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:
- “You’re Going To Be Sorry You Bought That Kindle” (Roberto Baldwin, Wired) because Kobo is coming out with the Aura, a premium E Ink e-reader with a larger, front-lit screen. (Well, maybe you’ll be sorry. I’ve heard mixed reviews of Kobo’s customer service.) Apropos of which…
- Ever wish you could get ratings and comparisons of e-readers in one place? Reader Rocket aims to do just that.
- Apple wanted to team with Goodreads to offer book reviews in its iTunes bookstore, but the proposal fell through due to GR’s negotiations with Amazon. (Sam Oliver, Apple Insider)
- The 2013 Pulitzer Prize list is out.
- “Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2012” GalleyCat’s Jason Boog reports on the ALA’s list of the most challenged/banned library books of the past year.
- Christian Boer has developed a font that’s easier for dyslexics to read. (American Public Media)
- “At the Spelling Bee, Spelling Is No Longer Enough” (NPR’s Weekend Edition)
- “Ebooks made up 23 percent of US publisher sales in 2012, says the AAP,” but ebook sales appear to be plateauing. (Laura Hazard Owen, paidContent)
- “Penguin Proposes to Terminate Agency Agreements in Europe” (Jason Boog, GalleyCat)
For Bloggers:
- Open Road Media is offering the Retro Reads program featuring digital reissues of older romances. The program is for bloggers and other reviewers. Sign up and Open Road will give you 2 titles per month through NetGalley; you agree to review one or both and submit your reviews through NetGalley as well as posting to Goodreads, your blog, or wherever else you post reviews. I’m tempted, but I have enough to do keeping up with the ARCs I’ve already requested.
Awesome Lists:
- “90 Writing Tools in a Single Post” (for Camp NaNoWriMo or writing in general) (GalleyCat)
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
Like you, I’m tempted by Retro Reads but I can barely keep up with what I have already. Oh well.
I think it makes for people to know both the spelling and meaning of a word but many of the words the Spelling Bee chooses are ridiculously obscure and pointless, IMO.
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
Some of them are really obscure, I agree. But I often learn cool new words when I have time to watch some of it!
Rachel Bradford
Personally, I’m a Nook sort of girl. Love that HD+. 😉
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
I’ve heard good things about some of the Nooks! I thought about Nook when I was deciding on my e-reader, but I didn’t think I could read ePub books with Adobe Digital Editions DRM (i.e., the non-proprietary DRM) on them, and at the time I felt strongly about not tying myself down to a single ebook retailer.