News & Notes is a weekly Saturday post featuring book- and publishing-related news, links to interesting articles and opinion pieces, giveaways on this and other blogs, and other cool stuff.
Books & Ebooks in the News:
- “One Way for an Indie Bookstore to Last? Put Women ‘First'” Chicago bookstore ‘Women and Children First’ has offered books by and about women, including children’s books featuring active heroines, for over 30 years. Now it’s for sale. (Cheryl Corley, NPR Books)
- Amazon’s Kindle Matchbook Program is up; it offers readers the chance to purchase an e-copy of books they already own (if bought through Amazon) at very low prices. Publishers have to opt in, and it looks to me as if they do so by title, since only some of the Avon titles I’ve bought are on my Matchbook list.
- So few new or popular titles are in the Matchbook program that NBC’s Helen Popkin complains about “70,000 shades of blah?”
- Amazon also unveiled an early-access program called Kindle First. You can choose one Amazon Publishing title a month for before-publication access, and get it for $1.99, or free if you’re an Amazon Prime member. (Publishers Weekly)
- HarperCollins honors the 50th anniversary of C. S. Lewis’s death by launching a world-wide campaign celebrating his works, beginning with a redesign of two websites dedicated to Lewis: www.cslewis.com and www.narnia.com. (Press release)
- Overdue book could lead to arrest if you live in Copperas Cove, Texas — as one man already discovered when he was arrested for not returning a 3-year-overdue book. (Our Town Texas)
- Neil Gaiman to Teach Fantasy Fiction Workshop at Bard College. I’m envious — what a treat for those students! (Maryann Yin, GalleyCat)
Worth Reading:
- “Present Tense: Allie Brosh, Donald Glover, and Hurting Right Now” looks at the difference between looking back on serious depression or other mental issues vs. reporting on it from the trenches, and finds value in the latter.
For Writers & Bloggers:
- NaNoWriMo started Friday, but it’s not too late to sign up!
- The Book Blogger Survey results are in! River City Reading posted Part 1: Your Blogs on 10/29. Sophisticated Dorkiness followed with Part 2: Some Blogger Attitudes on 10/30. And Literate Housewife concluded the trio of posts with Part 3: The Voice of Former Bloggers on 10/31.
- “Writers Illustrated: A Q&A with Jeff VanderMeer, author of ‘Wonderbook'”. Wonderbook is a ‘Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction’, and it offers an unusual twist: the text is heavily integrated with illustrations by a variety of artists.
Book & Movie Announcements:
- Peek Inside J. J. Abrams’ [and Doug Dorst’s] Absurdly Beautiful New Project . It’s two books in one: a novel called Ship of Theseus, purportedly by S. V. Straka, and the story of two students trying to figure out the mystery behind the enigmatic author, told in handwritten margin notes and ephemera such as postcards and letters, stuck between the pages. The project is called S. and is now available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and local bookstores. (On Thursday, B&N was cheaper by about $5.) A word of caution: judging by the video trailer on Amazon, this is a more than a bit creepy. (Buzzfeed)
- And if that really gets you going, you can enter a cipher contest based on the book. The winner gets lunch with J. J. Abrams and Doug Dorst.
- The trailer for ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ is out! “The beloved characters from the original “X-Men” film trilogy join forces with their younger selves from “X-Men: First Class,” in an epic battle that must change the past — to save our future.”
- Willy Nelson has signed a deal for his ‘unvarnished’ autobiography with Little, Brown, and Company. (Jason Boog, GalleyCat)
- Dreamworks bought the rights to Doris Kearns Goodwin’s biography of Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. (Maryann Yin, GalleyCat)
- Amazon Studios will make pilot for show based on Michael Connelly’s mystery/thriller series, Bosch. (Jason Boog, GalleyCat)
- ‘Wimpy Kid’ holiday special in the works (Maryann Yin, GalleyCat)
Free & Bargain books:
- Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. $1.40 for Kindle (price still good as of Friday night)
- Seige & Storm by Leigh Bardugo. $1.40 for Kindle (price still good as of Friday night)
- The Way of Kings by Brian Sanderson. $1.26 for Kindle (price still good as of Friday night)
Awesome lists:
- The 23 Best Parts of Being a Book Lover (Buzzfeed)
Really cool:
- This Map Will Delight Book Lovers Everywhere — it features over 600 titles in a map of a make-believe city. (Buzzfeed)
- Go Book Yourself bills itself as “Book recommendations by humans, because algorithms are so 1984.” Check out this Tumblr for great recommendations in the “if you like this, try this” format.
Just for fun:
- Googly Eye Books puts — you guessed it — googly eyes on book covers. A quirky, irreverent, and oddly amusing Tumblr blog.
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.
kimbacaffeinate
Sweet X-men! I have never been late returning a book..I am so anal it is ridiculous! Wonderful post as always!
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
It looks awesome! I love the idea of having the younger and the older Professor X and Magneto in the same film.
Bea
That new X-men movie has great potential; it should be fun.
I am sometimes late returning books but never have I been THAT late. Only in Texas.
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
I agree on the X-Men flick!
As for overdue books, I’ve had them on occasion, but never that late. We did check a book out for over a year once — my husband was reading it whenever his mom was in the hospital, which was a fair bit that year. No one put the book on hold, so the library happily renewed it each time we asked. See why I love my library so much?!
Becki @ The Flutterby Room
I kinda think that Copperas Cove, Texas arresting people for overdue books is awesome.
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
It’s a little extreme, but it would certainly get the point across! I’m trying to picture the scene in the jail, though… sort of like that scene in the song “Alice’s Restaurant” where he’s been arrested for dumping trash. “What’re you in for, kid?” “Um… my library book was 3 years overdue?…”
nessili
I love Allie Brosh/Hyperbole and a Half. All of her posts are hilarious, and oh-so-true, and all the more so when she’s discussing her daily life with depression. I’ve never been able to write for myself, nor found elsewhere in books or blogs, a more accurate description of what that kind of life is like (“My fish are dead.”). I gave more than a few people links to her posts, so they could maybe finally grasp it. I’m glad to see her getting the credit she deserves for her work.
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
She really is good, and I applaud her for ‘laying it out there’ and showing people what depression is really like. (I’ve not had to deal with serious depression, fortunately, but anxiety is another matter.) It’s good to see people like Allie Brosh going public, both because it may help others understand, and because it reduces some of the stigma associated with depression and other mental illnesses.
readerholicnotes
Great News and Notes this week. I hope the X-Men movie will be good and I had a flashback to Alice’s Restaurant, too! Thanks for the info about the book bloggers survey. I read part I, but not the other parts!
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
Thanks, Jan! I found the book blogger survey responses interesting, though I don’t think they’ll change what I’m doing. I was surprised how few bloggers are earning any money from their blog — not that I think everyone should (and I know I’m not), but it seems to me that some of the blogs I frequent are either affiliates with Amazon or someplace, or have book-related ads. As one blogger I follow says, she uses the money to support giveaways and so on. I shouldn’t think it’s much, but I can see it helping with that.
Berls
Awesome post as always! I think that arresting people for overdue books is a little extreme, but at the same time imposing some repercussions for not returning books makes a lot of sense. I mean, not returning a book is technically stealing, right?
oh and xmen! yay – I hope it will be good!
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
I suppose it is stealing, but arresting people seems a little extreme. Seems like a ticket and fine (as for driving misdemeanors) would be a more in keeping with the infraction. After all, usually when people don’t return library books, its because they lost it or forgot all about it, not with malice aforethought.
And I’m definitely looking forward to the Xmen movie!