Next month Amazon will throw its hat in the e-book reader ring with the release of Kindle.Here is the good part:Kindle is clearly a cut above the existing e-book readers.-Its wireless capabilities allow the user to download content without having to connect to a computer.-It has a keyboard which allows the user to take notes and navigate the web.-It will come loaded with a few freebies like reference books.Now the bad part:With all this great e-book reader 2.0 functionality Amazon shoots itself in the foot by not supporting the open e-book standard that is used by most publishers. Using a...
The Patron Saint of Booksellers and My Vote For The Patron Saint of Bibles
St John of God From Patrons and Protectors: More OccupationsArt and Commentary by Michael O'Neil McGrath, OSFS. 2002Yep we got one too. I am not sure if we are all covered, I'll have to ask my rabbi, but St. John of God is our man.Like many of us he had no trouble "taking part in the gambling, drinking, and pillaging that his comrades enjoyed." He eventually cleaned up his act and then "A vision at age 41 brought him to Granada where he sold books from a little shop."And here is my vote for the Patron Saint of Bibles.Dan "Southpaw"Smith....
The Book Painting of Mike Stilkey
The piece is titled When The Animals Rebel. It occupies a 16 X 44 foot wall and consists of thousands of books LA artist Mike Stilkey has accumulated over the last few years via thrift stores and yard sales."Using pen and ink and acrylics, Stilkey has painted the books’ spines to depict a scene where wild and domestic animals are, as he puts it, “taking back their land,” while humans with detached expressions continue their daily routines, seemingly oblivious to the animals’ presence." The books became his paper.He is attracted to them “ sometimes by the title, or more the...
Book Review: 501 Minutes to Christ by Poe Ballantine
In these 11 essays Ballantine brings us along on a light-hearted journey through the ups and downs of being human. Cooking his way through life waiting and hoping for literary nirvana Ballantine's trip includes an account of his suicidal musings in Advice to William Somebody, a inside look at the horrors of crank in Methamphetamine for Dummies and his fear induced homicidal tendencies in The Irving, where his appearance at the largest reading of his literary life throws him for such a loop that he dreams up a plan to knock off Norman Mailer and John Irving. Luckily, Ballantine works...
Act 2: Kansas City Book Pyro Ignites Another Batch
Tom Wayne of Prospero's Books in Kansas City chose Labor Day weekend for the second installment of his 'I'm Going to Burn All the Books I Can't Sell' publicity gimmick.KCTV5 news in KC is giving it prime coverage, with the story and video being the website's most popular, and CNN has picked it up as a home page headline.The first burning back in May resulted in "thousands of e-mails and phone calls with suggestions what to do with the books. But few people offered to take them."With all of the public outcry, I thought more people would step up to...