For a week supposedly devoted to politics, a fair amount of book news has been scattered throughout the coverage of The Democratic National Convention currently taking place in Denver. First, before the convention even got underway, booksellers around the country were up in arms about publisher Chelsea Green's decision to offer their book "Obama's Challenge" to convention-goers via a discount coupon for a copy printed by Amazon's POD service Booksurge. Next came word of Bush/McCain Tijuana Bibles available in Denver; several booksellers quickly expressed their desire to obtain copies. And most recently, it's been nice to see my old employer...
Where do you get these books?
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3,
Link Dump
Here's some things I've enjoyed lately. They've been hanging around my news-reader while I considered creating longer posts around them, but offer them instead as a fairly straightforward list of recommended reading:The Lilly Library at the University of Indiana has an excellent online exhibition curated from their collection on miniature books. Great images, great history of the format.Bookn3rd put together a wonderful post on Books of Hours complete with a strong selection of resources from around the web.MUST READ: Chris Lowenstein of Book Hunter's Holiday muses on the state of the "bookstore community" in these days of fewer open shops...
10 Reasons Not To Write Off Reading From A Screen
Michael Bhaskar over at The Digitalist has this level-headed post on the reasons why e-based reading is here to stay and why even bibliophiles don't need to freak-out about it:No one is saying that we will all run off any read all our books off a screen. Books are here to stay. Reading from one type of screen or another is not about to replace books, rather it is an addition to the varied climate to literature that already exists, a creative challenge, a commercial opportunity and new way for readers to enjoy texts.
Ray Bradbury Hawks Prunes
Odd but swank 60's-era ad for prunes featuring sci-fi great Ray Bradbury (!?):