Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
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Now that Harry Potter is gone, unless you're one of the "Twilight" fans, there's nothing else to read over the summer. Really? I've got some suggestions for ya...

My #1 pick for you!
A dark and defiant book, White Lotus is a great read. Written during the US Civil Rights protests of the 1960s, author John Hersey envisions Americans enslaved by the Chinese. We become the subservients. The story follows a young Arizona girl renamed White Lotus. It's the closest you'll ever get to experiencing what it must have been like to become a slave in pre Civil War America. A better experience than "The Color Purple".

Hersey was born in Tienstin, China, in 1914, spent his first 11 years there, and spent much of his early adult life as a journalist in various places in the Orient, and this experience clearly lands on and illuminates these pages. And because the Oriental culture really is different, it provides an odd 'side' look at the whole issue, giving it a whole other dimension of realization. [Various Sources]

#2
The Beautiful and Damned, first published by Scribner's in 1922, is F. Scott Fitzgerald's second novel. The novel provides a portrait of the Eastern elite during the Jazz Age, exploring New York Café Society. As with his other novels, Fitzgerald's characters are complex, especially in their marriage and intimacy, much like how he treats intimacy in Tender Is the Night. The book is believed to be largely based on Fitzgerald's relationship and marriage with Zelda Fitzgerald.[1]

#3 In "The Bonesetter's Daughter," set in San Francisco and in North China, Amy Tan tells the story of Ruth Young and her mother, LuLing, in a story that reflects much of her own background. In the story, Ruth is a successful "book doctor," a ghostwriter who translates other people's thoughts into a coherent book--a skill at which she is adept. She is the "as told to" name below the author's, although the real creative effort is her own.[2]

#4 The Andromeda Strain (1969), by Michael Crichton, is a techno-thriller novel documenting the efforts of a team of scientists investigating a deadly extraterrestrial microorganism that rapidly and fatally clots human blood, while in other people inducing insanity, mostly ended in suicide or murder-suicide.

The Andromeda Strain
appeared in the The New York Times Best Seller list, establishing Michael Crichton as a genre writer. [1] For the (*yawn*) 1971 movie, see The Andromeda Strain (film). For the 2008 miniseries, see The Andromeda Strain (TV miniseries).

Sources: [1] WikiPedia [2] Amazon


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Perhaps they could have converted the old bookmobile into one of these snazzy weiners (not YOU, Anthony!) , and dispensed free hot dog lunches at designated locations across the city?
Nah!



In these economic times of trouble, when you can't even buy a junky used car for $2500, and the Albany Public Library is hurtin' for money (you would be too if you bought a bunch of $1000 apiece chairs for computer-users at the branches), I was shocked to see they sold the bookmobile for a sliver of what AllOverAlbany says it is worth!

Ah well, it was way too big for my driveway! Maybe the library got some sort of nice tax write-off or something - the behemoth costs around $100K a year to operate, according to the Times Union story...

Your tax dollars at work, Smallbanians!

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Quidditch — This Week’s Grobby!

In honor of the last movie installment of the epic Harry Potter series, this week’s Grobby (that’s Greatist lingo for hobby) is inspired by the magical sport of wizards: Quidditch. But Cathy Zhu blogs that this fast-flying game isn’t just for the magically-blessed among us. Real-life— or “Muggle”— Quidditch has taken off in a big way, with opportunities for landlubbers and broom-riders alike. Check it out!

Highlights of Hogwarts: Harry Potter’s Best Spells, Coolest Creatures, Saddest Deaths, and More...

Garden gnome explains why the free blog advertising networks (eg. Entrecard, Exposure Your Blog) are more popular than paid blog advertising networks (eg. CMF Ads, Adgitize, Project Wonderful)::: meantime, Matthias publishes his sneaky SCRAPER CODE for entrecard cheats!

Zambia: Brenda Zulu Discusses the State of Zambian Blogosphere By Soneka Kamuhuza ::: The spotlight is on Brenda Zulu, a Zambian journalist and blogger. Brenda’s blog [1] provides her reflections on information, communication and technology issues in Africa. Based in Lusaka, Zambia, Brenda has been blogging since 2004 and is one of Zambia’s seasoned blogger’s. I talked with Brenda about her life, her blogging origins and the state of Zambian blogosphere. · read »

Tonyo Cruz uploads the five-year Philippine Digital Strategy plan of the government's Commission on Information and Communications Technology. The aim is to make the Philippines a digitally-empowered nation in 2016.




Gaga slammed by disability groups after performing on stage in wheelchair...


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Coincidences are funny things - I had taken the PC online while cleaning my desk out Friday. Just about the same moment I came across my Dambisa Moyo file and was looking thru the papers pictured above, this blog posting appeared in my RSS reader.

It began: This morning I accidentally stumbled on this old blog post from 2009, about Dambisa Moyo's book, Dead Aid, and I thought it was worth resurrecting its rotting corpse and taking another look.

It was a bit of a ranty rambly blog post at the time, and I also forgot to follow up one of the comments, which linked to this radio interview with Moyo, which I've now listened to.

Night of the Living Dead Aid

Phil aka "The Evil Flea" continued on... making valid points along the way. I remember well my interview with Ms. Moyo. The raw tape runs for about an hour. We not only chatted about "Dead Aid" - we touched on her next book and about taking tea among other pleasantries. One thing I didn't ask Ms. Moyo was about her marital status. I didn't think of it at that time, and didn't think it was important... but over the last year or so I see a lot of traffic from Bing and Google where websurfers have keyed in the phrase "Dambisa Moyo husband."

I enjoyed speaking with her and reading her work: she's quite intelligent and understands the global economy and its innermost workings.

A book can be compared to a hit record. The artist (writer) is driven by the publishing house to go forth and support it (book tours, appearances, interviews, etc.), which is exactly what brought Ms. Moyo and myself together in conversation way back when...




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The "Cloud Wars" Have Begun! However, even the best-laid plans of GaGa can run afoul...

"I could sell 10,000 ebooks a day, and it would still take the rest of my life to saturate the current market." ~ JA Konrath

Move over Kindle! Welcome the all-new NOOK™!

New York, New York – – Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, today expanded its bestselling digital reading offering with the All-New NOOK, The Simple Touch Reader. With a full touchscreen, NOOK™ features record-setting, extra-long battery life on the easiest-to-use, ultra-light, portable 6-inch eReader with the most-advanced E Ink Pearl display, and the world’s largest bookstore available by Wi-Fi®. Now available for pre-order at www.nook.com and at Barnes & Noble stores for just $139, NOOK will begin shipping on or about June 10.

To set the tone for this article, you need to keep at the front of your mind that from the teens through 20 and 30-somethings and sometimes beyond, INTERNET=FREE. That's the mindset when it comes to "buying" material, whether it be newspapers, eBooks, Lady GaGa mp3 music: keep it as close to "FREE" (even 99cents will do) as possible!

Author JA Konrath ::: "ebooks are more like a commodity. But not quite, because they don't conform to the rules of supply and demand, as there is an endless supply. But I believe there is also an endless demand."

Konrath hits target dead center here. Funny it is, the lower your price, the more you sell. Sell more lower your price. Wow. I sound like Yoda there!

Michael Levin blogs via GreecePost.com that Amazon effectively killed the pasttime of stopping by a bookstore for a bit of "browsing" ... and then he cuts to the chase:::
...the real reason why books are going to vanish is the remarkably un-businesslike business model of the publishers. Think of General Motors — decades of inefficiency, but without the federal bailouts.

In no other industry do producers actually wait passively to see what products are suggested to them, instead of doing market research to see what people really want to buy. Yet publishers seldom generate book ideas; instead they wait for literary agents to submit proposals. Houses decide which book to publish based on little more than a gut feeling that says, “I think we can make money selling this!”

Yet the books that publishers choose are almost entirely of zero interest to actual bookbuyers. After 9/11, there were a ton of books about 9/11, which nobody bought. Same thing with the Iraq War, the rise of Obama, the economic meltdown and even, inexplicably, the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Or the books are rehashed business lessons, religious truths, sports clichés, motivational babble, exercise fads, weight loss techniques or pandering to the political left or the right. Who wants these books? Almost no one.

Most of the major publishers today are owned by international conglomerates who, at some point, will awaken to the realization that English majors in their employ are spending millions of dollars on books that no one wants to read.

As a result, few trade books earn real money for the publisher (and certainly not for the author!). That’s because the publisher bears the entire risk of buying, editing, printing and shipping copies of the book to bookstores all over the country on a 100 percent returnable basis. If your local Barnes & Noble doesn’t sell a particular book, it goes right back to the publisher, at the publisher’s shipping cost, for a full refund. Especially in the Internet era, you can’t make money putting books on trucks and hoping someone buys them.
JA Konrath believes that eBooks "will become the dominant format for reading fiction. They'll proliferate the US and Canada, the UK and Australia, and eventually the world. There's no ebook bubble. There is only unlimited potential sales." Konrath referred to it in a different post as a Gold Rush.

What are you waiting for? A gilded invitation? Write, my people, write!




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He's been one of rock's bad boys for over 40 years. Now his story can be told!

Described as “the definitive rock autobiography,” Keith Richards' best-selling book, LIFE, covers his early days listening obsessively to Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters records, his meteoric rise to fame with The Rolling Stones, and the rock star lifestyle that made him infamous. It also chronicles how he created the revolutionary, high-octane riffs that defined songs like “Gimme Shelter” and “Honky Tonk Woman.”

Keith Richards New face. I did this caricature a while ago, but I was never happy with the face. So I had a couple of hours to spare so I gave him another face. Unfortunately the real Keith Richards can't do this. ...

Monsters and Critics.com
By Marissa Charles May 22, 2011, 14:00 GMT Keith Richards is proud of the way his daughter Theodora dealt with being arrested for vandalism and drug possession.Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones photographed promoting his autobiography 'Life' at ...

May 20, 2011
Keith Richards recently strolled the red carpet with his “blood on blood” friend Johnny Depp in Anaheim, California, for the premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. “No one is more surprised by all of it than me,” ...


This is the official community of Keith Richards, your source for the latest news and updates on Keith Richards.
www.keithrichards.com
Keith Richards (born 18 December 1943) is an English musician, songwriter, and founding member of the rock band the Rolling Stones ranked by Rolling Stone ...
en.wikipedia.org
A site devoted to Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. ... Keith at home in his library in Ct (Photo by Christopher Simon Sykes) ...
members.tripod.com
Keith Richards, Soundtrack: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Keith Richards is an internationally recognized iconic figure in contemporary culture ...
www.imdb.com


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Regardless of where you are today, with education you can take yourself where you want to be. ~ Nicki Minaj

Recently, Nicki Minaj surprised students at Collins Academy High School in Chicago taking over as “Principal for the Day”. Mr. North posted video+ via MissInfo

AHAlife Curates And Sells Unique, Hard-To-Find Products From Around The World - Have you ever visited a city, country or even store and found an original, unique product or item that you've never seen before?Leena Rao writes "AHAlife is an e-commerce sites for hard-to-find and exclusive luxury lifestyle products, curated by ‘tastemakers’ from around the world.

AHAlife introduces one new product a day in editorial format through its email list, tells the story about how the product was made, who made it, and where it came from while allowing you to also purchase the product. Products span fashion, food, beauty, travel, accessories, home décor, tech, and travel experiences."

Products range from a handmade Crocodile iPad cover to an exclusive Cannes Film Festival package to gold plated porcelain cups to stylish energy saving lightbulbs.

AHA is also hoping to incentivize its users by allowing them to gain points by sharing products on Facebook and Twitter, as well as blogs and email.

Indie Bookstores Boycott Konrath? - It's come to my attention that on a Yahoo group for booksellers there has been a call to boycott Amazon's new Thomas & Mercer imprint.

via twitter :::
10 Stunning Twitter Facts And Stories -via

Just for fun, I started up a GUESTBOOK if you have questions, comments, concerns. Check it out here!
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More Monkey Business in Malaysia: Tweets on the acid splasher

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More than 20 cases of acid attacks have been reported already in Malaysia since March. According to Global Voices, many residents are scared to walk in the streets. Nutty Malaysian Netizens were quick to spread information about the 'acid splashing' cases but some reports turned out to be false.


Here's (literally) the biggest baby on the net today:

Wednesday's Flood in Louisiana Update (UPDATED) Flooding continues in Louisiana even though I didn't write about it yesterday. This is the last full week of school and I'm feeling like a zombie. But compared to the people down south, I've got no troubles at all. Here's a little aggregation of ...

The Rapture is coming! Here's a survival kit


Las Vegas Weekly - Kristen Peterson - via Google
Forget Harold Camping's failed Rapture prediction of 1996. The Christian radio broadcaster says this time it's for real. He's predicted May 21, 2011 as the ...
End of the world, May 21, 2011? Whatever, it's funny- CBS News
Megan Hart: Don't worry about the world ending on Saturday ...- Muskegon Chronicle - MLive.com
May 21: Judgement Day?- KPSP Local 2

Angry Birds Tops 200 Million Downloads; More Than Double Its “Crazy” Forecast (TCTV) - BERLIN-- Yesterday at the Next 11 conference, I interviewed Rovio's Mighty Eagle Peter Vesterbacka on stage...

HAPPY BIRD!
Wingy Wednesday!!Fluffy Flies! Rescued Baby Crow Is Going To Be Fine! Our 3rd Rescued Bird This Spring! Whew -  *Here he is..................... Fluffy..........* 

Marketing Your eBook as an Audiobook

Why You Won't Succeed - Ebooks aren't a straight path to fortune and fame.

#TwitterAllowsYouTo. discuss. - For someone so disdainful of the Internet, New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller sure fits the textbook definition of a troll.

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In Remembrance of Paulina Aguilera, Global Voices Author

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We're deeply saddened by the untimely death of Paulina Aguilera Muñoz, a Global Voices author, journalist, blogger, and mother of two. From around the world, we send our condolences and respect for a passionate defender of human rights.

Google recently rolled out some enhancements to its Google News site, including settings that allow users to say whether they want to see more or less news from “blogs.” But how does the search giant define the term “blog?” Matthew Ingram investigates...

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