It was bound to happen.Word from the London Book Fair is that Google is going into the book business. By year's end they will launch two book related initiatives that will further alter the book landscape.What's in store:A book rental program that will let you rent the content of a book on a weekly basis.andA book retail program that will allow users lifetime access to the texts they purchase.They are not attaching the cursed e-book tag to either project.Michael Cairnes, who was at the Google sessions at the London Book Fair, has the scoop in his blog post titled "Google...
Don’t "Get Caught Reading"
Right on the heels of National Poetry Month which included National Library Week we welcome Get Caught Reading Month.Since 1999 the beautiful month of May has been home to this literary concoction. The celebration was devised by former Congresswoman Pat Schroeder through the Association of American Publishers (AAP), where she is the President and CEO.Its goal: "to spread the word about the joys of reading through an industry-supported literacy campaign."I am not sure if this was created to give her a job after her political life but this is basically a political action committee for the publishers. This is the...
The Space Cowboy Wants a Space Library
"Everywhere where humans are I think there should be a library," is what Charles Simonyi told a Moscow news agency before he became the world's fifth space tourist.Simonyi, a billionaire who has already changed the world once by bringing Microsoft Word and Excel into our lives, packed two books to add to the Space Station Library.The books:Goethe's "Faust" which he declares "is a part of our literary heritage. It belongs to all of humanity and it deals with man's relationship with the universe and man's relationship to science"and "the moon is a harsh mistress" by Robert Heinlein that Simonyi says...
Getting to the End
This is how Heather McElhatton got to her debut novel Pretty Little Mistakes that hits stores today . You see it's a "Do-Over Novel" and she came up with 150 unique scenarios. Yep 150! "One Beginning 150 Endings: The Choice is Yours."Of course I am exhausted just thinking about it but the originality alone merits a peek. If you are fresh out of high school and ready to hit the world then it is closer to a must read.You just graduated from high school and you got a couple of choices. You either "go to college to get ahead or...
The Real Presidential Libraries
In 1822 John Adams, our second president, bequeathed his library to the town of Quincy, MA. In 1894 after living in six different locations the library came to rest at the Boston Public Library. They just staged the exhibit John Adams Unbound. It was the first time his library of 3,500 volumes was together for public view. It was the culmination of a three-year project by the Boston Public Library to catalog, preserve, digitize and provide access to Adams's extraordinary library."There is an outstanding online component which includes an audio tour of the exhibit and many highlight from the library.Some...