News & Notes - 3/16/13

Worth Reading: 

• "Enough Feisty Princesses: Disney Needs an Introverted Heroine" (Lindsay Lowe, The Atlantic) 
• "Plagiarism and the link: How the web makes attribution easier -- and more complicated" (Matthew Ingram, paidContent)
• "The Used eBook Trojan Horse" (ebookp*rn blog)

Books & Ebooks in the News:

•  "Book of Kells now Free to View Online" (Trinity College Library Dublin' website)
• Warner Bros. is suing HarperCollins and the Tolkien estate -- and vice versa. (The Hollywood Reporter) 
• And if that weren't enough headache for the publisher, HarperCollins [is also being] sued by former death row prisoner over ditched book. (Josh Halliday, The Guardian)
• Amazon slashes price of 4G Kindle Fire HD by $100, expands tablet to Europe & Japan (Laura Hazard Owen, Gigaom.com)
• When are companies going to stop condescending to (and belittling) women?  First it was the Bic pen for "ladies."  Now there's a tablet aimed at women -- preloaded with apps in case we're too stupid to download them ourselves.  Yes, really. (The Daily Dot)
• Random House's vanity-press imprints have backpedalled, offering authors a choice of better deals after the SFWA and others outed them for their exploitive contracts.
• Murdoch's News Corp. is spinning off it's publishing division, including The Wall Street Journal and HarperCollins (AP, via NBCNews.com Business)
• "'Niche authors hit' by Amazon's ebook royalty rates" (The Bookseller)
• William Lynch will stay on as B&N CEO (Nate Hoffelder, The Digital Reader blog)
• UK book retailer Waterstone's is trying to tempt customers back to print by teaming with authors to offer extra content. (Tom Peck and Miranda Kiek, Independent.ie)
   

Giveaways on this and other blogs: 

The Midnight Garden is giving away 10 new YA books to four lucky winners!  It's easy to enter.  Here's the list of titles:

• Jane Austen Goes to Hollywood by Abby McDonald
• Unremembered by Jessica Brody
• Bruised by Sarah Skilton
• Spellcaster by Claudia Gray
• Legacy of the Clockwork Key by Kristin Bailey
• Firebrand by Gillian Philip
• Splintered by A.G. Howard
• The Murmurings by Carly Anne West
• The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke
• Pivot Point by Kacie West

Awesome lists:   

Harry Potter cake (image via Flavorwire)

• 30 Gorgeous and Delicious Literary Cakes (Flavorwire)
• 25 Writers on the Importance of Libraries (Flavorwire)
• 25 Unforgettable Fantasy Books (A Nerd's Guide to Reading)
• 25 Spectacular Science Fiction Books (A Nerd's Guide to Reading)
• 25 Worthwhile Classics (A Nerd's Guide to Reading)

 

Cool stuff:

"NASA Rover Finds Conditions Once Suited for Ancient Life on Mars".  (Jet Propulsion Lab) Also, "NASA: Yes, Mars Could Have Hosted Life." (CNN)  I love science discovery!