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:
- “Pew report: Young adults remain bound to libraries, printed books”. (Deseret News) Furthermore, “95% of Americans find libraries ‘important'”. (Los Angeles Times)
- E-book prices are lower than ever this holiday season, thanks to deep discounts and loss leaders (Digital Book World)
- Judge throws out 3 indie bookstores’ suit against Amazon and Big Six publishers on the grounds that the bookstores’ argument was “vague” and “evasive” and they failed to produce supporting evidence. (Publishers Weekly)
Worth Reading — or Watching:
- Maya Angelou reads her poem honoring Nelson Mandela. The poem was commissioned by the U.S. State Department.
- “In Defense of Crafting with Books” (Amanda Nelson, Book Riot)
- “The Privilege and Pleasure of Being a Book Claus” (Kit Steinkellner, Book Riot)
For Writers & Bloggers:
- “Top Ten Signs You Are a Book Blogger” by The Caffeinated Reviewer. Read the comments, too; there are some additional signs there.
Awesome lists:
- Bill Gates’ picks for best books of 2013 – great list if you’re looking for fascinating, thought-provoking nonfiction (Gates Notes blog)
- 100 of the Best Fantasy Authors from the Past Century (List Challenges) They left off Katherine Kurtz for some unaccountable reason, but it’s a good list. It’s not heavy on children’s and YA fantasy, though.
- 14 Places to Talk to a Stranger About Books (Buzzfeed)
- “Dear Book Nerd: Help! I Need a (Book-related) Job!” Includes a fairly thorough list of book-related jobs (but they left out indexer!) (Rita Mead, Book Riot)
- 10 Charities That Encourage Reading (GalleyCat)
Just for fun:
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| On the menu: lembas for elevenses |
- Planning a LOTR marathon this holiday season? NPR’s Beth Accomando offers her menu for an entire day’s worth of hobbit meals, from first breakfast to dessert (with recipes!) Find more Middle Earth recipes at LOTRfanclub Scrapbook.
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.
Bea
Oh, that book quote is perfect; I completely agree.
With all of the bad news about libraries these days, I was happy to see some good news for a change. I am not one of those people who believe that the internet can replace a library.
Have a good weekend. 🙂
Pamela D
That Gollum basket is creepy!
kimbacaffeinate
I adore that quote and it is so true! thanks for the shout-out. That was such a fun post to write. I am glad libraries are doing well. I would love to get paid for sharing my passion for books and will check out the careers 🙂
readerholicnotes
I’m glad libraries are still popular. I spent so much time at the library exploring books when I was a kid. I need to look at some of those lists–especially the fantasy authors. Great post as always!