"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.
Monday, July 09, 2007
Could Potter Plotter Make It Number 8?
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.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Book Review: the beautiful miscellaneous by Dominic Smith
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.
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.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Book Review: His Brother’s Keeper by Jonathan Weiner
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.
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
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Harry Potter to Go Green..er
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.
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.
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Book Review: The Places in Between by Rory Stewart
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.
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.
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Moore's A Dirty Job Wins The Quill Book Award
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!
- Black Swan Green: A Novel by David Mitchell
- The March: A Novel by E. L. Doctorow (paperback)
- Water for Elephants: A Novel by Sara Gruen (personal website)
- Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
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
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