you have cable TV or satellite TV and access to the National Geographic Channel, watch The Dog Whisperer and see the amazing work he does with dogs and their owners.)

Review Disclosure. No compensation received for reviewing this book, program, or channel. Commissions may be paid for purchases made from book links made through my online book store and Amazon.com. I bought the book I reviewed. Books also available on Cesar Millan's website.

Follow me on Twitter: @BizBooksPlus or @AlanEggleston

When Will There Be Good News? in Paperback Week of January 11

2010-01-11T11:59:00.000-05:00

Book Review: Kate Atkinson's Third Jackson Brodie Novel
By Kate Eggleston, avid reader

Coming soon to a comfy chair near you? The third in a series of highly acclaimed novels featuring private investigator Jackson Brodie, When Will There Be good News?, by Kate Atkinson, is available at book stores this week.

This was my first reading of a Kate Atkinson novel. It follows her two national bestsellers, Case Histories and One Good Turn. Unfortunately, I wonder if it will follow popular suit when it hits the bookshelves.

Available January 11 in trade paper (larger paperback), When Will There Be Good News? begins with a scene that shocks and takes your breath away with its violence, yet loses steam as it takes its sweet time picking up momentum afterward. If you are patient, you are rewarded with a more satisfying second half, wherein the pace picks up with a more suspenseful read and a surprising end.

I wish this were a better crafted novel, because then I would be tempted to read Atkinson's other two Jackson Brodie novels. However, it took an honest effort to work my way through this book, with its over development of a minor character (Reggie) at the expense of more important characters, and its frequently distracting parenthetical comments.

I am a big fan of mysteries and thrillers. I was really looking forward to picking up this book, but not finally setting it down. I hope you find it more satisfying.

Review disclosures: Free copy of the book was furnished by the publisher for review before publishing date. No recompense for review. Book links above through our bookstore, for which we may receive commissions for sales.

Follow us on Twitter: @BizBooksPlus

Welcome Kate Eggleston to Our Book Reviews

2010-01-04T17:00:00.000-05:00

Book Reviews: Meet My Book Mate
By Alan Eggleston

As a writer, I'd rather spend my writing time earning an income. As a reader, I'd rather spend it writing book reviews. Unfortunately, the former wins out and I don't get much time to read or review. However, my wife Kate is able to fit in far more books into her schedule than I. So, why not let you benefit from her voracious reading habit.

Thus, I introduce you to Kate Eggleston, avid reader. It's taken me a while to talk her into penning her impressions of the books she reads, but I hope she will do more of it. She's smart, creative, and she reads a lot of different kinds of books. Mysteries, histories, thrillers, science fiction, fantasy, romance, biographies, and on and on.

With that, I invite her to take it away. Her first review will be a mystery. Enjoy!

Kate doesn't Twitter yet, but maybe if you invite her here, she will!

Review Disclosures

Update: Patrick Wensink's Coloring Content

2009-12-15T12:01:00.003-05:00

Patrick Wensink: Help Him Pick a Coloring Contest Winner!

By Alan Eggleston, writer, editor, bookseller

On November 30, I reported on new humor author Patrick Wensink's book, Sex Dungeon for Sale! and the coloring contest he was having as a promotion. Patrick reports on his Twitter page and website that the contest went so well, he can't decide a winner -- and now he wants your help!

Vote for best and you could win something cool -- rules here! Hurry, ends December 17. (Winner Update: Congratulations to Kate from Chicago.)

Nicely played, Patrick.

Disclosures. No remuneration paid for author update. Commissions may be paid on purchase through book link.

Follow me on Twitter: @BizBooksPlus or @AlanEggleston

NPR's Best Young Adult Fiction for 2009

2009-12-14T14:23:00.002-05:00

Young Adult Fiction Is Good Reading for All

By Alan Eggleston, writer, editor, and bookseller

NPR (National Public Radio) announced its list of 2009's Best Young Adult Fiction. Books always make great holiday gifts, especially for young adults who are frequently into video games, cell phones, or clothes, which can become expensive. A book will allow your young adult to escape from your mundane world without breaking your bank!

Charles and Emma by Deborah Heiligman
Lips Touch by Laini Taylor
The Lost Conspiracy by Frances Hardinge
Marcelo In the Real World by Francisco X. Stork
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

The thing about Young Adult Fiction is, although it's written for young adults, it's easy to become enthralled as a fully grown adult yourself. Beware if you give any of these as gifts this holiday season, because you may find yourself holed up in a favorite chair over the winter consumed with a great read!

See the NPR page for brief summaries of each book.

My Own Additional Suggestions

If none of these titles sounds like your young adult reader, let me suggest any of the superb Peter Pan series of books that kept my wife and I occupied for many adventurous hours. I'm reading the fourth one now, and it kept my interest from the first page. Here they are, in order of introduction:

Peter Pan and the Starcatchers by Ridley Pearson and Dave Barry
Peter Pan and the Shadow Thieves by Ridley Pearson and Dave Barry
Peter Pan and the Secret of Rundoon by Ridley Pearson and Dave Barry
Peter Pan and the Sword of Mercy by Ridley Pearson and Dave Barry

Review Disclosures

(Book links to Amazon.com through my online book store, through which I may receive commissions for sales. No recompense received for reviewing books or passing on NPR information.)

Twitter me: @BizBooksPlus or @AlanEggleston

Which Comes First: The Book or the Movie?

2009-12-10T15:15:00.006-05:00

Take Our Reader Poll

A movie is made from a book: Do you read the book first or see the movie then read the book? http://twtpoll.com/00o8r5 (ends 12/16/09)

(If you have a Twitter account, Twtpoll is a very easy, free way to publish a poll. You can also build surveys, for a one-time cost. I'll let you know how this one works out.)

Twitter me: @BizBooksPlus, @AlanEggleston, or @a_copywriter

Why You Should Protect That Bothersome Book Jacket

2009-12-10T11:57:00.002-05:00

Book Jackets: More Than a Marketing Tool

By Alan Eggleston, writer, editor, and bookseller

That dust jacket that comes with every new hard cover book: Do you really need it?

The quick answer is, yes, the jacket protects the book cover from wear, tear, and spills.

The longer answer is, yes, the jacket protects the book cover from wear, tear, spills, and over time, fading and weathering.

Believe it or not, a jacket can be more valuable than the book it protects, if the jacket is well taken care of. Thus, removing it while you read the book won't protect the book as well but may help retain the value of the cover, if you're a collector.

To protect both the book and the jacket, consider investing in a plastic sheet that will encase the outside of the jacket. Jackets easily tear or take on spills, smears, and marks the book would have taken on, and you can protect the jacket from those with a plastic covering.

If you decide to remove the jacket while reading the book, store it carefully. Jackets tend to curl and lose their bookly shape. If they end up under other things, you will end up with unintended creases. Instead, fold the jacket along a natural crease or, if you have a long enough drawer, straighten out full length until you need to wrap the jacket around the book again.

Twitter me: @BizBooksPlus, @AlanEggleston, or @a_copywriter

The Case for Bookends

2009-12-09T09:57:00.004-05:00

Bookends: Why Bother?

By Alan Eggleston, writer, editor, and bookseller

It's pretty simple: The reason to use bookends is to keep your books upright and together.

For some, that's an answer to anal retentivism. For me, it's an answer to protecting my books both as an investment and for my personal demeanor.

Bookends Help Organize

Books are made to sit upright -- vertically straight on the bottom edge. The optimal way to store them is with even pressure on that bottom edge. The spine holds the rest of the book together, and when the book leans with uneven pressure on the spine because the book isn't sitting evenly on the bottom edge, the pages can pull away from the spine, especially when the glue dries and cracks or the staples or string suffer fatigue. Bookends, used properly, keep all the books straight with even pressure.

Is it proper to store a book vertically on its back edge (opposite the spine), such as when it's too tall to fit on its bottom edge? That would be a second choice, and better than other options. The problem with storing on the back edge is that it may allow the spine to sag or bulge, and if the book is wide it may cause fraying of the spine on the shelf above. Worse options would be laying books across the tops of shorter vertically stored books or leaned at an angle, all which may promote warping or sagging and stress on the spines.

Another good reason to use bookends is to group books by subject or other criteria, or even for aesthetic reasons. You may simply have a few books together in a large area and want to show them off or keep them from scattering.

When You Don't Use Bookends

If you're going to lean or cant a book, such as for display, make sure you use a tilted shelf with a lip that will evenly support the bottom of the book.

Certainly, it doesn't hurt to lay books horizontally on their covers. However, make sure that the pressure on the cover is evenly distributed to prevent warping. Furthermore, you don't want to introduce other objects on or near the book lying on its cover that might scratch or otherwise injure the cover. And, you should minimize the amount of weight you lay on top of books stored horizontally. Tabletop books are designed to lie flat on a table top or shelf, of course -- just make sure you don't stack more than a couple together, and keep the surface clean and free of obscructions.

Bookends Make a Great Gift

If you know a book lover or collector, or anyone else for whom books has a place in their lives, bookends make great gifts. Most book stores offer a variety, from the simple to the stylish.

Review Disclosures

(Bookends link above to Amazon.com through my online book store, through which I may receive commissions for sales.)

Twitter me: @BizBooksPlus, @AlanEggleston, or @a_copywriter

How to "Break in" a New Book

2009-12-08T13:20:00.004-05:00

New Books: Easing Them into Use

By Alan Eggleston, writer, editor, bookseller

Ever see someone curve back the cover a brand new paperback novel? That's one way to crack it open for reading. However, that's not the best way, the way to make the book last.

A paperback isn't the most expensive thing in the world, so perhaps this isn't the example to go postal over. Yet, it illustrates the lack of care many people take in treating their new books. That lack of care often extends to all their books, even the expensive hard cover ones.

Fitness Stretches for Your Book

Think of a book as a body. It has a spine and attached to the spine are a tight skin (the cover) and taught muscles (the pages). When something pliable is tight, and you fold it quickly and unnaturally, it may snap or break. That can happen to books just like it can happen to living bodies.

When athletes prepare for a sprint or other athletic activity, what do they do beforehand? They stretch! That's what you should do for any new book, too. Stretch the binding that links the spine with the covers and pages to gently release the tension between them. By stretching it, you prepare it for hours of open and closing at your leisure, which makes for a more pleasurable experience for you.

Follow These Simple Steps

Stretching the binding is really simple and will keep the spine from breaking and the book in much better shape for a much longer time:

Stand the book on a flat surface on its spine.
Holding the book vertical, open the front cover a full 90 degrees and press your fingertips along the crease the length of the page.
Keeping the front cover open, now open the back cover a full 90 degrees and press your fingertips along the crease the length of the page.
Retaining the current sides open, return to the front of the book and fold three or four pages open together 90 degrees, pressing your fingertips along the crease.
Repeat this at the back of the book.
Alternate this for more and more pages between the front and back of the book. Although you could go all the way to the center of the book, I find a quarter of the way sufficient.

Once you break in the ends of the book, the middle will naturally follow as you open the pages.

I challenge you to try this and see if it doesn't make using a new book much easier and make it wear much better. Let me know what you think.

Twitter me: @AlanEggleston, @a_copwriter, and @BizBooksPlus

New Author Alert: Patrick Wensink

2009-11-30T21:49:00.003-05:00

Patrick Wensink Is a New Author Worth Getting to Know

By Alan Eggleston, writer, editor, and bookseller

There's a new humor author to discover: Patrick Wensink. His new book, his first, titled Sex Dungeon for Sale! is getting many great reviews over at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com, which is always a strong endorsement.

Sex Dungeon for Sale! is a short compilation of humorous - one might say whacky - short stories in the New Bizarro Author Series. I haven't had the opportunity yet to read more than a sampling of Mr. Wensink's new work yet (he just wrote me about his book today!), but from what I've seen, there is much to like about this new author's style and to enjoy in his stories. Many have compared his writing to David Sedaris, David Cross, Chuck Palahniuk, or Robert Anton Wilson. Perhaps even Christopher Moore, from the sounds of it. "My Son Thinks He's French" is a fun, quick narrative of child-inspired imagination anyone who knows creative, obsessive children will enjoy.

If you like off-the-track humor, or any of the authors mentioned above, I'd give Mr. Wensink a try. As part of the New Bizarro Author Series, it's great to meet a bright new author at an introductory price, and this is your chance to meet an up-and-coming new writer who's making a name for himself now.

Mr. Wensink e-mailed me to tell me about a little promotional contest he is running through December 14 that he thought you might find fun. From his press release:

Patrick Wensink recently decided there’s only one way to celebrate the release of his book, “Sex Dungeon for Sale!”. And that is by holding a coloring contest.

He had a series of illustrations created based on some of the book’s stories, including a Kindergartener who thinks he’s French, a puddle of ketchup shaped like Elvis and something called, “Chicken Soup for the Kidnapper’s Soul.”

While the coloring contest sounded like fun, Wensink added a little excitement by offering an autographed stack of his favorite books from 2009 to the winner.
Fool - By Christopher Moore
Tales Designed to Thrizzle – by Michael Kupperman
AM/PM – By Amelia Gray
Help! A Bear is Eating Me! – By Mykle Hansen
The contest ends December 14.

For all the details visit www.patrickwensink.com/randomness

When Mr. Wensink wrote me, I did a little research to learn more about him and his book. I wasn't going to promote just anyone. I was impressed by the reviews I found on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, the sample chapter I read (on his website), and the personableness of his e-mail. I'd be interested in your impressions, too.

Review Disclosures

(Book links to Amazon.com through my online book store, through which I may receive commissions for sales. No recompense received for reviewing this author or passing on author information.)

Twitter me: @AlanEggleston or @a_copywriter

Invasion Loses Me as Naval History Instead of Sea Adventure

2009-11-23T17:49:00.008-05:00

Book Review: Invasion by Julian Stockwin

By Alan Eggleston, writer, editor, and bookseller

In October, Julian Stockwin released the 10th in his Thomas Kydd sea adventure series: Invasion. Stockwin is a fine writer of sea adventures, but in this story, he loses his way as a writer of naval history.

In Invasion, Britain worries over its imminent invasion by France's madman Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, and an American inventor, Robert Fulton, seems to be England's greatest hope. He's known to be in France trying to sell Napoleon on the new war concept of submarine and torpedo warfare, and it becomes the mission of Commander Thomas Kydd and his best friend, Renzi, to entice Fulton to come to Britain and bring his technology to England's aid.

I'm not big on stories the central theme of which is built around the idea of a past famous person interacting with the book's main fictional character, and I wasn't keen on it here. The Thomas Kydd series of sea adventures are full of the excitement of sea battles and the dangerous life on tall ships at sea. Miring these rich, deep characters in the false sense of meeting up with real people with whom they likely would not have met get in the way for me. In the case of Renzi, it works all right, and Stockwin moves Kydd's interaction into sea action, so it's not too distasteful. However, I read the Thomas Kydd sea adventures for sea adventure, not not naval engineering.

One thing I'll say about Stockwin is that I respect his research and his use of the details he uncovers and uses in his works of fiction. I trust him to make good and accurate use of facts. At the end of the book, he tells us that Fulton was indeed in France at the time and did work on submarine and torpedo warfare, then went on to England, where he continued his work. For that reason, I am able to slightly suspend my disbelief.

If you read Stockwin because you appreciate his fine use of detail and like his excellent narrative in sea battles, you'll enjoy some of that here, but a good part of the book is taken up in meeting up with Fulton in France and with developing weapons in Britain. It made me miss his earlier works on Kydd in the Caribbean and the journey around the world, and it reminded me somewhat of his work on Kydd in North America while stationed in the United States.

I haven't given up on Stockwin's earlier storytelling of adventure. I'm sure he will bring it back in books to come. He's a fine author.

Review Disclosures

(Book links through my online book store, through which I may receive commissions for sales. No recompense received for passing on author information.)

Twitter me: @AlanEggleston or @a_copywriter

Author Christoper Moore News

2009-11-05T08:17:00.003-05:00

Christoper Moore, Humor Author, Posts First Two Chapters of Next Book

By Alan Eggleston, writer, editor, bookseller

Christopher Moore yesterday sent out an e-mail to fans announcing some exciting news:

First, he's posted the first two chapters of his new book Bite Me (due in stores April 1) for fan previews.

Second, for those of you in the East, he's doing an “evening with” event with the New Jersey Shakespeare Company on November 19th. He will talk, they will do dramatic readings from Fool with "real Shakespearian actors," and he will sign books. Moore says there will be "swag, t-shirts and hats, maybe even some early copies of Bite Me, if they’re ready by then. This is a one-time event, with no rehearsal, so it should be strange and fun."

Moore is a humor writer of such popular titles as Fool: A Novel; Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal; Bloodsucking Friends: A Love Story; A Dirty Job: A Novel; You Suck: A Love Story; The Stupedist Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror; and Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Wale Sings, among others. My personal favorites are Lamb and Fluke. Moore has a great rapport with his fans, and if you write to him he's been known to write back!

Review Disclosures

(Book links through my online book store, through which I may receive commissions for sales. No recompense received for passing on author information.)

Twitter me: @AlanEggleston or @a_copywriter

The Lost Symbol Is Typical Dan Brown Suspense

2009-11-02T10:44:00.007-05:00

Review: The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

By Alan Eggleston, writer, editor, bookseller

I am a big Dan Brown fan. No one paces a suspense story like Dan Brown, keeping you surprised right up to the end. He has kept up that pace in all his past books. Just when you thought you knew who done it, it wasn't until the last chapter that you found out who had really done it. However, he breaks that well developed writing style in The Lost Symbol, and I have to say, I was disappointed.

Don't misunderstand me; The Lost Symbol is full of surprises and suspenseful moments. The writing is still excellent and the pace is still brisk. My attention was rivetted after about the 15th short chapter. And to be fair, there are twists and turns in the plot right up to the end as Dan Brown leads you to the whereabouts of the lost symbol. Yet, I felt let down after the conflict between the protagonist and antagonist was resolved and chapters still remained. Oh, yes, we still have to point out the whereabouts of that pesky "lost" symbol.

If you like mystery, if you adore thriller or suspense, if you aborb conspiracies and like to untangle knotty plot twists, The Lost Symbol will be a good read for you. You may even find some of the plot holes don't matter so much -- like the tiny matter of the head of CIA security taking the lead in investigating internal U.S. security issues: Isn't that the perview of Heartland Security or the FBI? There were a few more little iniquities that bothered me, but I allowed to go unresolved because the story was too good to spoil with mere nits.

However, if you aren't a fan of Dan Brown's other works, you aren't likely to like this one, either.

Review Disclosures
(Book links above through my book store, for which I may receive commissions for sales.)

Twitter me: @AlanEggleston or @a_copywriter

Schuler Books Stays Ahead of the Curve

2009-10-09T22:48:00.005-04:00

Schuler Books Announces Vook and Espresso Publishing
By Alan Eggleston, writer, editor, and bookseller

Schuler Books, independent bookseller in West and Mid Michigan, showed its moxy as a leading Michigan bookstore this week when it announced the Vook and the Espresso Book Machine.

Vooks are traditional books enhanced with video from Simon & Schuster, available for download to your computer, iPhone, or iPod Touch. Titles that Schuler Books mentions include Promises by Jude Deveraux, 90 Second Fitness Solution by Pete Cerqua, and Return to Beauty: Old World Recipes For Great Radian Skin by Narine Nikogosian. Links mentioned on their Facebook page look like downloads originate through Booksense, an association of independent booksellers.

Espresso Book Machine is on-demand publishing featuring the Google library and other possible sources. You will be able to order and walk out the door with a freshly printed book in around 10 minutes. No more concerns over being out of stock or out of print -- find the title and print it off! Schuler Books will have the only Espresso Book Machine in Michigan besides the University of Michigan. Cost is expected to be comparable to a mass-produced version, but there's no shipping!

See Schuler Books Facebook page or their Book Weblog for more information.

I once worked at Schuler Books, but I received no compensation for this article.

Twitter me: @AlanEggleston or @a-copywriter

Review Disclosures

2009-10-09T17:31:00.006-04:00

Booksville Disclosure Policies for Book and Product Reviews and Articles
By Alan Eggleston, writer, editor, and bookseller

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) now requires that I (and any other blogger and reviewer) disclose any relationship that I have with an author, book publisher, or product manufacturer when I write about their book or product.

Here are the practices by which I write reviews and articles for Booksville and BizBooksPlus:

I never accept money or incentives to do a review on a book or product. I read the books, use the products, and write the reviews or articles on my own.
I usually pay for the books and products about which I write or review; however, occasionally an author, publisher, or manufacturer may send or offer to send me a book or product to review. I will state that in the article or review; otherwise, you may assume I purchased the book or product with my own money.
When I create a link to a book or product in an article or review, I will get paid a commission if you purchase the book or product via my link, which goes through my online bookstore and Amazon or other affiliate store. If the link does not materially benefit me, I will state so. (I also use links for SEO ranking purposes.)
When I write a review or mention a book or product in an article, I will give you my unvarnished opinion, regardless of how I got the book or product. I don't write reviews professionally, so it's very likely that I purchased the book or product because I found it interesting, and I am writing about it because I wanted you to know about it. However, it's likely I will tell you what I like about it, and if there are things about it I find strongly disagreeable, I will tell you those, too. No author should assume that if they send me a book that they will receive a winning endorsement -- I won't feel obligated to provide one.

Note that while the FTC now requires these disclosures, I am fully supportive of them. You, as a reader, should know whether a reviewer or writer is being influenced by financial or material interests. The biggest problem for bloggers and other reviewers is knowing how to explain their practices and where to position them. Feel free to give me your feedback on this disclosure either in the comments section or by e-mail.

Thank you!

Alan Eggleston, president
e-Messenger Consulting Corp.
Writer, Editor, SEO, and Bookseller

Have You Moved from Print to Electronic?

2009-01-14T16:15:00.004-05:00

e-Books: Prices Too High?
by Alan Eggleston, writer, editor, bookseller

There's an interesting discussion about the price (not to be confused with the cost) of e-books on two blogs:

TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home, "Calculating a fair price for e-books."
Galleycat, "Expert Explains Why E-Books Are so Expensive."

The essence of the debate is: Is the price is too high when the cost is so low? In this case, price is what the consumer pays to buy the e-book, cost is the financial burden of bringing the e-book to the consumer.

As an avid reader but not a fan of reading on a screen, high cost would be a barrier to my purchasing e-books on a regular basis. I prefer paper. What do you think?

What's in a Title?

2009-01-03T10:04:00.005-05:00

Book Titles, the Author's Biggest Struggle?
by Alan Eggleston, writer, editor, and bookseller

If you're an author struggling with the title to your new bestseller-to-be, take a few lessons from the masters.

A book by British newspaper columnist and author Gary Dexter tells the story behind the titles of 50 landmark books. In Why Not Catch-21?, Dexter details the struggle to choose just the right number of catches to arrive at 22. Interesting story! First readers of Utopia by Thomas More thought it was a story of a real place, but there were clues in the title and the storytelling that discerning readers came to understand and that you can learn from. Why did Melville call his groundbreaking work "Moby Dick" instead of just "The Whale"? This and more is spelled out.

The full title of the book is Why Not Catch-21? The Stories Behind the Titles and it fully explains the work. As the preface explains, the book is based on a weekly column Dexter wrote for The Sunday Telegraph called "Title Deed." I want to do some research and see if it's still running, because it provides fascinating insight into how authors think and work, and how books are created.

Update: I Googled "Title Deed Sunday Telegraph" and although I received several links, all showed truncated results hidden behind "High Beam Research" which requires membership for full review. You will, however, see examples from the column on the Title Deed link above.

First published in 2007, I found it as a paperback this weekend at Schuler Books in Grand Rapids, Michigan. ISBN: 9780711229259. It's a good read and offers an interesting view of the thought process behind authors and their books.

Review Disclosure

My Blogs:

1 More Way to Find Another Great Read

2008-04-17T19:54:00.003-04:00

By Alan Eggleston, writer, editor, and bookseller

Another way to find a good read by an author you like is to use the online Literature Map Web site. Simply go to www.literature-map.com and in the "Name of the author" field, enter the name of the author whose work you just enjoyed and click the "Continue" button. The result will be a screen showing your author's name surrounded by other names. The closer the other names are to your original author, the more likely you will like their works. It's based on people entering author names and indicating whether they have liked those authors' works.

Example: I like Horatio Hornblower by C.S. Forester. If I want to find other authors who write stories similar to hose of C.S. Forester, I enter his name in the entry field. It shows me Dudley Pope, Rudyard Kipling, Alexander Kent, and Bernard Cornwall as closest. It's interesting that Patrick O'Brian, who also writes Napolean-era sea adventures is far to the right. And it's also interesting that the author whose Napolean-era sea yarns I admire most -- Julian Stockwin -- doesn't even show up. But this is a work in progress and the more people who participate, the more accurate it will become.

Give it a try. My good neighbor across the street told me about it and he uses it faithfully. Let me know what you think.

3 Easy Ways to Find Another Good Read

2008-04-17T19:48:00.002-04:00

You liked one book, how do you find another like it?

By Alan Eggleston, bookseller

Originally published 7.10.05 on my BizBooksPlus.net blog under the same title.

Often we find books that we really enjoy and want to extend that enjoyment by getting another book like it. How do you find one?

Did you like the author's writing style or tone?

One way is to look up more books by the same author. Although an author's style can change over time, and subsequent books can easily be different, it's a good bet that if you like an author's style he or she will repeat it in other books.

Did you like the subject matter?

If what you like is the subject matter, then look up other books by entering appropriate keywords for the subject matter in the Amazon search box on either our business books page or our leisure books page. Here, making sure you get a good read isn't as easy, since different authors often vary widely in style and tone.

Find what other readers have liked

Another way to find similar material is by using the same Amazon.com search boxes mentioned above. Enter the title of the book you enjoyed (better yet, enter the ISBN) and when the book comes up on the page, scroll down. Amazon often lists similar books, suggestions of similar subject matter or similar authors that other readers have ordered. "If you like this book, you may also like these..." in essence.

• Search on our Business Books section

• Search on our Leisure Books section

(c) 2005 e-Messenger Consulting Corp. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Review Disclosure

Back to BizBooksPlus.net

I was so intrigued by Five Years of My Life!

2008-04-16T14:49:00.006-04:00

By Alan Eggleston, Writer, Editor, Bookseller

I was so intrigued by Five Years of My Life by Murat Kurnaz, I read it in a day. It's the story of a young German of Turkish descent who was charged with terrorism by the Bush Administration and was forced to live five years of hell in torture, even though he was actually innocent.

The book covers 255 pages, including epilogue. It tells of this teen of hard-working Turkish immigrants in Germany who decided to give up the wild life of a bouncer for a straighlaced Muslim wife from Turkey, a woman who knew much more about his faith than he did. After marrying her, he decided to study his faith before bringing her back to Germany to live, and he made secret arrangements to travel to Pakistan where he could attend a quick-study school on Islam. He didn't tell his family because he was afraid they would stop him from going. That was the biggest mistake of his life.

Kurnaz planned to accompany friends on the trip, but ended up going alone. He traveled from mosque to mosque with friends he made along the way. At the end of his trip, just as he was heading home, he was arrested. Although official papers said he had been arrested in Afghanistan, he was in fact sold out in Pakistan to American interests for $3,000 and shipped to Afghanistan. There he was interrogated, beaten, tortured, barely fed, and eventually shipped to Guantanamo, Cuba, where he spent the rest of his imprisonment.

This book is not well crafted English. It is a well written narrative. You will experience his uncertainty, his confusion, his pain, his human degredation, and the depravity of a government so focused on capturing terrorists that it refuses to see what it actually has, which is an innocent man. In fact, the government learned early on that Kurnaz was innocent, but Germany didn't want him back -- for silly reasons, it turns out -- so they kept torturing him anyway.

Thank goodness Kurnaz's family learned of his whereabouts, people of goodwill fought for his release, and he didn't give up hope. At the very end, even though the government knew Kurnaz was innocent, as he prepared to board a plane to freedom, they insisted he sign a declaration of guilt or he wouldn't be given his freedom. When he refused, they let him go.

See if you're hooked by the details, the memories, the fear, the insanity of it all like I was. I read this in a day, and I never read a book in a day.

Five Years of My Life, An Innocent Man in Guantanamo

By Murat Kurnaz

ISBN-10: 0230603742
ISBN-13: 978-0230603745

LAS - New computer "disorder" from Microtrends author Penn?

2008-02-17T15:01:00.009-05:00

By Alan Eggleston, Writer, Editor, Bookseller

Did you know that you may be a member of an untapped new microtrend group? If you spend hours on your computer reading or doing research or playing on Facebook, you could suffer from LAS -- Long Attention Span!

This is according to Mark Penn, lead author of the book Microtrends. He's also a political consultant for Senator Hillary Clinton and was the marketing consultant who identified the microtrend group called Soccer Moms critical to re-electing President Bill Clinton in 1996.

I watched with fascination this morning as Mark Penn discussed Microtrends at his book signing at a New York City bookstore on Booktv (CSPAN2). Among the microtrends he mentions were "impressionable elites" and the increasing abundance of "lefties," meaning "southpaws" or people who are left-hand dominant. Penn also said that we are all familiar with the microtrend of ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder or those who suffer from short attention spans), but that with each microtrend there is usually a corresponding microtrend and that for ADD there is LAS -- Long Attention Span.

A group of people for whom LAS may be an effect are people who spend hours on their computers. Is that you -- and me?

His point was that science and medicine and marketing are addressing ADD, but they haven't yet acknowledged LAS. The group who do, says Penn, are often 10 years or so behind. Take the car market. Most people who buy cars today are women, a trend about 10 to 15 years old. Yet car dealerships are focused on the male shopper. So look for marketers to start selling you for your LAS addictions like computer time, books, and television time in about 10 to 15 years.

You can read more about Microtrends and Mark Penn and co-author E. Kinney Zalesne on their Web site. The book has gotten mixed reviews, but the trends are fascinating to read.

Want to Find a Book Quickly? Use Its ISBN.

2008-02-15T17:44:00.006-05:00

To ISBN or not to ISBN.
By Alan Eggleston, Writer, Editor, Bookseller

I just got into an interesting "conversation" on LinkedIn, the online network for professionals. On LinkedIn you can ask all the other professionals around the world any question you want, and this gentleman -- from Chicago -- is about to self-publish a book and wanted readers' opinions whether he should bother to get an ISBN (International Standard Book Number).

It reminded me of when I was a bookseller in a bricks and mortar bookstore and people would come in looking for books but wouldn't have a title or author's name. They would have seen it somewhere, perhaps even browsed it on one of our shelves the week before. However, they assumed we would be able to figure it out from their general discription. (It had a yellowish cover and it was on that display table over there ... four weeks ago!)

Ladies and gentlemen, bookstores have tens of thousands of books on hand. Most are shelved according to author and then, if the bookseller has time, alphabetically by title -- otherwise, by author in the order he takes them off the book cart. Sometimes in sections like Biographies, they're shelved alphabetically by subject. In the computer section they're shelved alphabetically by title. In every case, it's section by section, so everything in Mysteries is shelved together... everything in Science Fiction is shelved together, and so on.

Believe it or not, I'm heading for a conclusion here.

Your best friend when looking for a book is the ISBN. When you find a book you like -- in the store, at a friend's house, online, at a used book sale, in the library, in someone's hand, lying on a table, buried under piles of papers, in your daughter's backpack -- wherever, and you want to get a copy for yourself, take down the ISBN. Give the ISBN to the bookseller. He or she will be able to immediately locate the book with it. No questions of how to spell the author's name, no questions of whether words in the title are one word or two, no wondering if your author was the main author or the author listed second, he will be able to locate it quickly with the ISBN. Anywhere in the world! Even on your laptop through Amazon.com, Alibris.com, or Barnesandnoble.com.

Find the ISBN number of any book with the copyright and library catalogue information, usually at the front of the book. It will be either a 10-digit or, nowadays, 13-digit number. See the ISBN Web site for more information on this system.

My new colleague on LinkedIn got a lot of advise from readers about whether to bother getting an ISBN. The one that made the most sense to him, he said, was from this bookseller who explained how much easier an ISBN would make it for consumers to find his book.

Are you a professional? Take a look at LinkedIn for professional networking.

Bookstore Etiquette

2008-02-15T16:28:00.005-05:00

Some rules of thumb that can make the shopping experience better for everyone.

By Alan Eggleston, bookseller
Originally published on my BizBooksPlus.net blog on 6.29.05 by the same title.

Bookstores, especially large ones, have relaxed the rules of etiquette over the last several years. However, there are still some rules of thumb that can make the shopping experience at a bricks and mortar store better for everyone.

For instance, many people like to browse books before buying them. Some stores have cafés and even let shoppers take books with them to the table. Yet, the more books you take off the shelves to browse, the fewer there are for other shoppers to browse. Bookstore etiquette asks that you only take a couple of books at a time, especially if they’re all from one topic area. Then everyone has a chance to browse.

In another example, some people go to the bookstore to get information rather than to buy a book. Although bookstores don't frown on information gathering, they aren't public libraries. It's certain that if everyone used the bookstore as a public library, bookstores couldn’t afford to stay in business. Bookstore etiquette says to browse books to see if they have the kind of information you’re looking for, but when you find the book or books with the information, buy them. Of course, you aren’t committed to buying just because you’re browsing.

Here are some other suggestions, most of them common sense:

Never use a book as a hard surface for writing notes. Writing on top of it will mark the cover, making the book unsellable. If you do it anyway, be prepared to buy the book. Otherwise, ask a bookseller for a hard surface.

Never write inside a book. Again, the book you’re browsing is for sale – would you want to buy a book that’s been marked up? Be prepared to buy the book if you mark in it in any way -- you mark it you buy.

If you’re going to put the book back on the shelf, try to put it back where it belongs. Most bookshelves are organized alphabetically by author. Bookstores are just as happy if you don’t put the book back in its place – leave it for booksellers, who will be happy to reshelf it.

Keep all the books in your care in good, sellable condition. In addition to the notes above, don’t bend covers back. It’s the same for paperbacks, with the addition that you should never curl the cover back.

Most bookstores have a children’s section, which often sell toys as well as books. They don’t mind your child trying out the toys, but remember that this isn't a play center. Allow your child to play with the toy to see if he or she wants to buy it, but then put the toy back for others to see. Play with only one or two toys at a time. And please keep the area orderly. Scattered toys are a nuisance for other shoppers and a danger for other children.

(c) 2005 e-Messenger Consulting Corp. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Back to BizBooksPlus.net

Book Hunting 101

2008-02-11T15:50:00.000-05:00

Finding a book can be easy, if you have the right information in front of you.

By Alan Eggleston, bookseller
Originally published 7/08/05 on my BizBooksPlus.net blog under "What You Need to Find a Book".

Your search for a book can be a lot quicker if you know a few things first:

If possible, for a specific book get the ISBN (International Standard Book Number) – all bookstores use the same ISBN, which makes a book easier to find in whatever bookstore you find yourself. If you're searching online, enter the ISBN into the search field.

If you don't have the ISBN, know at least the title and author.

If you don’t know the ISBN, title, or author, you may be able to find the work by subject or using keywords that describe the book or parts of its content.

If you don’t have a specific book in mind, you can find choices among books of the same subject or using the same keywords.

If you don’t have a book in mind but you like a certain author, do a search by entering that author's name in the search field. Keep in mind that some authors are prolific writers and you may have to choose from a number of titles.

Some cautions about looking for a book:

A book often comes out in hardcover first. Be ready to wait awhile if you don’t want to buy the hardcover edition -- it generally takes about a year before the book comes out in paperback, if indeed it comes out in paperback at all. It can take even longer if the book is popular, like The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown, which has been on the New York Times Bestseller List for a couple of years.

Don’t expect to find a book using a physical description. Unless you actually run into the book, descriptions seldom work.

Some publishers are specialists, such as Scholastic, which publishes children’s books for the educational market. Often their books are available only by special order from schools.

Some shoppers remember that they saw the book – such as, it was on a display at the front of the store, it had a yellow cover, and there was a picture on front. That describes far too many books in today’s crowded market.
All bricks and mortar bookstores employ booksellers whose job it is to help you find the books you want. However, there is a limit to how much help any bookseller can provide you if you don’t know the title, author, ISBN, subject, or keywords. If you find the right title but the store doesn't have it on-hand, most bookstores would be happy to order a copy for you. They may even call around to other bricks and mortar bookstores to see if they have it.

Can the Graphic Novel Make The Bible More Relevant to Youth?

2008-02-11T00:27:00.000-05:00

The latest attempt to keep The Bible relevant comes to book stores via the graphic novel. Its latest incarnation comes in the form of Manga by Ajinbayo Akinsiku titled "The Manga Bible: From Genesis to Revelation," in which Jesus Christ is presented as "a samurai stranger come to town rather than the gentle, blue-eyed Christ of hollywood blockbusters and illustrated Bibles," says an article in The New York Times.

Says the article, "In a blurb for the Manga Bible, which is published by Doubleday, the archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, is quoted as saying, 'It will convey the shock and freshness of the Bible in a unique way.'"

This isn't a first for Bibles. The Bible publishing industry has always looked for new ways to bring the Word of God to new audiences in fresh and engaging new ways. Sometimes it's in the language, sometimes it's in the art. Sometimes it's simply in making it available to the masses.

Read more about this remarkable new work in "The Bible as Graphic Novel, With a Samurai Stranger Called Christ" in the Business section of Sunday's The New York Times.

Preview That HarperCollins Book Online Soon!

2008-02-10T23:28:00.000-05:00

Look for electronic versions of books published by HarperCollins to appear online for free for one month. According to a story in Sunday's The New York Times, the idea is to allow prospective shoppers the opportunity to browse books like they would in a book store, only of course to do so on the Web.

This is an interesting experiment for a publisher. I purchase a lot of books online and I would love to be able to "leaf" through a book first, although nothing in the article says whether the pages will be exact reproductions of what you'll see in hard copy. I often select a few interior pages at random and read a few paragraphs to get a flavor for the writing, dialogue, characterizations, and so on, before I buy. This will make buying online a lot easier.

You might wonder if people won't be tempted to just read online instead of buy. The article says the books will be available online only for a limited time, which may make that impractical. Furthermore, the online page is a lot harder on the eyes than is the paper page. I think reading a lengthy book online will be very taxing over time. This can work!

Beginning Monday, you will be able to visit the Harper Collins Web site and peruse the following books:

The Witch of Portobello, by Paulo Coelho
Mission: Cook! My Life, My Recipes and Making the Impossible Easy, Mr. Irvine
I Dream in Blue: Life, Death and the New York Giants, Roger Director
The Undecided Voter’s Guide to the Next President: Who the Candidates Are, Where They Come from and How You Can Choose, Mark Halperin
Warriors: Into the Wild, the (1st volume in a children’s series), Erin Hunter

Read more of the good news in HarperCollins Will Post Free Books on the Web in the Business section of The New York Times.

I Note the Passing of the Author Who Grasped the Bond Baton

2007-09-03T17:08:00.000-04:00

Trivia time: Do you know who wrote more James Bond books than originator Ian Fleming? Fleming wrote a mere 12, this author wrote 14. According to an August 29 article in The New York Times*, “Though the reaction of critics was mixed, the novels were embraced by all but the most orthodox Bondians and appeared regularly on the New York Times best-seller list. Among Mr. Gardner’s Bond titles are “License Renewed” (G. K. Hall, 1981); “Win, Lose or Die” (Putnam, 1989); “Brokenclaw” (Putnam, 1990); and, most recently, “Cold Fall” (Putnam, 1996).”

The author was John Gardner, who died August 3 near his home in Basingstoke, England. He had written more than four dozen books in a prolific career that surpassed 40 years.

*May require log-in to New York Times Select

Your Cell Phone Can Call, Text, Take Photos, and … Now … Order Books?

2007-08-07T23:49:00.000-04:00

Today’s cell phones can do a thousand things it seems, including now quickly order books. That is, if you order through ShopText. According to Publishers Weekly, “The Manhattan company ShopText, founded in 2005, lets people buy products instantly using SMS (i.e., Short Message Service, or cellphone text message), and has just started selling books.”

It’s actually a little more complicated than that. Here’s the scenario as explained by blogger DigitalSolid: “You’re paging through a magazine or newspaper, or you encounter an out-of-home ad (even, perhaps, a digital billboard), and you decide you simply must have that product. You type a six-digit short code into your cell phone, send the number a text message with a keyword, and after a verifying second text is received and replied to, your product has been ordered.”

Imagine sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic or on the commuter ride home and you remember you want to order a book you saw in an ad. You don’t have to wait to get to the bookstore or go online to find it, you simply take out your cell phone and send a text message. And, of course, it applies to more than books: music, artwork, all kinds of cool merchandise and impulse buys. It’s even an easy way to donate to charities!

This is just the beginning. My bet is, some day we will even be able to text message the milk and bread for pick up on the way home or -- in the best of all worlds -- pick up on the doorstep as we arrive home!

Where Would the Book Be Without Its Jacket?

2007-08-07T16:36:00.000-04:00

Where would the groom be without his tuxedo jacket? Where would the book be without its cover jacket? In the same straights I’m afraid: just a guy with a shirt and tie, just a book with a cover and spine. That’s why jackets are important, both to grooms and books! That’s why a new weblog on Publishers Weekly is worth a read.

Called Jackets Required, this blog is a weekly column by Fwis, a design group that critiques book jacket design. The articles are short and pithy, but they offer a designer’s perspective on the artistic side of jacket design. If you’ve ever wondered what thought goes into creating a book jacket, this column will give you some interesting insights. And like any good blog, there’s a place for comments, so you can add your two cents or ask your daunting question to people who should have an educated opinion.

Why should you care? Think about how many books you’ve picked up off the display table because of what you saw on the jacket. Think about the ones you didn’t pick up. What made the difference? Maybe Jackets Required will discuss it and you can say, “Yeah, I thought so, too.”

This week’s Jackets Required column is on the book Loving Frank: A Novel.

One of Fwis’s project websites is called Covers and its tagline reads: “Covers is dedicated to the appreciation of book cover design.” They feature other articles including one on bookshelves that caught my attention. Those are some pretty wicked looking bookshelves! Take a look.

Fall Book Festivals Coming Soon

2007-07-30T23:20:00.000-04:00

Publisher’s Weekly just published their fall book festival schedule saying, “Fall’s coming, and so are book festivals around the country which will celebrate authors, community, creativity and literacy.” They’re a great time to see what’s new in books and speak with some of the authors. The article includes a list of 42 locations including city, dates, website information, and contacts for publishers and booksellers. Here are just a few of the earliest sites:

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Decatur Book Festival
Atlanta, Georgia – Aug. 31 to Sept. 2

Central Coast Book and Author Festival
San Luis Obispo, California – Sept. 8

Montana Festival of the Book
Missoula, Montana – Sept. 13 to 15

Wyoming Book Festival
Cheyenne, Wyoming – Sept. 15

Brooklyn Book Festival
Brooklyn, New York – Sept. 16

Fall for the Book Literary Festival
Fairfax, Virginia – Sept. 23 to 28

West Texas Book & Music Festival
Abilene, Texas – Sept. 25 to 29

Baltimore Book Festival
Baltimore, Maryland – Sept. 28 to 30

Georgia Literary Festival
Blue Ridge, Georgia – Sept. 28 to 30

South Dakota Festival of Books
Deadwood, South Dakota – Sept. 28 to 30

National Book Festival
Washington, D.C. – Sept. 29

Santa Barbara Book & Author Festival
Santa Barbara, California – Sept. 29

The Latino Book & Family Festivals
Houston, Texas – Sept. 29 to 20
Los Angeles, California – Oct. 12 to 14
Chicago, Illinois – Nov. 10 to 11

Orange County Children's Book Festival
Costa Mesa, California – Sept. 29 to 30

West Hollywood Book Fair
Los Angeles, California – Sept. 30

See the Publishers Weekly article for the rest of the locations and festival details.

Neopets Gets New Line of Books in 2008

2007-07-30T22:55:00.000-04:00

Good news for anyone like my daughter who loves Neopets! According to The Book Standard, “HarperCollins Publishers has teamed up with Neopets, an online pet site for tweens, to create a new line of books based on the company's virtual world of Neopia where users create and care for a "Neopet." According to Neopets, there are more than 40 million registered members of the Neopets website worldwide.”

Their first works will include illustrated novels, puzzle and game books, a how-to-draw book, and a field guide to Neopets, all with links back to the Neopets website. It all debuts in the fall of 2008.

I honestly didn’t think Neopets would last long, coming on the heels of the Pokemon and Digimon fads, but they continue strong today in the online world. It makes a lot of sense for them to expand beyond the Internet into traditional publishing. Neopets fans are dedicated and they spend a long time collecting their favorite Neopets and interacting in the Neopet world. This will help them extend that.

Two More Translations of War and Peace Coming This Fall

2007-07-26T00:23:00.000-04:00

Just what the world needs, two more translations of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace! According to Publishers Weekly (PW) there are already at least a dozen English translations, and “Just last year, Viking published a translation by Anthony Briggs that PW called ‘the most readable version on the market.’" Now Ecco (Harper Collins) will publish a version coming out September 4 and Knopf (Random House) will publish another one coming out October 16.

Why add two more to the confusing list of tomes? Says PW, “Ecco is calling its edition, translated by Andrew Bromfield, War and Peace: Original Version. It is essentially Tolstoy's first draft. Knopf contends that Ecco’s version is not the finished classic readers know. Ecco maintains its edition is more reader-friendly than Knopf's, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, because it is shorter and more ‘narrative.’"

Really now, how can one choose a version to read? That's just too many choices without an educated speculation or someone's highly educated recommendation. I wouldn't know which to read, which represents a lot of pages to get bogged down in if I've made a poor choice. What's the value in adding two more volumes? Anyone knowledgeable enough about these two authors to know what they add to the story that already exists on War and Peace?

Amazon’s Second-Quarter Earnings More Than Tripled!

2007-07-25T12:28:00.000-04:00

Just when you thought pre-selling 1.6 million Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows books was as good as the news gets for online retailer Amazon.com, along comes second quarter earnings figures.

According to MSNBC.com today, “Amazon.com Inc.’s second-quarter profit more than tripled, boosted by strong sales of books, music and electronics worldwide. Earnings for the three months ended June 30 climbed to $78 million, or 19 cents per share, from $22 million, or 5 cents per share during the same period last year, the company said Tuesday.”

The Book Standard today quoted Amazon.com founder and CEO explaining, "Our strong revenue growth this quarter was fueled by low prices and the added convenience of Amazon Prime. More and more customers are taking advantage of Amazon Prime and we're pleased with the acceleration in subscriber growth this quarter." They have more details on the earnings figures, too.

Second quarter earnings don’t take into account the phenomenal sales of the final Harry Potter book, which actually occurred in the third quarter and are expected to bring in approximately $3 billion in sales.

Amazon.com seems to be doing everything right. Although I’ve heard grumblings from some quarters that Amazon’s service isn’t always on par with the local bookstore, I’ve never had anything to complain about. Used properly and intelligently they are like any online retailer that allows you to maximize the searching and shopping power of the Internet and home delivery of products you don’t need immediately. When I know what I want and I don’t need it right at that moment, I order it on Amazon.com. Or if I don’t know what I want but I know what to search for, I find it on Amazon.com. Where I find most value in the local bookstore is browsing or putting my hands on something now. Plus, the valuable assistance of an experienced bookseller helping me find something in his or her section.

Of course, if you’ve had a bad experience with Amazon, you can always order on one of the multiple other online bookstores: Alibris, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Powell Books, etc. They all give you the power to be your own bookseller.

Potter Book and Audio Set Sales Records

2007-07-23T17:32:00.000-04:00

Sales of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows set records on both sides of the Atlantic this past weekend. According to Publishers Weekly, publisher Scholastic sold 8.3 million copies in the first 24 hours in the U.S., while Bloomsbury sold 2.65 million copies in the U.K. in the first 24 hours. The audio version also set a record in the U.S. selling an estimated 225,000 copies, a 40% increase over Half-Blood Prince.

Independent booksellers in the U.S. reported brisk sales, with scattered reports of sell-outs! Apparently Scholastic limited the number of books that independents could order based on past Potter sales. The independent I frequent had a smallish display left for sale Saturday morning after a busy event Friday night, although tickets are sold for the Friday night event, from which book distribution are dependent, are sold well in advance. This independent actually is one of four stores, and I don't know how many copies the other three stores have on-hand.

Potter Pages Magically Disappear?

2007-07-23T17:20:00.000-04:00

Better skip ahead in your Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at least to make sure pages aren’t missing. Publisher’s Weekly reports some copies of the newly released book in Vermont were missing pages 643-674. Some copies in New York skipped from page 642 to 707 to 730, then went back to page 675 and then to the end. Ah, what a wicked web we weave when first we practice to … uh … kill Harry Potter to return to power through arrogant displays of … oh, it was just a printing error!

Potter Goes Postal

2007-07-21T13:18:00.000-04:00

After all that, our copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows finally arrived by U.S. Postal Service! Amazon.com sent it via UPS to the U.S. Post Office to deliver it to our home! Fortunately, our mail arrives mid-morning these days and the wait wasn't very long, but a few months ago we would have had to wait till late afternoon, and that would have been unbearable for my wife. And to make matters worse, we would have been looking for the wrong deliverer all day, expecting it to arrive by UPS. As our royal cousins in London might say, "We are not amused."

Okay, okay, at least it got here as guaranteed! Let's have some perspective.

Although I brought the box directly to my dear wife to open and coddle, she handed it back to me and said, "No, dear, you go ahead and read the final chapter first." I'm not a Potter fanatic and all I'm really interested in is ending all the speculation about how the story ends. Who lives, who dies, and who got it all wrong. So I told my wife weeks ago that when she got the book I would only read the final chapter. So that's what I did, although I read both the last chapter and the epilogue to get the full effect. I won't spoil it for anyone, but suffice it to say, I think it was a good ending and a fitting conclusion to the series as I understand it in my limited perspective. It had its surprises for everyone, I think. Even reading just the last chapter I learned a lot about what happened before it.

As a writer and general reader, let me say I really enjoyed Rowling's writing in this chapter. I wasn't able to read her first book because I didn't like the style, and I have stayed away from the five previous books because of it. I may have to reaccess now that I've tasted this final book and liked it. Which reminds me of a new rule I created a few years back. I didn't want to see the movie Babe when it first came to theaters because I didn't want to see a movie about a darned pig. That turns out to have been a mistake. When the movie came out on tape my daughter rented it and forced me to watch it, and I discovered what a silk purse it was hiding in a sow's ear, if you will allow a pun-ish metaphor. I was so taken with it, I came up with a new life's rule never to let my prejudices against mud-snuggling beasts keep me from enjoying a movie (or a book) again. A similar rule may apply to books by authors whose writing may at first glance appear childish, trite, and silly -- maybe the style will grow with the subject and the audience as it appears to have with HP. (I'm projecting way ahead of the curve here, since I haven't tried reading any of the other books yet.) My motto is, learn from every experience. Let's see what I learn when I walk away from this keyboard...

Amazon Arranges with UPS to Deliver on Saturday

2007-07-19T16:01:00.001-04:00

I spoke with Amazon.com today about their guarantee of delivery of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by July 21, which is Saturday. I pre-ordered HP for my wife on Sunday, which is in time for the guarantee, and I received an e-mail letting me know my pre-order was being readied for shipment via UPS. Then I remembered that UPS doesn't usually deliver on Saturdays! So I alerted them to call me (they have this very tight new technology that has them call me when I'm ready ... now ... in 5 min. ... in 10 min. ... in 15 min). The nice voice on the other end of the phone assured me that Amazon had a special arrangement with UPS to deliver Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to readers this Saturday as promised. So in case you were worried, it's been taken care of.

To try their Amazon.com's call technology, you need to go to Amazon Help and look for the Contact Us box on the righthand side with the Customer Service button inside. You'll have to log in. Let me know what you think.

Harry Potter’s Reviews and Release Missteps

2007-07-19T15:44:00.000-04:00

Two U.S. newspapers have published reviews of the seventh and final Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows ahead of the official release of the book. One review is in The New York Times and the other is in The Baltimore Sun.

Without giving away much detail about the book or its ending, both reviews concluded the ending was fitting. Said the Baltimore Sun article, “Suffice it to say, though, that once you have consumed the final sentence on the final page crafted by Rowling, the ending seems inevitable. It is a tribute to the author's consummate storytelling skills that once the pieces fall into place, it all seems rather obvious. No other outcome would have been as plausible.”

Books Get Out Despite Tight Security

According to a story on MSNBC.com, “The New York Times review, which appeared overnight, said its copy was purchased from a New York City store on Wednesday, while the Baltimore Sun said it obtained a hard copy of the book ‘through legal and ordinary means.’”

I mentioned in an article a couple of days ago (see below) that publishers are keeping an eye open for early release of the Harry Potter books and that this isn’t unusual for publishers in major book releases. They in fact take bookstores to court for violating agreements to hold books back to agreed upon “lay down dates.” It seems that Scholastic, the U.S. publisher of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is suing an online bookseller and its distributor for, according to The New York Times, “‘ flagrant violations of their strict contractual obligations’ not to ship copies of ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ before 12:01 a.m. Saturday, the time and date set by the publisher.” This is happening in Illinois and involves DeepDiscount.com and its distributor, Levy Home Entertainment. Scholastic accuses DeepDiscount.com of shipping copies of the book to customers up to a week before the on-sale date.

Since The New York Times obtained its copy from a New York City bookstore before the release date, I wouldn’t be surprised to find some legal action taken in that jurisdiction.

Potter Doesn't Turn Fans into Faithful Readers?

2007-07-18T15:48:00.000-04:00

Remember the story when the Harry Potter books first became popular that they were turning children into more faithful readers? Turns out that may be urban legend. According to an article in The New York Times on July 11, “as the series draws to a much-lamented close, federal statistics show that the percentage of youngsters who read for fun continues to drop significantly as children get older, at almost exactly the same rate as before Harry Potter came along.” What turns kids into good readers isn’t one good series of stories – that’s actually called fandom or hero worship. No, what turns kids – or adults – into good readers is the love of good stories in general: Good plots, imaginative settings, worthy themes, memorable characters, and brilliant storytelling. It was silly to expect one series of books to turn children into readers as if by … well … magic.

Children become sustained readers when they move beyond Harry Potter – to discover other series with equally compelling characters and well written narratives, to find suspenseful adventures or interesting biographies or compelling histories or spellbinding fantasies. We can encourage and nurture the trend if we remove the distractions and interruptions, like blaring TVs, incessant iPods, and spellbinding Xboxes and give words on pages a chance to sink in and do their “magic.” It’s when that magic has a chance to grab hold of the imagination and the child is given the chance to manipulate it him or her self that the child embraces reading long term.

Alexander Dumas' Lost "The Last Cavalier" Coming in October

2007-07-17T23:56:00.000-04:00

If you’re an Alexander Dumas fan revel in the news. A lost work rediscovered and published in France in 2005 is coming to the United States in October, according to Publishers Weekly (PW). According to PW, “The Last Cavalier was found at the National Library in Paris two years ago by longtime Dumas scholar Claude Schopp.” PW further said, “The novel, which he said is very much in the vein of classic Dumas—it’s a revenge story set during the Napoleonic era.” The initial first printing by publisher Pegasus Books is set at 10,000. 752 pages.

Amazon.com lists The Last Cavalier as available September 12, 2007, but you can pre-order now. The description is quite exciting.

Book Recommendation: Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar

2007-07-17T11:01:00.000-04:00

I’ve only read the introduction and the first few pages of chapter 1, and I can already tell you, Ya gotta read Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar… by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein.

What attracted me to this smallish book was the crazy title, which immediately caught my eye from the new books table at my local bookstore. What got me to buy the book was the mixture of jokes and philosophies that produced them. Yeah, jokes aren’t just about being funny, they’re about ideas and attitudes and points of view. This book looks at the two together, as its subtitle explains: “Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes.” It’s a trip for your mind through your funny bone.

I’ll give a fuller review when I have finished the book, but I wanted to give you a heads up on what looks to me like a good summer read, an easy way to expand your mind while having a good time.

By the way, this week it’s number 13 on the New York Times Bestsellers list!

"Tintin in the Congo" Gets Graphic Novel Treatment at Borders

2007-07-17T08:47:00.000-04:00

An illustrated children’s book from the 1930s, Tintin in the Congo, controversial for its outdated racial stereotyping, is about to take a seat with the graphic novels at a major bookstore chain – Borders, this according to a story on MSNBC.com. I disagree with this decision even as much as I admire Borders for a lot of other things they do.

Tintin in the Congo is one of 23 books by author-cartoonist Herge, the pen name of Georges Remi, being reissued to mark his centennial. The other books in the series will remain in the childrens book section.

If you’re familiar with the graphic novels section of the bookstore, you know it’s full of superhero fiction, books on Japanese anime characters, and books of Japanese anime "sexploitation." Depending on where Borders places this book, be careful if you take the kids with you to find it. It may be in a general display area or it may be closer to the sexploitation (because of its controversy) area. I have a feeling it will be in the former, which is usually closer to the superhero area, but be forewarned that the other exists.

Here’s my problem with this tactic: Tintin in the Congo isn’t a graphic novel, it’s a children’s book. It was written and illustrated long, long ago at a time when people had horrible ideas about the races. According to the MSNBC.com article, “Remi depicts the white hero’s adventures in the Congo against the backdrop of an idiotic, chimpanzee-like native population that eventually comes to worship Tintin — and his dog — as gods.” I believe the publisher has taken a more responsible approach, which is to reissue the book with an explanation in the preface that puts the racism in context. Instead of sequestering the book in graphic novels, why not create a display in the children’s books section that highlights how times and views have changed and the fact that Remi was actually embarrassed by this book and later editions were changed to omit offensive material. Use it as an educational piece instead of hiding it away!

Our society so loves to punish that it often fails to change the offensive behavior for which the punishment is administered. Take the case of Don Imus. I am not a fan of Mr. Imus and I am definitely not an apologist for him. What he said that got him fired from MSNBC-TV and CBS Radio was offensive and insensitive and stupid. But what if instead of firing him, his bosses had forced him during his suspension from the air to travel around the country hosting a public panel discussion on racism? What if he were forced to face the actual people he had offended in an open and frank discussion in a dozen or more libraries, churches, or auditoriums? What if he discussed the words he had used and their actual meaning? Their origins. Who has the right to use them (if anyone?). Who the people were he was talking about when he used them. Who he is in relation to the community of people he offended. Who else uses those words and whether or not they have the right to use them. What is one’s responsibility versus one’s right of free speech. And so on. Exposure to all this would have given him a whole different perspective and change in view that firing him outright never will, and we would have had a dialogue on racism that we aren’t having now.

In the same way, hiding this book in graphic novels is going keep the book from offending some people, but it’s never going to address the issue of racism and its roots in the 1930’s culture the book sprang from. And we will never learn from those mistakes.

Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat Is Releasing in Paperback

2007-07-16T13:46:00.001-04:00

Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat is releasing in trade paperback on July 24, according to Publisher’s Weekly. It’s actually the second revision of the very popular book since its debut in April 2005. Why buy the paperback version? Besides being popular with anyone not willing to pay for the hardcover version, the paperback has been updated. Says PW, “The new edition offers two new chapters, one covering the spread of disinformation via the Web, and the second about the use of the Internet for activism. There’s a new 35-page conclusion and, promises the publisher, all the statistics are revised.”

Harry Potter Books Have Shipped for B&N Stores

2007-07-16T13:35:00.000-04:00

Barnes & Noble starts shipping copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to its stores today, according to The Book Standard. Meanwhile, 700 of their stores will be holding parties for the official release of the book. Oh, the magic and mayhem!

You can still pre-order your copy at Amazon for delivery by July 21 (see article below) -- barely. But honestly, with the record-breaking first printing I'm having a hard time believing you won't be able to walk into your favorite bookstore on July 21 (not right after midnight ... early the morning of the 21st) and get a copy off the shelf or off a special display. When I worked at a bookstore, hundreds showed up for the other parties, stood in line to get their copy just past midnight, then the next morning we had plenty of copies to sell to those patient enough to wait. In fact, we had plenty for months after. One year, my sister pre-ordered hers on Amazon and actually got it before the midnight partygoers got theirs!

Bookstore Sales Are Down -- But Is Reading?

2007-07-16T13:30:00.000-04:00

Bookstore sales in May 2007 were down compared with a year ago, says an article in today’s The Book Standard, quoting a decrease of 0.4 percent from a report by the U.S. Census Bureau. The same article said bookstore sales for the year so far are down as are sales for the entire retail sector. The figures do not take into account online book sales.

The key here, I think, is the last sentence. Bookstores are taking a beating from online stores -- in addition to all the other distractions that keep people from reading in the first place. TV, theaters, and especially the Internet. The good news for the book industry is that reading on a monitor is hard work and tiring, whereas reading a book isn't so much so.

How to Find Your Next Good Read (and your next...)

2007-07-13T23:47:00.000-04:00

When I worked at a bookstore, people occasionally asked for reading suggestions. The problem with that is that everyone’s taste is different and not everyone is up on all the new books. In fact, there are so many new books published each year, it would be impossible to keep them all in mind. Plus, there are always little gems hidden in among the swell of okay-reads that pass through bookstores all the time, and those are usually passed along as readers discover them, not as they’re hyped. So I have a better suggestion.

BookSense is a group of independent booksellers, and they have a Web site. The site includes reading picks (recommendations) by independent booksellers from across America. Booksellers are the people who work in the bookstores and keep the shelves full. They read a lot and they know what’s popular as well as what’s new. Because they work for independent bookstores, they are less pressed to push particular authors and they are usually closer to their clientele, more loyal to reader tastes and more aware of what readers like. Independent booksellers have a closer read on the reader’s pulse and the market of good books, IMHO. Consulting BookSense for a book recommendation taps into the wisdom of thousands of knowledgeable bibliophiles. The Web site also includes a store locator for independent bookstores associated with BookSense, in case you’d like to visit a store and talk to a bookseller in person.

So, look at the reading recommendations on the BookSense Web site. Consider those in addition to sources like newspaper bestsellers lists, online bookstore bestsellers lists, magazine Best 100 Books lists, book award lists, and various critical book reviews. Online bookstores also offer the “if you bought this you might also like this” or “readers who purchased so and so also bought this…”, although that isn’t always reliable. A better option is to go to your local bookstore(s) to see what the book clubs are reading. If you have access to cable TV or satellite TV and C-SPAN2 over the weekend, watch BOOK TV for non-fiction author interviews and coverage of book fairs (or consult the BOOK TV Web site).

What I wouldn’t necessarily consider is what bookstores highlight on their end caps and shelves. Why? Part of the display is hype, part of it is mere positioning, part of it is art, and part of it is filler. I’d also take with a “grain of salt” the recommendation tags bookstores put on their shelves (“I’d recommend…”), because sometimes that’s hype rather than true, heartfelt passion about a book. Sometimes.

Often, the best recommendation is that of a friend or relative or colleague whose opinion you hold in high regard. Someone whose taste is sound in books, movies, music, television, and other “artistic” forms.

If you’re going to lone it in the store, browsing for instance, I wouldn’t buy based on the book jacket or leaf. It can be a good guide to storyline, but it is hardly an objective view of the quality of the read. I always fan through the pages and pick a few at random, reading a few passages to see how well the book is written, getting a feel for the plot and dialogue, and discerning if I can stand to read a whole book of the author’s prose. That’s always the best test.

Good luck! Tell me how you find good reads.

There's Magic After Potter

2007-07-13T17:10:00.000-04:00

If you’re a Harry Potter fan and you know you’ll go through Potter withdrawal when you finish the seventh – and final – book coming out July 21, then consider another seven-part British kid-wizard series: Septimus Heap. Three books of the series have been published since their debut in March of 2005, the first being Magyk, published by HarperCollins Children’s Books. The other two are Flyte and Physik. All are written by British author Angie Sage.

If you like your fiction in the form of movies, fear not. Warner Brothers Studios has picked up the rights to this series, according to The Book Standard. Read all about it.

My wife, Kate, is a Potter fan but after the ordeal of waiting for J.K. Rowling to finish seven books vowed never to get involved with an unfinished series again. Still, when I told her about the Septimus Heap series, she sighed and said, “I should take a look.” She does love ‘er wizards, ‘Arry.

Why Are Book Publishers So Afraid of Used Books?

2007-07-11T16:37:00.000-04:00

Did you know that 49% of people who purchased a book online in the last year bought a used book? Alibris commissioned a study back in November, and that’s what their study found. This according to a story in Publisher’s Weekly run in April titled “For Better or Worse, Used Book Sales Grow.”

That number amazes me. Used book stores are never busy, certainly never as busy as the new book stores I visit. The used book sections of new book stores are never as busy as the new book sections, either.

However, it does explain why a local independent bookstore (Schuler Books) has recently decided to add a used book section at two of its brick and mortar locations. They only involve a couple of bookshelves, not a whole section of each store, but still they are devoting space and resources to them. And Barnes and Noble has a good-sized used book section in one of our local stores.

So what’s the story on used books? It makes good sense. The stories won’t have changed just because someone bought and read the book already. The words haven’t gotten old and fallen off the page. And by buying a “pre-owned” book, you’re saving the slaying of a tree to print a new one, plus some space at the local landfill where it would have lain dormant as it slowly decayed. And handling someone’s used book isn’t like wearing someone’s used underwear or smearing on someone’s used deodorant or biting someone’s used dentures. No, most people care well for their books and pass them along lovingly in good condition like a favorite suit or a beloved car. Better, in fact. Many read the book only once and then it sits unscathed on the shelf looking for a new companion. My experience with used books is that unless it’s from the public library, where it passes through many careless hands, a used book is usually in prime condition and as worthy for purchase as a new book.

That may explain why online retailers do a better business in used books than bricks and mortar stores. Amazon.com, Alibris.com, and Abebooks.com, for instance. Roughly 25% to 30% of their sales are used books. Part of that may be that you don’t initially realize you’re buying a used book when you order it. Part of it may be that you want an out-of-print book and the only way to get it is to buy it used. And part of it may be that with everything discounted, saving because it’s used isn’t as apparent as it might otherwise be.

Perhaps that’s why book publishers are so afraid of used-book sales: Why pay full price for new when half price for used will do?

Books by Cellphone? Thanks, Borders!

2007-07-10T12:19:00.001-04:00

Something useful may be coming soon to your cellphone: According to MarketingWeek, "Borders is to become the world's first bookseller to distribute content to mobile phones. The retailer will send sample chapters to customers' phones free of charge before books are released and a the book can then be purchased in-store for a discount of up to 20% using a barcode." The article didn't say whether this will happen in the U.S., the UK, or where.

Here's my suggestion to Borders and publishers: Send the text from book jackets and leafs. Cellphones are not a good format for book pages! Maybe a few sample paragraphs, but not pages! I guess I'll take a wait-and-see attitude before I fully judge, but I can't imagine wading through all that text on a small screen. Even an iPhone is going to make reading a book on a screen very hard (see article below).

Still, I like the idea of receiving book recommendations on my cellphone. Maybe as an e-mail that I receive by way of my cellphone.

I couldn't find confirmation of this story on any Borders Stores Web sites, which is curious.

Security Tight for Arrival of New Harry Potter Book

2007-07-10T11:05:00.000-04:00

"The release of J.K. Rowling’s last outing with her creation at one minute past midnight on Saturday July 21, will be the culmination of the most fraught operation in publishing history," says The Book Standard. "Boxes have been chained shut, barbed wire has been uncoiled and satellite tracking systems for delivery vans have been double-checked," says London's Times. Book stores across the world probably haven't received their shipments of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows yet, but when they do their bulky cardboard boxes will likely be padlocked into secure rooms where even staff won't see them until the magical moment of release arrives.

Lest you think you can collar a bookseller the day before the big event -- or even an hour before -- to sneak off with your copy to avoid the crowds, don't even think about it. Booksellers are bound by contract to wait until just after midnight on July 21 to release to the public.

If a store breaks such a contract with a publisher, they face lawsuits and stiff fines -- possibly even blacklisting -- from the publisher! Every big release book comes with what the book industry calls its "lay down date." That's the first date the store can put the book out on public display for view or sale. That's why when you ask your favorite bookseller about an upcoming new book and they tell you it's coming out "tomorrow" and you ask if they will kindly sell it to you today, the answer is always no.

By the way, I see that Amazon.com will allow pre-order of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by noon ET on July 17 for "release-date delivery". Barnes and Noble requires pre-order by July 16 for July 21st delivery in the contiguous 48 U.S. states.

Books on iPhone?

2007-07-09T21:30:00.000-04:00

"Publishers Ponder Putting E-books on iPhone" says the headline in a Publisher's Weekly article. "Not so fast!", says Apple. Publishers are interested, but Apple has plenty on its plate already with this year's most popular consumer electronic device, just released. Said PW in today's article, "Book publishers have been resistant to digital reading in the past, and text just doesn't show off the iPhone's multimedia functionality the way full-motion video and color photographs can. So book publishers will have to wait their turn. Nevertheless, publishers said that while Apple has yet to approach them about content, that day is coming."

I have my serious doubts about this as a format for books. Although I have yet to put my hands on an iPhone, what I've seen in TV ads make me wince when I think of trying to read a book on one. Think about all that scrolling! You hate to scroll a Web page now, what are you going to do with a page of book text? Furthermore, Web paragraphs tend to be shorter and more compact; book paragraphs are longer, wider, and more dense. It's going to be Hell reading a book on any PDA or other electronic device. How will it handle various fonts? Will you need to scroll side to side as well as top to bottom? Will you be able to adjust font size to make text easier to read and how will that affect scrolling? Will you be able to light the surface to make it easier to read in the dark? Will your eyes get as tired reading the iPhone as it does a regular computer monitor screen, which is already tiring to read?

See where I'm headed? People will prefer reading a book on paper. Mark my works ... on paper.

Could Potter Plotter Make It Number 8?

2007-07-09T21:22:00.000-04:00

Never say never, say Harry Potter fans in the U.K. According to a story today in The Book Standard, ' "There has never been a writer like J.K. Rowling. And there has never, ever been a character like Harry Potter. Millions, perhaps billions of us love reading his adventures, and we never want them to end." The site hopes to get 1 million names on its petition before the July 21 release date of Deathly Hallows.' Their hope is that author J. K. Rowling will do what she's vowed not to do and write more Harry Potter stories after the release this month of book number 7.

Book Review: the beautiful miscellaneous by Dominic Smith

2007-06-23T12:11:00.000-04:00

I like an eclectic range of books, including stories about science, so the beautiful miscellaneous by Dominic Smith seemed to be a good bet when I saw it in the bookstore. I skimmed its pages before buying it and I was intrigued by the description on the jacket leaf.

It started off slowly for me, but soon I was engaged in the storyline, fascinated by the characters and the basic plotline. But then little details got in the way. For instance, Nathan, the main character, and his father go to Manitoba to observe a solar eclipse. Nathan says, “We watched the moon drift toward the rising sun.” That’s not possible. The moon moves between the Earth and the Sun so the dark side of the moon faces the Earth. Nathan wouldn’t have been able to see the moon move toward the sun! A nit? Perhaps. However, Nathan lives in Wisconsin somewhere near Madison, yet his descriptions suggest nothing unique to that area, so it could have been almost anywhere. Other parts of his description seem spot-on, so why not in these areas, too?

In the story, Nathan is in an accident and dies briefly. He comes back to life but lives in a coma for a time, then returns to consciousness. In doing so, he is given a new gift. It is in this description that author Dominic Smith shows his greatest gifts as a writer and where I found the most enjoyable reading. The center of the book contains some pretty amazing imagery, some very fine writing.

The basic story is about the conflict between Nathan and his father, and his parent’s desire to have a son with gifts of genius. When he receives gifts of genius, Nathan has been so resentful of his parents that he can’t focus on using the gifts productively but peters them away on self-indulgent flights of fantasy during which there is no personal growth. In this respect, the beautiful miscellaneous becomes a “coming of age” story, although I don’t think a very uplifting one.

I expected some revelation at the end of the book, some epiphany for Nathan. It never comes. In fact, the ending was personally disappointing for me. A huge build up that flattens out into nothing. I wish I could say it was otherwise.

Update:

I wrote to Dominic Smith about the lunar eclipse problem and he said he would change it for the paperback printing.

Book Review: His Brother’s Keeper by Jonathan Weiner

2007-03-24T10:23:00.000-04:00

Jonathan Weiner is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Beak of the Finch. He’s a great writer, and you will see why in His Brother’s Keeper. That’s one of many reasons to read this book, chosen by The New York Times as one of the 100 Notable Books of 2004.

This is the story of the Heywood family: Mom Peggy, Dad John, oldest son Jamie and his wife Melinda, middle son Stephen and his fiancé Wendy, and youngest brother Ben. They come from the Boston area, but the story moves to San Francisco and back, visits the Outer Banks of North Carolina, Providence, Philadelphia, New York, places in New Zealand, and elsewhere where the family pursues its archenemy, ALS (aka Lou Gehrig Disease), which the family learns Stephen has. The book centers around Stephen’s battle against time and Jamie’s obsession to find a cure.

Although we see the family in youth, the real story takes place in their adulthood long after families should have split up and people gone their separate ways. Jamie takes after his Dad and is an engineer. Stephen, like most middle sons, refuses to be “his father’s son” and becomes a self-employed carpenter. Ben, initially an engineer, goes back to school to learn the film industry. About the time Stephen moves to San Francisco to rebuild a dilapidated old house, Jamie moves out, too, and changes career: He goes to work for a prestigious bioengineering institute, which turns out to be very timely, for it is then that Stephen finds out he has ALS.

Author Weiner begins his relationship with the Heywoods while researching an article for The New Yorker magazine. He visits with them many times over a couple of desperate years and he becomes hooked on their struggle. He, in fact, becomes so involved it’s too hard to remain objective as a writer. Weiner’s mother has a brain disease at this same time and he finds he has far more in common with the Heywoods and their search for a cure than he could have ever imagined.

I’ll warn you, I read this story slowly because I kept waiting for time to run out and Stephen to die. I kept waiting to receive the bad news and read about the devastation of the family and the writer. Weiner kindly saves you that misery. What I did read about was a brother who cared so much about his brother that he dropped everything else he was doing to do research, created a non-profit company, engaged doctors and scientists, found potential ideas to pursue, conducted fundraising, and brought all the right people to the appropriate tables to make things happen. The family was always there to support him.

In many ways, this story reads like a thriller. ALS is the bad guy ready to do someone in and Jamie is the detective in pursuit trying to stop what he knows he has limited time to avoid. Will he piece the clues together in time? Who is getting in his way? We know who the bad guy is and we see him plotting out his attack, slowly over time thwarting what authorities try to do to circumvent him.
You will also learn a lot about ALS, the search for a cure, genetic research, and the character of the people behind the effort to stop an indecent murderer. Especially one very driven brother. His Brother’s Keeper is a good read for all these reasons.

Find other Jonathan Weiner books

Harry Potter to Go Green..er

2007-03-22T13:27:00.000-04:00

According to Scholastic Inc., Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J. K. Rowling's seventh and final installment in the world-popular series, will be printed in the U.S. to meet tighter environmental standards. This according to an Associated Press story released on MSNBC.com today ( See "Final Potter book goes easier on trees").

The paper used for printing will be comprised of nearly a third of post-consumer waste fiber (environmentalese for "recycled paper"). And a limited-run deluxe edition of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be printed on entirely post-consumer waste fiber paper.

Considering Scholastic will do 12 million copies on the first printing, that could save a lot of trees. Congratulations to whoever at Scholastic made the decision.

Book Review: The Places in Between by Rory Stewart

2007-03-17T11:00:00.000-04:00

Read The Places in Between by Rory Stewart expecting not great personal insights or expansive vistas. Be wowed by the accomplishment of survival of the most brutal of individual journeys.

Afghanistan is a bleak, poor, hopeless place where feudalism still reigns. It was here that Al Qaeda found a home from which to attack America in 2001 under the protection of The Taliban. In swift retaliation, America attacked Al Qaeda and defeated The Taliban. Left behind were a barely civilized population of people, four basic cultures spread across hundreds of miles of barren, cold land, ravaged by centuries of invasion, war, subjugation, and occupation. They do not trust their neighboring villages let alone outside visitors.

Against this backdrop, in January 2002, Rory Stewart, a Scottish historian and writer, decided to walk from Herat in the west to Kabul in the east. I still don’t know what drove him other than a desire to come to terms with himself, although this story doesn’t address that well. Stewart was actually completing a leg of a much larger walking journey of this part of the world. His footpath through Afghanistan, single-minded and determined, is brutal and demanding. His writing, though in narrative form, is a journal of struggle and observation. This was no trek of whimsy – he cheated death many times and in many ways. What was breathtaking was not the vistas nor the epiphanies, but getting through at the end – walking through his front door at home in the UK.

Don’t expect to close the pages of The Places in Between thinking, “I want to make that walk someday.” Expect instead to breathe a sigh of relief and think, “If it was a necessary walk, I’m glad he took it and I’m glad it’s over!” Yet, also expect to understand why the war in Afghanistan has been such a struggle for America, as it was for Russia before us and the invaders and occupiers before them.

Moore's A Dirty Job Wins The Quill Book Award

2006-10-12T21:39:00.000-04:00

Exciting news for Christopher Moore fans: His recent novel, A Dirty Job, just won The Quill Book Award for General Fiction. His competition for this category included

I have always considered Moore a humor writer, so I was surprised that A Dirty Job was included in the General Fiction category, but if you look at the competition in the humor category you'll see Moore's book would be out of place. He was among very distinguished company in General Fiction.

My heartfelt congratulations to Moore. I am a fan of his writing. Truth be told, I had just begun reading A Dirty Job recently (before the award was announced) and I look forward to finishing it even more now. He's a great writer and a wonderful story teller. Let the winning of this award be one more reason for you to pick up a copy and read it!

The Quill Book Award results announcement

Book Review: A Sense of the World by Jason Roberts

2006-10-06T13:12:00.000-04:00

Believe it or not, there was a time not long ago when you couldn’t see every square inch of the Earth from a satellite…and access it from a Web page on the Internet. In fact, vast parts of our world not only weren’t known, they hadn’t even been explored by “civilized” men and women. That began to change in 18th century and reached a climax in the 20th century. Somewhere in the middle, a man with vision but no sight took it upon himself to visit the world’s unvisited places, and A Sense of the World is his amazing story. It’s very intriguing reading!

I love adventure stories, simply revel in the sea adventures of Horatio Hornblower and that genre. James Holman (1786-1857) lived in that time, and he wasn’t some romanticized fictional character, but a living, breathing seafarer in the British Royal Navy. His personal goal was to see the world, and if he hadn’t gone blind in his 20’s I’m quite sure he would have done literally that. When he did go blind, he didn’t let that blindness get in his way. He lived a full, adventurous life, traveling alone – yes, alone – throughout Europe, Africa, Asia, Russia, Southeast Asia, Australia, South America, and the South Seas. Mr. Holman climbed mountains, including the fuming Mount Vesuvius, and he galloped on horses. He explored difficult terrain in the Australian outback through swamps and over difficult mountains. He rode a swollen river as ballast in a carriage and wandered through a miserable Russian swamp, but worst still, he fended off bandits and the bitter cold of a Russian winter. Then he suffered the indignity of being hauled back 5,000 miles across the entire Russian frontier for political reasons never explained to him, short of his goal of making across the entire country. All this on a small government stipend and no formal command of any of the languages he encountered.

The story of James Holman is nothing short of remarkable. The book’s subtitle well describes him: “How a blind man became history’s greatest traveler.” I highly recommend this book for those who enjoy reading history, biographies, travelogues, and adventures.

Book Review: Monkey Dancing by Daniel Glick

2006-07-06T09:31:00.000-04:00

I just finished reading Monkey Dancing by Daniel Glick. It's a great read for a lot of great reasons.

First, it's a great personal journey beyond grief. Daniel Glick had just been through a gut-wrenching divorce and then he lost his older brother, whom he admired but with whom he had not been much in contact, to cancer. The trip was cathartac and healing.

Second, it's a great family adventure. Daniel is a single dad and had just started to get used to the idea when he took his young daughter and just-teen son on a journey to strange and dangerous places. What a bonding experience.

Third, it was a learning experience. Daniel Glick is a world class journalist and he takes us on a trip to some of the most endangered habitats in the world. You meet the species and the people who live with them and endanger them.

Although the book can be whiney and preachy in places, it can also be wide-eyed and wonderful in others. It shares a passion for discovery and life, and opens the author's heart to the reader where you are free to explore to understand the man and the father and the human being who is trying to rediscover himself within a world beset by so much trouble -- of our own making and beyond our own control.

If I have a real complaint about the book, it's that it lacks pictures. This author has been around the world -- to exciting places -- and there are few pictures to show for it. The ones that are there are small and extremely muddy (fifth-generation copier muddy), and they focus on the author and his kids, so you see much less of them in the context of their locales, which is what their story is about. At one point early in the story, I had to go to the Internet to find pictures about Daintree National Park in Australia. His descriptions were terrific, but I desperately wanted to see where he had been! I hope if Mr. Glick ever republishes the book that he will consider lots more pictures -- bigger pictures, wider panoramas, and some color! Oh, and please leave the mud back in Cambodia!

The version I read was paperback -- maybe there was a better photo selection in a hardcover version?

I like adventure stories so I naturally gravitate to this kind of book. I was captivated by the tales told, the risks taken, the lessons learned, the journey accomplished, the growth achieved, and the life restored. I think you will, too, whether or not you like adventure stories.

Book Review: Naked Conversations by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel

2006-04-23T10:42:00.000-04:00

If you’re a blogger looking for a resource, Naked Conversations is it. If you’re a company looking for tips and hints, this is your book. But if you’re someone looking for advice on whether to blog, beware – this book sells and promotes as much as it informs.

True, Naked Conversations provides lots of case studies. It talks about companies that have turned around their image by blogging. It talks about companies that haven’t blogged or have allowed only limited blogging and have suffered for not fully embracing the blogosphere. But they don’t discuss companies that have blogged and suffered miserably from it. It is a consultant’s Pollyanna view provided by passionate weblog evangelists, hardly an objective view.

Still, this book, written primarily for businesses, provides lots of how-to kind of information, so it’s useful for commercial and well as non-commercial bloggers. So if you’ve already made the decision to blog or allow blogging, I highly recommend this book. If you’re still trying to decide, I’d say read this book, but don’t make it your only counsel. Enter “blogging” in the Amazon search box on my business book website to find more books on blogging.

See Editorial Reviews from Amazon.com and Publisher’s Weekly (scroll down below fold)

● Other books by Robert Scoble

The DaVinci Code Now in Paperback

2006-04-10T16:58:00.000-04:00

Great news! The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown is now available in paperback! It has taken way too long to move to the mass market size. The problem, of couse, was that the hardcover book topped the Best Seller list for so long -- more than two years! It's still number 2 on The New York Times list.

So all those good readers who were waiting for the smaller, less expensive size, it's here! Join the rest of the world in enjoying this great mystery/thriller, now only $7.99 at Amazon.com.

Q&A: Book dummies for book smarties

2006-04-02T15:16:00.000-04:00

Q: What is a “book dummy” and when should I use one?

A: A book dummy is an imitation book that you use on a shelf in place of a book you have pulled from the shelf. It helps keep the same pressure between books that was there before you removed the book, and it helps keep the shelf neat. In libraries, book dummies are sometimes used to show visitors that a book has been moved and where to find it, such as when a book is in use in a display or put aside for a group.

You should use a book dummy if you collect books or are otherwise concerned about maintaining the value of your books. In addition, you should use one if your shelves of books are part of the décor of your home or office, or if you entertain frequently in the room where you shelve your books. Unkempt shelves look sloppy and can be bad for book covers, bindings, and pages.

Book dummies are easy to make, or you can buy them from book suppliers.

How to do your own:

Option 1: Buy used books to serve as book dummies. Books from garage sales work well as long as they aren’t moldy – you don’t want mold to spread to your other books! Buy several different sizes to mimic the size of books on your shelves.
Option 2: Make one from sturdy cardboard, Styrofoam block, and tape. It should be the size and thickness of the standard book on your shelves. To make it look like a real book, buy a hardcover book at a garage or yard sale, remove the covers and binding, and bind them to your Styrofoam block.
Option 3: You can also simply use a block of wood the size and thickness of a book, or a block of Styrofoam, although these aren’t as aesthetically pleasing to the eye and will likely detract from the look of your book collection.

Where to buy:

Brodart Library Supplies & Furnishings
Powells.com online bookstore

Note: A “book dummy” is also a term used in the book business for a mockup of a new book. A designer will layout the book and its design in a “dummy”, much as an art director will do for a magazine issue. Don’t be surprised if you do a search for one kind of book dummy and find the other.

Igniting the Spiritual Imagination

2006-03-12T11:47:00.000-05:00

Today I want to briefly illuminate on a spectacular event that has recently unfolded. It’s the first hand-copied Bible in centuries* (since the early 1500s).

When the printing press was invented, the need to hand copy books fell to the wayside. Saint John’s Abbey and University in Minnesota teamed up with British calligrapher Donald Jackson to revive the practice this once “to ignite the spiritual imagination of believers throughout the world by commissioning a work of art that illuminates the Word of God for a new millennium.” In commissioning this work, the abbey and university took an extraordinary step in creating both a breathtaking work of art and bringing to the world the majesty of God’s hand-illuminated word.

As a lover of quality books (and as a Roman Catholic) I have been impressed at the incredible effort taken and devotion given as a talented team of artists and calligraphers set out to re-present the Word of God in so magnificent a work.

If you are devoted to books, it’s well worth a look. You can see pages and learn about the effort at the Saint John’s Bible website. You can also order a copy at the Saint John’s Bible Online Gift Shop. In addition, PBS aired a television program about the making of this new bible, part of which is available on the Saint John’s Bible site.

There will be seven volumes in all of handwritten text and illuminations. When I ordered my copy there was but the Gospels and Acts finished. I see today that The Psalms is available now, too. There is also a book about making the Bible, and you can order prints of some of the illuminations. You can actually view pages on the site.

One of the facts that impressed me was that the lead artist used red ink bought from a shop in England that had closed its doors hundreds of years ago! They also used gold leaf for some of the illustrations, and it was all produced on lamb-skin sheets of parchment that had to be hand-selected and hand-prepared. Copies for sale were printed on paper known to best display and preserve the work. Still, my copy was only $64.95 (plus tax and shipping)!

Why do I tell you about the Saint John’s Bible? Because it’s a rare tome and it exemplifies all the best of a published work – I wanted to share my excitement.

*Update: 4.09.06
In the first paragraph of this article, I said that this was the first hand-copied Bible in centuries. I believe I read that on a website that talked about the Saint John's Bible, although I haven't found it again yet. Regardless, this isn't the case. It doesn't diminsh from the amazing work and inspiration that went into the Saint John's Bible, but it does rob other similar works their due credit. I don't believe it was intentional, however.

To learn more, read about "The Pepper Bible." There are additional links in that article to other hand-lettered illuminated Bibles.

Update to February 15, 2006, article on author Christopher Moore

2006-03-08T10:36:00.000-05:00

Attention fans of humor writer Christopher Moore: I have good news! Chris is about to release his new book, A Dirty Job. He will be touring parts of the U.S. to promote the launch, and you are invited to attend. Chris will sign copies during the event, but if you can’t get to one of the locations, you can order a signed copy.

Details:

Book title: A Dirty Job
Book launch: March 21, 2006
Book tour schedule
Book’s first chapter for an advance read
Order a signed copy

For a personalized, signed copy, contact:

Mysterious Galaxy: e-mail orders@mystgalaxy.com or call their toll-free number, 800-811-4747
Books Inc: www.booksinc.net or 415-931-3633
Dreamhaven Books: http://www.dreamhavenbooks.com/moore.php

Writes Chris:
I look forward to seeing you on the road. We sort of ran out of dates and cities, so I’m going to try to pick up the South, Northeast, and Canada next year when my next one, You Suck: A Love Story comes out.

Hope you enjoy the new book.

Q&A: Cleaning up your act

2006-02-28T21:43:00.000-05:00

Q: What’s the best way to clean the covers of a book?

A: When I worked at a retail bookstore, we always used Goo Gone. It’s an orange-based cleaner that easily removes sticker glue, dirt, grime, sticky residue, and many other markings. However, it can’t fix bends, scrapes, curls, tears, or other physical damage. And never use it on inside pages, because it may soak into the paper and leave a stain.

Whatever you do, don’t use regular household cleaners, which can damage a book cover. And don’t apply any cleaner directly to the cover – apply it to a soft cloth and then wipe the cover with the treated rag, then dry with an unexposed part of the cloth.

Before treating the cover with any kind of cleaner, including Goo Gone, try wiping the cover with a slightly dampened soft cloth first. It may take away the grime without having to apply anything at all.

I've said a couple of times here to use a soft cloth. Lest you think I'm just trying to be fashionable, keep in mind that rough textures can wear the cloth on a hard cover and the edges of paperback covers. Soft cotton works great.

Q&A: To pre-read or not to pre-read

2006-02-21T14:31:00.000-05:00

Q: When should you read a book that a movie is based upon – before seeing the movie or after?

A: There is no right answer to this question. That’s because different people read books and see movies differently. The outcomes are rarely the same. So the real answer is, it's up to you. But here is my "professional" take on it:

I tried reading a book before seeing the movie and I was disappointed in the movie. Because the book can cover more and get more deeply involved in point of view and character development, not to mention the movie not always matching the book, I found myself criticizing the movie more and catching errors or discovering missing pieces of the story instead of simply enjoying the movie.

My best experience has come from seeing the movie and then reading the book. In that way, I get to enjoy the movie for its own sake, and then I read the book to either get more background or to see how the two were different. I’ve never felt disappointed in either version this way.
I bought the book The Constant Gardener in anticipation of seeing the movie first and then reading the book. But the movie didn’t stay in theaters very long and I didn’t get a chance to see it. Yet, I didn’t want to read the book first, so I waited for the movie to come out on DVD. It took much longer than I thought it would and the book languished on the shelf. The movie recently arrived at my favorite video store and I rented it – now I look forward to reading the book. The problem with my seeing the movie first is that I have had to wait to enjoy this great story. So it cuts both ways.

Q&A: Saving grace for saving your place

2006-02-18T09:38:00.000-05:00

Q: What’s the best way to save my place in a book?

A: Let’s start with the way not to save your place – folding over the corner of the page. It’s called a "dog ear," and it’s not good to do to a book just as it's not good to do to a dog. In addition, it reduces the value of the book.

I’m happy to say there are many better ways to save your place:

There’s the really inexpensive way – shove a piece of paper between the pages. It can be any piece of scrap lying around the room, or it can be a flyer, handout, or envelope. Just keep it thin and free of grease, oil, or ink that could taint the page.

Sometimes the bookstore will give you a paper bookmark, often in the form of an ad with store location, phone number, Web address, and hours. It will save your place as easily as any other method.

Bookstores also usually sell more ornate bookmarks made of varying materials like metal, paper, plastic. The best ones are laminated (to avoid tainting a page and to keep it nice looking). Metal will hold up nicely, but they can be thick (which could bend or curve pages) and they sometimes are made to attach, which will mark or damage the page. Some also will stick to the page, which could leave a smudge or other taint mark.

Ornate bookends make nice gifts and will usually serve the reader for some time. They’re available in lots of different styles, enough really to suit any reader’s personality or interest. Consider giving one for a birthday, anniversary, Easter, Christmas, Hanukkah, summer vacation, or at the same time you give that person a book.

More page-savers to avoid
I would also avoid using paper clips, alligator clips, page markers, or anything else not specifically designed for use in a book or that otherwise marks up a page.

Book Review: Lamb by Christopher Moore

2006-02-15T15:32:00.000-05:00

I first ran into author Christopher Moore reading Lamb, the imaginative and often irreverent story of Christ’s youth as narrated by his childhood best-bud, Biff.

I must say I have since been disappointed by some of his other works. In particular, The Stupidest Angel and Fluke. Moore is a great writer. I like his style and tone. His characters are always interesting, and his prose is vivid enough that you can really see the scenes as the stories progress. However, Moore is supposed to be a humor writer – yet there isn’t much humor in these other two books. They’re good stories, but I guess I set myself up hoping the other works would match what Moore had accomplished in Lamb. (Moreover, I can’t figure out why Moore titled the one work The Stupidest Angel – the angel, who appears in Lamb as well, actually has a minor role in this story. I call it The Strangest Title!)

So let me tell you why I liked Lamb. I first picked it up because I’ve always been curious about the early life of Jesus the Christ. I read the cover hype and was enthralled with the idea of Jesus Christ having a childhood best friend and wondered what he would have made of the savior of the world. I read a few passages from the book and was immediately hooked into the story.

Now, I wouldn’t read this book thinking it was in any way an accurate historical narrative. It’s fanciful to say the least. But Moore does provide substantative details about the people and the times. He weaves in words from scripture to suggest how Christ might have thought to use them in the final years of his life, lending a genuineness to the story, and he fits those last years into the tail of the narrative, giving it authenticity. Where the story wanders from reality is the trek Moore gives Christ in search of the three wise men from his birth to get answers about the meaning of his life (he asks his Father, who won’t say), and Christ’s supposed study of various religions from which he might have picked up some of his ides on life. Jesus (or Joshua in Aramaic) and Biff travel thousands of miles over many years through the Middle East, Asia, and India, then back to Judea just in time for the beginning of Christ’s ministry.

What I found compelling was Christ having a close friend early in his life. And I liked the occasional sarcasm Biff offers in the story and the way he sticks by his best friend even to the very difficult end. The picking up of words of scripture to pepper the story in a humorous but meaningful way also gives this story legs that get you from beginning to end and say, “Yeah, it could have happened this way.”

I highly recommend Lamb. It’s fun, it’s interesting, it’s a great tale. I wish I could say the same about Fluke and The Stupidest Angel – maybe I wouldn’t feel that way if I had read them first.

Reader Resources

See Editorial Reviews of Lamb from Amazon.com and Publisher’s Weekly (scroll down below fold)

● Other books by Christopher Moore
● Christopher Moore interview on Chrismoore.com

Book Review: Empire Falls

2006-02-12T11:57:00.000-05:00

HBO made a riveting two-part movie of Empire Falls by Richard Russo, a great narrative. They did the book justice, following it devotedly chapter by chapter. Still, as much as I liked the movie, I liked the book best.

Richard Russo is an excellent writer, as you’ll find in Empire Falls. You’ll relate to the interesting characters, enjoy the vivid descriptions of the town and the times, and reach the end caring deeply for this man of poor means and the people he interacts with every day of his otherwise rich life.

As I said, the book is filled with rich, vivid characters. There's the main character, who has spent his life trying to leave this sleepy, dying New England town only to be pulled back time and again, ultimately to run a diner owned but restrained by the town's richest family. And then there's his recently divorced wife who just wants to be loved -- she's about to marry the town's health club owner, a bombastic, self-assured health nut who has taken an irritating liking to the main character. Let's see, there's also the town matron who keeps a tight grip on the town that is her family's empire and who takes pleasure in putting down the main character. In flashbacks, you'll also meet her timid husband who once fell in love with the main character's wife but who takes his life when the main character was a child. Paul Newman won a Golden Globe this year by playing the main character's father, a listless, irresponsible, irrepressable, but certainly lovable scallawag who is less a dad and more an occasional houseguest. There is also the main character's brother who helps him run the restaurant, his daughter who loves her father and can't stand her mother or her mother's boyfriend, the main character's mother-in-law who appreciates him far more than her selfish daughter, and a retired priest who suffers from Alzheimers and can be counted on to say what he thinks however inappropriate and leaves town with the main character's father and the parish's cash. They all breathe life to this memorable narrative that seems long until you get to the last page and wish it could go on and on.

Reading Resources
See Editorial Reviews by Amazon.com and Publisher’s Weekly
(scroll down below the fold)

● Other books by Richard Russo
● Richard Russo interview on BookPage
● Article in World Literature Today (scroll down)
● HBO Web pages on Empire Falls including various interviews

Q&A: How to prevent paperback books from curling

2006-02-09T15:07:00.000-05:00

Q: How do you keep paperback (soft cover) book covers from curling?

A: Thanks to Dennis of San Francisco for e-mailing me with this question.

Dennis says his room is often cold, but it faces the sun so it heats up periodically during the day, then gets cold again. His roommate’s room is structurally similar, but the sun doesn’t shine directly into his room, and the roommate’s books don’t curl.

My theory is that with the fluctuation in heat comes a fluctuation in humidity, which causes the paper to react differently at different times of the day. Thus, the cover stresses and curls. My recommendation is for him to shade the room during the day, especially the part of the day when the sun is the most direct and hottest. That might help modify the fluctuation in humidity.

Here are some additional tips:

Get a humidity gauge (or hydrometer) to measure humidity and monitor the room. If humidity is high – 60% is ideal for books – take action to reduce humidity, such as using a dehumidifier or heating the room.
If the rest of the house is moderately humid and books in the other rooms don’t curl, keep the doors to the bedroom open so the air can circulate, thus reducing humidity in the affected room.
Store books in less humid rooms (that sounds simple, but most people don’t factor humidity into deciding where to store books).
Shelve books tightly together. Don’t shelve them so tightly that it’s difficult to pull books from the shelves, but tightly enough to force the pages shut. Too tightly against varying sized books may warp the cover and too loosely will expose more of the paper to the air.

One more point to consider:
Paperback books generally don’t do as well with temperature and humidity fluctuations as do hardcover books. That’s because paperback books are usually made with thinner paper and often with a lesser-quality paper. If you think of your books as an investment or if you want to preserve your books for a long time, consider buying hardcover instead. They’re more costly but they should last longer with good care.

Update
Dennis reports that the tips have helped:
You were right--the temperature changes were making the humidity fluctuate drastically. That, in conjunction with a small room and no air circulation, was the culprit. I wonder how students take care of their books in small dorm rooms? Well, I bought blinds for my window and keep my door open during the day, and close it when it gets colder at night. Now that the temperature doesn't swing as much, my books seem to be holding out.

Thanks for sharing your experiences, Dennis.

Q & A: How to safely ship books

2005-11-30T11:11:00.000-05:00

Q: What’s the best way to ship books?

A: The short answer is, “Carefully!” The long answer is, “As you would package any delicate item for shipment.”

A lot depends on what you might be shipping with the book and under what conditions it will be shipped.

If you are shipping a book with soft items you need less protective packaging for the book. However, if you’re shipping a book with metal, glass, or breakable plastic items, you should use bubblewrap or other protective packaging.

If you are shipping the book to a warm, humid climate, consider enclosing some moisture absorbent packets and enclose them in a sealed or sealable plastic bag. If the book will travel in the cold, such as by plane, truck, or rail, enclose it in a sealed plastic bag. If the book will travel by boat or stored for any time in a warehouse or storage facility, seal it in a couple of layers of sealed plastic.

Even if you wrap the book for holidays, enclose the whole package in sealed plastic.

If you are shipping the book (or books) separately, use a protective envelope and seal the envelope well. If you are shipping in a box, use a larger box with lots of space around the book(s), and surround the book(s) with shipping peanuts or wadded newspaper or other shipping filler.

The ideal conditions for a book are 60 degrees temperature and 60 percent humidity, housed in a clean environment. Try to match those conditions as much as possible, considering you have little if any control over the shipping circumstances.

Note: Despite any appearance to the contrary, a book is a delicate item. It is made of cardboard and paper exposed on three ends. When it encounters water or other liquids, the tendency of the paper is to absorb or wick the liquid, which is true for each and every page in the book. Wet pages warp and ink smears. Mold thrives on damp paper in dark places. Paper will deteriorate under these conditions. To preserve the value of the book, protect it from these elements.

Ready to wrap and ship? Pakmail and other consumer shippers can help advise you and many even have the materials on-hand, so don't hesitate to involve a pro.

Holiday Shopping Made Easier!

2005-11-29T11:57:00.000-05:00

Looking for good books for holiday gifts? Here’s a list you should consult, the 100 Notable Books of the Year from The New York Times (online). Also contains links to similar lists for 1997 through 2004.

The list covers 3 pages and is broken down into the following categories, listed alphabetically by title:

Fiction and poetry
Nonfiction

If you need any help, feel free to send me an e-mail: BizBooksPlus@aol.com or visit the leisure reading section of my online bookstore: http://www.bizbooksplus.net

Happy browsing and easy shopping!

"Lamb" Bookclub Discussion

2005-11-17T10:29:00.000-05:00

Lamb by Christopher Moore contains wonderful laughs and inspiring ideas. It’s the story of Jesus Christ as a child, as told by his childhood pal, “Biff”. Moore tells it not like it is – no one knows about Christ’s childhood – but as it might have been, with a large dash of tongue-in-cheek. You’ll journey with Christ (called by his Greek name, Joshua, in this book) and Biff as they learn about the world and come to terms with Joshua’s role-to-come as Messiah.

See Editorial Reviews from Amazon.cm and Publisher’s Weekly
(scroll down below fold)
● Other books by Christopher Moore
● Christopher Moore interview on Chrismoore.com

Discussion Starters (click on "Comments" below):
● Did you enjoy this read? Why or why not?
● How did you feel about reading a fictionalized story about Jesus?
● What was the most compelling part of the story for you and why?
● Was the story believable? Explain.
● Did the story end the way you thought it would?
● What lessons did you learn from the story?
● Would you read another story by Christopher Moore? Why or why not?

Q & A: How to care for your books

2005-11-08T13:22:00.000-05:00

Q: What’s the best way to care for a new book?
A: Here are some general-care instructions that work well for both new and used books.

Never leave books in direct sunlight. Sunlight can warp coverboards and bleach colors.
Never bend pages wide open. This applies to both hardcover and paperbacks. In addition, never curl back paperback covers.
Never turn down page corners (dog-ears) to save your place. Instead, use a clean, unmarked piece of paper, leather, or other thin card.
Store books in a cool, dry place. Ideal is 60 degrees and 60 percent humidity, but that isn’t comfortable for humans, so get as close yet as comfortably as possible.
Do not use a book as a hard surface for writing. Writing on top of a book may create marks or dents on the book’s cover or pages, which will lower its value.
Never write or mark in a book. A book will last much longer if it is kept in as prestine shape as possible.
Dust books periodically. Dust may contain chemicals that can make the paper deteriorate and yellow.
Use a dry or slightly moist cloth or paper towel to clean spills on books. Let the pages dry before closing the book. Never use harsh chemicals or wipes!
Store books upright on the natural bottom edge. Do not lay them flat on their backs across uneven rows of other books. Leave enough room between books to be able to grasp a book by the covers – do not pull at the top of the spine.
Use bookplates to indicate your ownership. Do not write your name or other information, which may detract from the value of your book.

Life of Pi to be filmed

2005-11-07T11:53:00.000-05:00

I just ran into an article announcing that Jean-Pierre Jeunet will direct the filming of Yann Martel's Life of Pi (October 2005 Booksville book club discussion; see below).

This is from the October 24, 2005, Killer Movies website.