Book Scribbles

Does it ever end?

I mean, really, does everybody need to jump on the e-reader bandwagon? Eventually, they're going to be forced to have so many perks to get you to buy x brand of e-reader that they're going to be little robots that read the books to you so you have to use even less brain power! And they'll wash your dishes.

See, I could market that and become a gazillionaire.
But I won't.
Not because I don't want to be a gazillionaire, no. I'd have much less stress in my life if I was, but because of my Crusade Against the Kindle.
The Holy War of Books has officially begun.

I read an article today that compared the price of the Kindle and paraphernalia that must be bought in order to make it functional, with the price of the same amount of printed material.
Article can be found here: http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/01/12/savings-experiment-does-the-kindle-beat-buying-books/?icid=main|search3|dl8|link3|http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/01/12/savings-experiment-does-the-kindle-beat-buying-books/

Holy cow that's a long web address.

And yes, that price is lower.
But that theory only works if you're a nut who buys the new bestseller every week! What happens if the SAME book is at the top of the bestseller list for weeks on end? That theory goes out the window.
Also, if you've got that much disposable income that you CAN buy the new bestseller in hardcover every week, then that money that you're saving doesn't mean a damn thing to you anyway, SO you should just keep buying books and making everyone happy.

Books take up space, you say?
There's a solution for that as well in the form of a lovely website known as bookcrossing.com.
If, hypothetically, you have all this money to buy all these new books BUT you don't have the money for a house big enough to house them all, then you can leave them at random for poor slobs like myself who do not have that kind of disposable income to find and read and pass on to more poor slobs.

It's a beautiful cycle, really.

And my book still doesn't need batteries.

Internship: very interesting, tedious busy work and really super nice people. It will be good to have worked with Wray, since he has close ties to some of the larger publishing houses in NYC. I'm learning a lot about the inside stuff, and yes, doing some tedious things. I get the sense that the beginning of a new year is always tedious though, taking inventory, assembling mailing lists, stuff like that, which is what I've been doing.

Apple Tablet:

I've just heard of this for the first time on quillandquire and further investigation hasn't revealed that much. It may be just a rumor. Probably not. I mean, if amazon and barnes and noble are all about their respective e-readers why wouldn't Apple jump on the bandwagon?

Apparently killing the publishing industry is the thing to do...

Having seen the movie first, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Hollywood had done an excellent job in adapting the novel to the screen. Sam Spade may be one of the most likeable scoundrels ever created. Hammett's dialogue is flawless, and the novel as a whole is a completely enjoyable experience. Highly recommended to those who are fans of the genre

http://www.quillandquire.com/blog/index.php/2009/12/16/war-over-e-books-heats-up/

This is a link to the further destruction of the publishing industry that the Kindle has caused.

Take specific note of the line that says:

Stephen Covey, signed a deal with Amazon for exclusive digital rights to his perennial bestseller The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The move, which essentially cuts publishers out of the process altogether, is likely to catch on with a lot of other big-name authors if it goes unchallenged.

WHAT!!????
Cut out the publishers altogether!? You mean the same ones that published the hard copies of his book? Gee, that's nice.
How long before everyone decides to cut out the publishers altogether?

This is bad, people, really bad.
Teddy Roosevelt said a hundred years ago that monopolies were not cool. Don't let Amazon become one.
Whatever you decide to do this Christmas, don't buy a Kindle or anything that resembles it.

It's been awhile. I've been busy.

Firstly, I've secured an internship with a local (very) small publishing company that will begin in January. I will of course blog all about it. Finally! I get to see how the world of books works from the inside.

Secondly, I've got a new book! No, you can't read it.
November, as you hopefully know, is National Novel Writing Month. 50,000 words in 30 days.
Well, I was successful this year, and turned out a complete (albeit extremely rough) draft of a novel called The Third Composer. Think murder, arson, intrigue, and baroque music.

Yes, baroque music.

Thirdly, an advancement in the WAR AGAINST E-BOOKS!
Simon and Schuster has announced that in favor of giving hardcovers a chance to sell and make the author, and the publishing company, some money, they will be henceforth delaying the release of the e-book version of new books by four months.
Brilliant.
Now all they have to do is find a way to lower the price of said hardcovers, even it's only by five or ten dollars, and then perhaps we can crush the e-book revolution the way Napoleon was crushed in Russia.
It was also brought to my attention as I was reading this article on quillandquire.com (go check it out- tis the canadian book magazine. awesome, eh?) that books are now published in four formats: hardcover, trade paperback, paperback, and ebook. Is this necessary? Why not drop one, or two?
Hardcovers? some people like them, but there really aren't enough of those people to support the cost of producing them. Trade paperback? Too small for my liking.
Ebook? Absolutely unnecessary.
So, publishing companies, pick the two that the most people read. I'm thinking paperback, and unfortunately, ebook, and print those. Keep releasing the ebooks later though, and maybe this fad will disappear like parachute pants...

You know how amazon does the "People who bought this also bought..." ?
Well this is my version. If you liked this, then I suggest...

Today's topic: Dan Brown

No, I haven't read The Lost Symbol yet. I will sometime this month though. Review to follow, of course.
However: I HAVE read all four of his other books and many many others in the same genre. So, some recommendations.


The Secret of Lost Things
Sheridan Hay

This one is about a lost Herman Melville manuscript, and uses his actual letters in the book. Rosemary is Austrailian, but young and orphaned so she comes to NYC to find a life for herself. She ends up working at a huge used and rare bookstore called The Arcade, and becomes involved in a plot to find and then sell a lost Melville manuscript.

This novel is essentially a coming of age story, which is one of my least favorite types of book, but it was interesting. Very light and easy to read, not a terribly complex mystery. The other thing that I wasn't really fond of was the amount of unanswered questions there were at the end.
2.5 of 5 stars.

Interred With Their Bones
Jennifer Lee Carrell

This one is much more interesting. It's about the search for a lost Shakespeare play that begins when the Globe burns to the ground...again. A Shakespeare scholar is directing Hamlet at the Globe when the theater burns, her mentor is killed, and she's off on the trail of a lost play that might actually still exist.

Easy to read, and I did guess whodunit, but I still highly recommend it. The most interesting part of the book is that it asks the question "who was Shakespeare?"
And really, we can't answer that. This books gives some really interesting theories though.
3 of 5 stars

Now for the HIGHLY recommended.
Arturo Perez-Reverte. Anything of his, I haven't read of book of his that I haven't loved. I refer to him as "the intellectual Dan Brown" because there is just something a little bit sharper about his writing style, even in translation. (he's spanish). He doesn't really write about the same topics, but they're historical puzzles. And I've solved every one of Dan Brown's books thus far, but I can't say the same thing about Reverte.

The Flanders Panel, Arturo Perez-Reverte

Here's what the back says: A fifteenth century painting by a Flemish master is about to be auctioned when Julia, a young art restorer, discovers a peculiar inscription hidden in the corner: who killed the knight? In the painting, the Duke of Flanders and his knight are locked in a game of chess, and a dark lady lurks mysteriously in the background. Julia is determined to solve the five hundred year old murder, but as she begins to look for clues, several of her friends in the art world are brutally murdered in quick succession. Messages left with the bodies suggest a crucial connection between the chess game in the painting, the knight's murder, the sordid underside of the contemporary art world, and the latest deaths.

This was the first book of his that I read, and I loved it. The book becomes the chess game in the painting. It's very, very cool. 4.5 of 5 stars.

The Seville Communion, Arturo Perez-Reverte

The back says: Someone has hacked into the Pope's personal computer, not to spy on the Vatican, but to send an urgent plea for help: Save Our Lady of the Tears. The crumbling Baroque church in the heart of Seville is slated for demolition- but two of its defenders have suddenly died. Accidents? Or murders? And was the church itself somehow involved? Father Lorenzo Quart is dispatched to investigate the situation- and stay alive while doing so.

This one is a page turner until the very end. He literally doesn't resolve everything until the very last sentence of the book! It's great. 4.5 of 5 stars.

and finally,

The Club Dumas, Arturo Perez-Reverte

Lucas Corso is a book detective, a mercenary hired to hunt down rare editions for wealthy and unscrupulous clients. When a well-known bibliophile is found hanged, leaving behind a part of the original manuscript of Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers Corso is brought in to authenticate the fragment. 

Most people know this book from the film version, The Ninth Gate with Johnny Depp (good movie). However, that movie is based on the subplot of this book. The main plot is about the musketeers, and those who have read that book will enjoy playing along. I haven't, so some of that was lost on me, but it is still a great mystery. 4.5 of 5 stars.

Meet Brother Francis, the novice who finds the sacred memorabilia, Thon Taddeo, the scholar who uses the information left by an ancient civilization to begin building a new one, and Dom Zerchi, the unfortunate abbot who gets to witness the second complete distruction of man. And then there's Benjamin, or Lazarus, the immortal and terribly wise old man who watches the whole thing with amusement and sadness.
These are only a few of the characters in Miller's post-apocalypse tale that follows the brothers of the Order of Saint Leibowitz the Engineer as they witness the rise and fall of another "great" civilization that is scarily similar to our own.
Written during the Cold War, this novel is a fairly realistic and often hilarious account of what the future of Mankind could look like if we had decided to blow each other up. At times, it's difficult to read, but definitely worth it in the end

Milkman Dead has been defined by those around him for his entire life. That is, until he sets out on a quest for gold and finds more than he ever expected to.
Morrison is one of the best American writers, and her novel that won the Nobel Prize in Literature is well worth the read.

The first thing one notices about The Road is McCarthy's now infamous lack of grammar and structure. The second thing is that despite the absence of long, complicated sentences, the prose is, in its own way, beautiful.
In a post apocalyptic world, where a father and son travel toward the coast in hopes that they'll be able to survive there, McCarthy has stripped his writing down to the bare essentials, in very much the same way that this small family relies only on what is absolutely necessary to stay alive. Tragic and beautiful, The Road is part tale of complete destruction and desolation, part coming of age story, and part story of hope and survival.

Though it's called Oryx and Crake, this book is about Jimmy, or Snowman, the only man to have survived the apocalypse. Jumping back and forth, Atwood tells the story of Jimmy, the man who lived in a world destined to be destroyed, and Snowman, the only human left at the end of the world as we know it. Both worlds in the story are terrifyingly familiar, and this novel really makes the reader think about the direction the human race is going. A powerful novel that should be near the top of everyone's list.

Not my favorite book ever. That's not to say that it wasn't well written; it was. I am a huge fan of Faulkner's writing style. I've heard people say that it's confusing and not well planned out, but I disagree. His meticulous attention to detail makes sure that all plot lines are wrapped up neatly at the end, but not until the end. It's a very effective way to keep the reader interested to the very end. I'm impressed by the way he writes in layers, stories within stories, flashbacks within flashbacks, and all of it contributes somehow to turning out well rounded and interesting characters. It just happens that his characters are not particularly likeable individuals, which is why this wasn't something that I would want to read again. I am interested to read some more Faulkner however, because he's definitely a great writer, especially if he doesn't plan his novels out beforehand. 

http://www.canada.com/technology/Deadline+looms+opposition+mounts+Google+Book+Settlement/1957311/story.html



Finally, someone is thinking. As usual, it's not the Americans. Thank goodness for Canadians with brains.
Honestly, this is the worst idea since the Kindle.
What author in their right MIND is like "hmmm I get $60, and the world gets unlimited use of my work....awesome!!!!"

Right, no one. But Google has once again tried to win the game of monopoly by including that little piece of information in the fine print of their book settlement contract.

Nice.

Life lesson? ALWAYS read ALL the fine print.
Additional life lesson? NEVER trust monopolies.
Further life lesson? When the power goes out, and your laptop battery dies, what can you do by candlelight? Oh, right. READ A BOOK.

My book still doesn't need batteries.

Classically Gene. Funny, profound, and insightful, exactly what one would expect from him. Recommended to anyone who has ever loved his brand of genius.

A refreshingly clever mystery, that I didn't solve halfway through. Of course, adding Freud to anything makes it that much more interesting. I'm impressed by the author's research in the world of psychology, his attention to detail and how he weaves so many historical events together. Obviously, a little timeline shifting had to occur, but I think that's acceptable. It is, after all, fiction. Overall, I enjoyed this book very much and would recommend it to any fan of Freud, or just someone looking for a good puzzle

I'm not really sure what to make of this book. It's dark, disturbing, difficult to read, and at the same time brilliant and beautiful. I can't imagine the effort that went into something like this. The way the format of the book reflects the content is impressive. This book certainly makes the reader think, and I am quite sure that if I were to read the book again I'd find all kinds of new things that I missed the first time, there is just so much in it. A stunning achievement, and for the most part an enjoyable read.

Another brilliant thriller. Only a master of the genre can keep the reader guessing through the entire book, not revealing the final piece that solves the puzzle until the very last sentence. If you've never read Reverte, you're seriously missing out.

Awhile ago, I brought digital textbooks to your attention. They've recently appeared again in the news, and I would like to take a moment to point out a few flaws in the plan.

Consider this article from the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/education/09textbook.html?_r=1

Hopefully, that link works. Now, let me pull out some highlights that I'm sure you caught, but I'd like to elaborate on them, so indulge me.


Kids are wired differently these days,” said Sheryl R. Abshire, chief technology officer for the Calcasieu Parish school system in Lake Charles, La. “They’re digitally nimble. They multitask, transpose and extrapolate. And they think of knowledge as infinite.

Rule number one of education? Multi-tasking is a BAD IDEA. 

Exhibit A: An excerpt from a Washington Post article.

"Introducing multitasking in younger kids in my opinion can be detrimental. One of the biggest problems about multitasking is that it's almost impossible to gain a depth of knowledge of any of the tasks you do while you're multitasking. And if it becomes normal to do, you'll likely be satisfied with very surface-level investigation and knowledge," said Jordan Grafman, chief of cognitive neuroscience at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Even the bad teachers know that multi-tasking students don't learn. So why not let them read digital textbooks on the computer and play curriculum based video games to study, while they're chatting on facebook, AIM and Twitter with their friends? Oh yeah, with one headphone from their Ipod in their ear.
I'm seeing low test scores, confused education administrators and a continued decrease in education funding in the future. In that order. 

Back to the Times article- a governor Arnold quote:

And given that students already get so much information from the Internet, iPods and Twitter feeds, he said, digital texts could save them from lugging around “antiquated, heavy, expensive textbooks.”

Positively brilliant, Ah-nold. Why didn't we think of it sooner!?


Go ahead, kids, cite Twitter in your next research paper. And wikipedia? Totally reliable as well. Any idiot can post anything they want, but it's okay, with your multitasking little minds you're only getting basic information and not retaining a drop of it.

Hell, why not drop READING altogether, California? That would save you a ton of money.

Beautiful. I'm longing to pack up and move to Italy.

This novel had a very slow start, that almost didn't hold my interest. It picked up in the middle though, and although it wasn't difficult to solve the mystery it was still entertaining. I'm not sure what all the fuss is about Sherlock Holmes however, it seems to me that Watson is the real hero. The only part of the book that I didn't care for was the explanation at the end, where Holmes reveals all the information he learned that helped him solve the mystery. Personally, I'd rather play along and try to solve it myself.