Kindle Sales

Kindle sales and ebooks are booming!  Last week Amazon released this statement:


Since April 1, for every 100 print books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 105 Kindle books. This includes sales of hardcover and paperback books by Amazon where there is no Kindle edition. Free Kindle books are excluded and if included would make the number even higher.


I find this amazing!  Are people just buying the books and storing them to read later.  I have many, many books on my Kindle that I have purchased (inexpensive and special offers) and free books that I plan to read at some point.  Or are people actually reading more now?

Book Clubs

Interested in starting your own book club?  
 will guide you through the process.

• Start and manage your own book club.
• Invite your friends to join.
• Have discussions online or in person.
• Find other people with similar book interest. 

Registration is free, and as far as I can tell, there are no charges.  If interested, you can purchase the book online through Amazon and other places, but purchase is not required.   You can start your own club or join an existing club -- similar to the reading groups on other sites.  

Rearranging your bookshelf video

Organizing the Bookcase is a great video.  As the creator said, "Over the weekend my wife and I decided to organize the bookcase. It got a little out of hand...."


Each time I have watched the video, I've noticed something new.  I enjoyed the comments as well.  "Try that with a Kindle!"  "Am i the only one that was watching the clock the whole time..?"


Enjoy!

Kindle Screesavers

Some people are just so creative -- I 'm not!  The Shifted Librarian and How To Geek discuss how to personalize the screensavers on your Kindle and add library-related screensavers.  I haven't tried this yet, but they say it is simple to do.

Librarians quote

"In the nonstop tsunami of global information librarians provide us with floaties and teach us to swim."            (Linton Weeks, Washington Post, 1/13/2001)

Panera Bread and Books

Classic Books -- and Meal to Match

"Panera Bread head chef Dan Kish helps book lovers find delicious choices to go with some memorable page-turners...."

Share Books with the Troops

How to Share Books With Troops Overseas -- great plan!!  GalleyCat has a list of seven ways you can share books (printed and ebooks) with the troops.

The Interrogation of School Librarians

What an insult!  From the Los Angeles Times -- an article about the interrogation of school librarians requiring them to prove they are teachers!

"If state education cuts are drastic, the librarians' only chance of keeping a paycheck is to prove they're qualified to be switched to classroom teaching. So LAUSD attorneys grill them."

Pew report on electronic devices

The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project published these results:
                   ----                                                                              ----

 

Anatomy of a Librarian

Anatomy of a Librarian

Disguise your Kindle

Do you have a Kindle, but miss holding a physical book?  Do you want to hide your Kindle so others won't know you are reading it?  The solution may be an ebook safe.  Coming soon to the ereader market....

Next Generation Digital Book

Next Generation Digital Book presented by Mike Matas at TED.

 'Software developer Mike Matas demos the first full-length interactive book for the iPad -- with clever, swipeable video and graphics and some very cool data visualizations to play with. The book is "Our Choice," Al Gore's sequel to "An Inconvenient Truth." '


Read the comments by other viewers of this video.  

 

Miss Marple redone

Hmmmmm.   Have really mixed feelings about this one.  Disney is going to "reboot" the Agatha Christie's Miss Marple in a new film series with Jennifer Garner as Ms. Marple (assuming the title will change with the new youthful Miss Marple).   I like the actress (the Alias series was great), but I am so used to seeing Margaret Rutherford, Angela Lansbury or Joan Hixson playing the eldering Miss Marple, I'm not sure how I will like this new young, svelte detective.
Also, a nosy, busy-body old woman is a little more accepting than a young, interfering know-it-all.  We'll see....

Mary Higgins Clark WSJ interview

I've been reading Mary Higgins Clark forever.  Though I love Michael Connelly, Jeffrey Deaver, Patricia Cornwell, Karin Slaughter and John Sandford, sometimes I like a break from gritty reality and will read a novel by Mary Higgins Clark.
According to the Wall Street Journal, there "are some things you'll never find in a Mary Higgins Clark novel: an unmarried couple living together, a curse word, a body hacked to pieces. By today's standards, Ms. Clark's thrillers are quaint throwbacks, more in the Agatha Christie mold than the blood-curdling, titillating fare produced by best-selling writers such as James Patterson and Stieg Larsson."
The WSJ article has lots of interesting tidbits about the author.  I wonder when she will be signing books at my local Wegmans?