Books & Ebooks in the News:
- Today is Small Business Saturday, and author Sherman Alexie is asking book nerds to help indie bookstores by spending the day recommending books.
- "Unpublished Salinger Stories Leaked via PDF" (Mercy Pilkington, Good E Reader)
- Almost 2/3 of young adult readers prefer printed books over ebooks -- at least in the UK, according to a survey by Voxburner. (Liz Bury, The Guardian)
- Books-a-Million's sales are down, losses up for the third quarter, while Barnes & Noble's earnings are up despite a drop in sales. Nook division sales were down a whopping 32.2% for the quarter, due mostly to a decline in "digital content" - in other words, ebooks and e-magazines. B&N has some thinking to do about Nook's future. (Publisher's Weekly)
- Speaking of which, B&N is expanding their Nook App for Windows 8 into 32 countries.
- Amazon's Audible has purchased 5,000 titles from bankrupt UK firm AudioGO. (Good E Reader; also The Digital Reader)
- "Amazon cracks down on bogus keywords" for self-published titles. (Mercy Pilkington, Good E Reader)
- Interest in archery is up, especially among young women, as a result of the popularity of the Hunger Games books and movies. Surprise, surprise. (Dianna Dilworth, GalleyCat)
- Amazon's Paperwhite 3 may debut as early as the second quarter of 2014, and will feature a higher-resolution screen similar to the Kobo Aura HD as well as better fonts, according to TechCrunch.
Worth Reading:
- Laurie Penney's interview with Neil Gaiman (New Republic)
- A Textual Analysis of The Hunger Games, along with Harry Potter & Twilight. (Ben Blatt, Slate.com)
For Writers & Bloggers:
- Be Friends with Failure (Doodle Alley). As relevant to writers -- or anybody, really -- as it is to artists.
- What Are Your Blogging Goals? And how to accomplish them. (Silly Grrl Design + Circus)
- 7 SEO Tricks for Blogger Users. Search engine optimization trips for Blogger. Some are also applicable to other blogging programs. (Silly Grrl Design + Circus)
Book & Movie Announcements:
- Cary Elwes is writing a memoir about filming The Princess Bride. (Maryann Yin, GalleyCat)
- 20th Century Fox and Little Free Library have teamed to promote The Book Thief movie and book. (Publishers Weekly)
- Fox Searchlight is planning a biopic on J.R.R. Tolkien's early life. David Gleeson is currently at work on the script. (Stephen Zeitchik, Los Angeles Times)
Awesome lists:
- Top Mighty Girl Winter Holiday Stories - A list of winter-, Christmas-, Hanukkah-, and Kwanzaa-themed books from Mighty Girl
- 10 Literary Charities for the Holidays (BookRiot)
- 20 Thoughtful Gifts For the Bookworm In Your Life (Buzzfeed)
- Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Books of 2013 - 13 pages of reccommendations in all genres of fiction, so you're sure to find something that suits you. (They missed a few I think they should have included, though, including Bee Ridgeway's The River of No Return.)
- The Washington Post's 10 Best Books of 2013
- Library Journal's Best Romances of 2013
- 10 of the best: Secondhand bookshops - In Britain, of course, since this is from The Guardian.
- The Greatest Monsters in Children's Literature (Flavorwire)
Just for fun:
- DIY Book shoes from Philly Shoe Fairy
Bookish Quotes:
That's it for this week!
I'm always on the lookout for interesting articles, lists, and links for News & Notes, so please let me know if you see (or write!) anything that might be good for this feature. You can leave me a comment or send me an email -- my address is on the About/Review Policy/Contact page.
I have noticed that a lot of YA book reviewers on YouTube read hardcover books. I enjoy reading hardcover books, but I like the flexibility and convenience of e-books.
ReplyDeleteI love ebooks for traveling, but prefer print books when I'm at home. That said, I read a lot of e-ARCs these days!
DeleteAhh those shoes are awesome!
ReplyDeleteThey're pretty cool, aren't they? Looks like a fun project, though I do wonder how flexible the ModPodge is once it's dry. Seems to me that it would crack.
DeleteI saw that article about young readers preferring print and was surprised. Now I'm of to check out the literary charities. I hope you had a good Thanksgiving.
ReplyDeleteWe did have a nice Thanksgiving, thank you! I hope yours was lovely, too!
DeleteI can attest to the interest in archery, although in my daughter's case it was sparked by the Avengers - she hasn't read Hunger games yet. Enjoyed the links as always, especially the bookstore list from the Guardian. Some neat shops there...
ReplyDeleteI figured the upswing in archery interest probably began with LOTR. Legolas was no slouch with a bow! And I would love to visit some of the English bookshops!
DeleteI love the shoes! And I first read the link about "interest in archery" as "interest in anarchy!" I thought that was even more interesting than the archery...lol! I tried archery in my college P.E. class and it's a lot harder than it looks! Lots of great links I;m going to explore, Lark.
ReplyDeleteI tried archery at a summer camp where I was a counselor; it was fun! I didn't hit the target consistently, but I still felt like Robin Hood or maybe an elf. Enjoy the links!
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