Here's a good one:The author of the book A War Against Truth has been accused of plagiarism.In January Raincoast Books of Vancouver, the publisher of A War Against Truth: An Intimate Account of the Invasion of Iraq by Paul William Roberts, got word from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the book contains numerous "elements [that] . . . closely resemble or are indistinguishable from passages" in an article they published on Sept. 29, 2002. The article by Jay Bookman was titled "Bush's real goal in Iraq: Invasion would mark the next step toward an American empire"Initially the publisher was going insert...
Wounded Booksellers Kicked by U. S. Post Office
The U.S. Post Office doing away with surface mail is a no-brainer. Only 2.7% of all international mail is sent via surface mail (or sea-mail as it should be called since the mail spends most of its time in cargo ships on the high seas). The "slow boat to china" routine doesn't really mesh with the new wired world.The problem is:The 2.7% is made up of almost 100% of todays independent booksellers. Removing the primary option for delivery of your overseas orders cannot be a good thing. Of course these changes do not impact the major aggregators like Amazon who...
An Award For the Green Books
The Santa Monica Public Library has broken the ice. In September 2007 they will award the first annual Green Prize for Sustainable Literature.The award will "commend authors, illustrators, and publishers who produce quality books for adults and young people that make significant contributions to, support the ideas of, and broaden public awareness of sustainability”.All books published in the United States during the 2006 calendar year are eligible.The deadline is April 30.Kudos to the City of Santa Monica and their library. The award deserves to be as prestigious and coveted as any existing literary award.To get warmed up for the award...
The House of Poetry
April once again brings us National Poetry Month, our yearly attempt to promote the genre to the masses or as poet Charles Bernstein frames it "promoting poetry as if it were an "easy listening".There are events going on everywhere for everyone so contact your local library or bookstore to see what's going on in your community or check the Poetry Near You page at Poets.orgA highlight is the 15th Annual Poets House Showcase in New York. Each April Poets House puts on a show. Every poetry book published in the U.S. the previous year goes on display for the month....
The Dark Ages Officially Return to Jackson County
"China has libraries. Third-world countries have libraries. Prisons have libraries...Now we don't have libraries." Joe Henry of Medford, Oregon.Welcome to day 1 of:The Jackson County Tragedy: A community without a library.As promised, on April 7th, the Jackson County Library system in Southern Oregon has shut down its entire library system.The "15 branches will remain shuttered indefinitely because of a budget shortfall, the largest such shutdown in the nation's history."What if you still have a book checked out? "The fines will continue to accrue at 20 cents per day per item...If someone gets too many fines, we will turn them over...