Thursday, March 12, 2009

Newsie News News

E-Book News

F&W Media (no idea what the "F" and "W" stand for) has released a few non-fiction titles for free. The three titles cover writing, genealogy, and woodworking.

Image from The Wall Street Journal

It's no surprise that the sales of e-books are going up. In thinking of the future, Barnes & Noble buys e-book publisher Fictionwise for $15.7 million. Yes, it may still be a crack-pot prediction, but based on more sour news from Borders, I think B&N will consider buying them out.

It looks like Library Journal has coined a new term; ebrary. And I hate it. HATE it. Meanwhile, there are all sorts of apps for your iPhone. The biggest hit lately has been the Kindle/e-book reader. Now publishers are looking to get their own footprint in the iPhone app market. But I do like their idea for Read-an-e-book Week. Click here for a ton of freebies.

Paul S. Kemp's Twilight Falling is available for free from Wizards of the Coast (click here for the PDF download).

Publisher TOR is offering Charles de Lint's Spiritwalk for free.

Other News



Over at Madness Abides, Dennis has written a wonderful review of S. M. Stirling's Dies the Fire.

While not related to books or libraries, I had to share this one. But why keep driving when the dust storm "looks like a little Ayers Rock?"



Oh. And I didn't make it to the first round of call backs on The Great Norway Adventure. Bummer.

Some interesting tidbits in this article. Most notable for me are that the Miss Spider line was exclusive to Target, Scholastic is marketing a tween/teen version of America's Next Top Model, and Barnes & Noble appears a few times for marketing some new lines.

This criminal should have used his library card to research lock picking instead of using the card as a lock pick.

The 1980s will rule again. How do I know? Because Publishers Weekly told me so.



Cheeni Rao discusses the fine line between fiction and memoir. An interesting topic with interesting implications. Is it a memoir? Or is it fiction? Who can truly define what really happened when I was a kid? Does my dad remember when I was paralyzed and laying on the couch? Does my uncle?

Borders is looking great with the purchase of Fictionwise while Books-A-Million is dogging the heels of Barnes & Noble.



Is "fantasy meets literacy" a new trend? We've seen zombies in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. We've seen vampires in War & Peace. And now we have Charlie Brown staring in Sin City.

Reader's Digest gets out of the library industry? I hope this doesn't mean I have to fight for my humor in uniform.

2 comments:

dennis said...

Thanks for the link... keep up the great blog!

Neil Richard said...

You're welcome!