Books

Jul. 28, 2011

Nook: So far, so good

In my first week with a new Nook, I am delighted with ebooks.

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Jun. 28, 2011

The Death of Print

The sales figures for April 2011 are in and the PW headline says it all: digital jumps, print plummets.

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Jun. 2, 2011

Orwell on Dickens

Two quotes pulled from Orwell’s classic essay on Dickens.

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May. 9, 2011

Why are we attracted to crime stories?

What does our attraction to crime stories tell us about ourselves?

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Apr. 6, 2011

The end of the shy author?

Laura Miller wonders about what is lost in the new publishing model of author-as-promoter. (link)

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Mar. 22, 2011

Seth Godin: Ten Bestsellers

Seth Godin’s memorable presentation at the O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference in February 2008: *10 Bestsellers: Using New Media, New Marketing, and New Thinking to Create 10 Bestselling Books.* (video)

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Nov. 18, 2010

Shoes

The earthy, sensuous craft of making shoes vs. the ethereal art of writing books.

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Nov. 3, 2010

No such thing as a bad review

A study uses negative book reviews to test the old saw that “all publicity is good publicity.” The result: for the most part, it is better to be trashed by the Times than ignored by it.

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Nov. 1, 2010

George Orwell Writes a Novel

“Don’t you write a book about this, George Orwell!” (cartoon)

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Oct. 17, 2010

What are books good for?

So what are books good for? My best answer is that books produce knowledge by encasing it. Books take ideas and set them down, transforming them through the limitations of space into thinking usable by others.… [T]he two cultures of the contemporary world are the culture of data and the culture of narrative. Narrative is [...]

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