News & Notes — 7/27/13

July 27, 2013 News & Notes 6

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:

    Picture: AP

    Worth Reading:

    For Writers & Bloggers:

    Book Announcements:

    Free & Bargain books:

    • Don’t forget the free audiobook downloads from SYNC!  You will need to download the Overdrive Media Console to be able to download the audiobooks.  Here are this week’s and next week’s titles:
    • The Stories: Five Years of Original Fiction on Tor.com: 151 original SF & fantasy stories by authors like Ann Aguirre, Leigh Bardugo, Elizabeth Bear, Gregory Benford, Cory Doctorow, Mary Robinette Kowal, Garth Nix, Rudy Rucker, Charles Stross, Rachel Swirsky, Harry Turtledove, Catherynne M. Valente, Jo Walton, and more.  That’s a huge amount of good SFF – over 4000 pages’ worth.  You have to sign up as a registered user, but that’s easy enough.  I’ve already downloaded it in both ePub and .mobi (Kindle) formats.

      Awesome lists: 

        Really cool:

        • Neil Gaiman has a game coming out!  Yes, you heard that right.  Gaiman has teamed with video game studio The Odd Gentlemen and mobile app developer Moonshark to create Wayward Manor, a game in which you play a ghost determined to rid a house of its rather quirky residents by scaring them away, using your wits and their own belongings.  The game is still in development, but you can pre-order a digital copy, or (for varying additional fees) support the development process and get additional cool stuff.  The game sounds like a lot of fun; I can hardly wait!

        Just for fun:  

        • How’s this for literary fashion — a dress made almost entirely from pages from a book!  (There’s a smidgen of lace at the bottom of the bodice.)  The designer and model is Jorimoo, and her Imgur album has gotten over 86,000 views already.  Hop on over and check out the detail photos — it’s pretty impressive.  (Thanks to Jason Boog at GalleyCat for putting me on to this.)

        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.

        6 Responses to “News & Notes — 7/27/13”

        1. Greg

          Thanks for more good links. I liked the B&N article, a world without physical books or big bookstores to browse in would be a sad world indeed.

          • Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard

            I completely agree. I read an article a few months ago that suggested that independent bookstores are beginning to make a comeback, and I suspect that is partially in response to the demise of Borders.