Amazon has lowered the price of a Kindle reader from $399 to $359. This despite the electronic reader going "out of stock" (whatever that may mean) not long after it hit the market last November.
An Amazon spokesman says the Kindle's price has dropped because it has become cheaper to produce. We may never know exactly how many Kindles have been sold, but (like all new technologies) I suspect we'll see them getting even cheaper as time goes by.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Friday, May 30, 2008
For Your Reading Pleasure
Another online publication for book lovers at bookforum.com.
As if there weren't enough stuff I'd like to read offline.
As if there weren't enough stuff I'd like to read offline.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Potter Prequel to Go Up for Auction
An 800-word Harry Potter prequel hand-written by J.K. Rowling on (get this) a card will be auctioned off by Waterstone's Booksellers Ltd. in London, along with 12 other card-sized works by authors and illustrators such as Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing, novelist Margaret Atwood and playwright Tom Stoppard.
The proceeds will go to English PEN, a writers' association, and the British charity Dyslexia Action. Copies of the cards will be collated into a book that will be available at the bookstore and online in August.
Rowling wrote the prequel on both sides of the card, reported to be slightly bigger than a postcard. I still think she must have written really, really tiny to fit 800 words on something that size.
The proceeds will go to English PEN, a writers' association, and the British charity Dyslexia Action. Copies of the cards will be collated into a book that will be available at the bookstore and online in August.
Rowling wrote the prequel on both sides of the card, reported to be slightly bigger than a postcard. I still think she must have written really, really tiny to fit 800 words on something that size.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Shaken, Not Stirred
Today, I give you not just one, but two (somewhat tepid) reviews of the latest Bond (James Bond) novel, DEVIL MAY CARE (Doubleday).
And happy 100th birthday-that-would-have-been to Ian Fleming.
And happy 100th birthday-that-would-have-been to Ian Fleming.
Radio Love, Singleton Hippie Art
RADIO LOVE(c) Singleton 2008Ten thousand songsstreetsstoriesandI'm high...Bare toesbalancedon the very edgeof yesterday,A rock and rollballet ofButterflies and Bowie...Incense and drumsrolling,snapping,Jiffy Pop on an open fire....Tin can percussionpulling you in...And we're high...Ten thousand lyricspenciledin the wind....
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Lower Crime Rate Bad for Mystery Writers?
New York is enjoying a sharp decline in crime--the fewest homicides since the first reliable stats became available in 1963. So does this mean hardboiled crime writers can no longer describe the "mean streets" of New York with as much grit as they used to?
Mystery author S.J. Rozan seems to think so. Her 1994 novel CHINA TRADE opened with a scene in which a couple of private investigators mixed it up with three members of a Chinatown gang. Guns were drawn "in a chaotic scene that also featured undercover police officers dressed as winos, a surprise attack by another gang from a car speeding along the West Side Highway, and a double-cross scheme by a member of the first gang."
However, Rozan says, "That kind of book couldn’t be written anymore, because that level of lawlessness has really disappeared. . . . Anyone who has recently come to New York would pick it up and think: 'What is wrong with this woman? What is she making up?'"
Well, lower crime rate or not, crime still happens in New York and other places. And you can write hardboiled in ways that reflect gritty realities of life other than public gunfights with gang-bangers. So, I don't think crime writers are in any great danger of lacking realistic material anytime soon.
Mystery author S.J. Rozan seems to think so. Her 1994 novel CHINA TRADE opened with a scene in which a couple of private investigators mixed it up with three members of a Chinatown gang. Guns were drawn "in a chaotic scene that also featured undercover police officers dressed as winos, a surprise attack by another gang from a car speeding along the West Side Highway, and a double-cross scheme by a member of the first gang."
However, Rozan says, "That kind of book couldn’t be written anymore, because that level of lawlessness has really disappeared. . . . Anyone who has recently come to New York would pick it up and think: 'What is wrong with this woman? What is she making up?'"
Well, lower crime rate or not, crime still happens in New York and other places. And you can write hardboiled in ways that reflect gritty realities of life other than public gunfights with gang-bangers. So, I don't think crime writers are in any great danger of lacking realistic material anytime soon.
Monday, May 26, 2008
The 'Da Vinci Code' of Physics? I'm Hooked
Imagine a thriller based on the idea that Einstein actually figured out the Unified Field Theory he was after for so long and entrusted pieces of the theory to each of his students before he shuffled off to another dimension. And now, evil forces are trying to collect all the pieces and do whatever it is that evil forces would do with the Unified Field Theory (bad things, no doubt). And it's up to "a lapsed physicist who now teaches the history of science at Columbia University" to stop them.
Or so THE FINAL THEORY (Touchstone) by Mark Alpert is described in this review.
This so totally appeals to the science geek in me.
Or so THE FINAL THEORY (Touchstone) by Mark Alpert is described in this review.
This so totally appeals to the science geek in me.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)