Mystery Lovers Bookshop for sale

Interested in owning a book store?  A mystery lover's bookstore?  Here's your opportunity to take over an existing, well-known store:  Mystery Lovers Bookshop.

"Since it opened to big fanfare on Halloween of 1990 Mystery Lovers Bookshop has put Western Pennsylvania on the book world’s map as the target destination for book tours with hundreds of imaginative and packed author events.

The store has sponsored the area’s only Book Festival now in its 17th year with 45 authors and 400 readers attending. For over 15 years, Mystery Lovers has been a reporting store to the New York Times bestseller lists."

If I lived in Western Pennsylvania, I just might really think about it.  But, sadly, I don't.

reading and your brain

A recent study published online January 23 in the journal Archives of Neurology stated that " doing puzzles and reading books have been linked with a decreased risk of Alzheimer's disease, and a new study may explain why — it reduces the accumulation of harmful proteins in the brain."

Terrific news!  Now when I sit in my comfy chair and read instead of doing housework or other chores, I can say I am mentally stimulating my brain!   love it!

For more information on this study go to Vitals on MSNBC.

Mystery visits to Poe grave end

According to The Washington Post:

By Associated Press, Published: January 19

"Edgar Allan Poe fans waited long past a midnight dreary, but it appears annual visits to the writer’s grave in Baltimore by a mysterious figure called the “Poe Toaster” shall occur nevermore.

Poe House and Museum Curator Jeff Jerome said early Thursday that die-hard fans waited hours past when the tribute bearer normally arrives. But the “Poe Toaster” was a no-show for a third year in a row, leaving another unanswered question in a mystery worthy of the writer’s legacy. Poe fans had said they would hold one last vigil this year before calling an end to the tradition....

It is thought that the tributes of an anonymous man wearing black clothes with a white scarf and a wide-brimmed hat, who leaves three roses and a half-empty bottle of cognac at Poe’s original grave on the writer’s birthday, date to at least the 1940s."

Goodreads and Amazon parting ways

Effective January 30, Goodreads and Amazon will no longer be partners.  paid.Content.org has a pretty good explanation of the split.

"Book-centered social networking site Goodreads, which allows users to keep records of the books they read and share the information with others, has long sourced most of its basic book data from Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN). Now, saying Amazon’s API terms have become “more and more restrictive,” Goodreads is switching data providers and entering an agreement with book wholesaler Ingram—alarming some users who fear their reading records will be lost.


The changes take place January 30. Goodreads’ new data source is book wholesaler Ingram. Goodreads will pay to license data from Ingram, and will supplement it with book records from the Library of Congress and other sources."


Click here for the entire article.

Best Mysteries of 2011

I love these list of 'best' books.  There are so many books I have not read and then a lot I haven't even heard of.  My To Read List gets longer every day!!

Anyhow, here's a list from GalleyCat and a bit from the list:


Best Novel
The Ranger by Ace Atkins (Penguin Group USA – G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Gone by Mo Hayder (Grove/Atlantic – Atlantic Monthly Press)
The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino (Minotaur Books)
1222 by Anne Holt (Simon & Schuster – Scribner)
Field Gray by Philip Kerr Penguin Group USA – G.P. Putnam’s Sons – Marion Wood Books)

World Book Night

Just heard about this event:

"We need book-loving volunteers to fan out across America on April 23, 2012! Just take 20 free copies of a book to a location in your community, and you just might change someone's life. Please sign up by Feb. 1.
The goal is to give books to new readers, to encourage reading, to share your passion for a great book. The entire publishing, bookstore, library, author, printing, and paper community is behind this effort with donated services and time.
The first World Book Night was held in the UK last year, and it was such a big success that it's spreading around the world! Please volunteer to be a book giver in the U.S. Sign up now to be a book giver."

Be sure to sign up by Feb. 1

10 most expensive books in the world

Flavorwire posted an article on the 10 Most Expensive Books in the World.   One of the books was auctioned at Christie's on January 20th.

"It could be a record-breaking afternoon in the book world. Today, Christie’s New York will auction off a copy of John James Audubon’s Birds of America, which already holds the title of most valuable printed book in the world, having sold for about $11.5 million in 2010. In fact, according to The Economist, a true list of the ten most valuable single books ever sold would have to include five copies of The Birds of America. Though Christie’s is playing their cards close to the vest and estimating a $7 to $10 million sale, today could see a new record for the book. After all, the copy that sold for $11.5 million was estimated at less than the copy on auction today."

The book sold for $7.9 million!!  The Huffington Report gave some details of the book:  "The 3 1/2-foot-tall books feature hand-colored prints of all the species known to Audubon in early 19th-century North America. Audubon insisted on the book's large format – printed on the largest handmade sheets available at the time – because of his desire to portray the birds in their actual size and natural habitat."

Doug Johnson of The Blue Skunk Blog posted this list


You know you are a 21^st-century librarian when…

• You have to remind kindergarteners to turn off their smart phones before the story starts.
• You know what an IP number is but not an ISBN number.
• You have a student who does a better job troubleshooting the circulation system than the district technician.
• Your students think both The Princess and the Frog and Meet the Robinsons were written by Walt Disney.
• You know more librarians in Texas than you do in your home state because of your Personal Learning Network.
• The best way to remind a student about an overdue book through Facebook.
• You don’t talk in the teachers lounge about a project because it is not tied directly to a state test.
• When answering a reference question, you head to an Internet terminal.
• You’ve started dressing like your avatar.
• Kids look at you funny when you call it the “the card catalog.”
• You have more polo shirts with computer logos than you do book logos - and 25% of your wardrobe comes from vendor booths at conferences.
• Your students want to read the most popular YA lit on their phones.
• Your students show you how to get around the district Internet filter so you can teach a lesson.
• Your aid spends more time troubleshooting the network than reshelving books.
• You never see anyone copy out of the print encyclopedia anymore.
• Your index finger has a callous from tapping the interactive white board.
• You didn’t get your last grad class assignment turned in on time because the network was down.
• You’ve Googled the new teachers in your building - and all the kids have Googled you.
• You don’t remember the last time you’ve had to alphabetize something.
• You have all your passwords and PIN numbers are on your PDA - and you can’t remember the password for your PDA!

ain't that the truth!

Thriller Novels from 2011

I love seeing what authors recommend to their readers.  Michael Palmer talks about   A Few Memorable Thriller Novels from 2011 on his Facebook page.

And I have read a couple of the books -- Joseph Finder is one my favorites (Buried Secrets is his latest) and Karin Slaughter (Blindsighted).

Wikipedia will 'go dark' on January 18

Wikipedia will 'go dark' on January 18.

According to the Wikimedia Foundation  " On January 18, 2012, in an unprecedented decision, the Wikipedia community has chosen to blackout the English version of Wikipedia for 24 hours, in protest against proposed legislation in the United States — the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and PROTECTIP (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate. If passed, this legislation will harm the free and open Internet and bring about new tools for censorship of international websites inside the United States."

The official Wikipedia statement can be found here.

BrillianceAudio books suspended

Recently Overdrive partners were informed that  "Effective January 31, 2012, as instructed by the publisher, BrillianceAudio will suspend the availability of all download audiobook titles for library purchase across all vendors. This change does not affect any titles currently in your library’s catalog. You will not, however, be able to add any additional copies."



INFOdocket comments were:

"Brilliance Audio was acquired by Amazon.com in May, 2007. Amazon also owns Audible.com, the popular audiobook download service.

A Few of the Many Possibilities That Quickly Come to Mind

• Brilliance Sells Access to Titles via Audible, No Need To Lend
• Amazon Will Add Some/All Brilliance Titles to the Their Amazon Prime Program

We have asked Brilliance for a comment and will update if/when we here from them."

Today's Washington Post has a very interesting article  'As demand for e-books soars, libraries struggle to stock their virtual shelves.'

"Kindles, Nooks and iPads can do many amazing things, but they can’t bump you ahead in line at the Reston Regional Library. In fact, if you want to borrow a book, it may be quicker to put down your sleek new device and head into the stacks."

The Joy of Books

The video, The Joy of Books,  has been circling the web all week  (1,768,606 views so far).  In case you missed it, do watch the video -- you will love it.

"After organizing our bookshelf almost a year ago (http://youtu.be/zhRT-PM7vpA), my wife and I (Sean Ohlenkamp) decided to take it to the next level. We spent many sleepless nights moving, stacking, and animating books at Type bookstore in Toronto (883 Queen Street West, (416) 366-8973)."

Which E-Books Are Most Borrowed From Libraries, And Why?

Which E-Books Are Most Borrowed From Libraries, And Why?     

An article on paidContent.org covers ebooks borrowed from libraries:

'OverDrive released its lists of the most-downloaded e-books from libraries in December 2011. These lists look pretty different from the current New York Times e-book bestseller lists."

Also, included in the article is some information on Penguin restoring libraries to lend ebooks -- but no new ebooks.  hmmm.

Jewish Books of 2011

Here's an interesting list from Jewish Ideas Daily.

Of the making of Jewish books there is no end—and some of them are even worth reading.  The past 12 months have not produced a major Jewish novel; in fact, the best novel of the year was published by an obscure university press in Texas.  But histories, translations of Yiddish literature, selected poems from two of our finest poets, and several first-rate memoirs have rushed in to fill the gap.  And, as always, Jewish biography has proved to be a reliable category for the book-starved Jewish reader.  Here is a reader's guide to the top Jewish books of the past year, listed alphabetically by author's last name.


I am disappointed a novel is not included.  As part of a goal I set last year, I'm trying to read a few  books/literature other than mysteries and thrillers.  I have not given up mysteries and thrillers -- I love 'em -- but recently I've read a couple books dealing with other cultures and thoroughly enjoyed them --  The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Lemmon was very good.

Good e-Reader announced a few days ago that Apple plans to launch a new Self-Publishing Program later this month:

"Apple is going to be holding an exclusive event in New York city later this month to possibly launch a new program for their iBooks and Publishing platform. Sources close to the matter have told us that they intend on launching a new digital self-publishing platform to get peoples content into the iBookstore. This is a huge step forward for Apple to compete with Amazon (DTP) and Barnes and Noble (Pubit)."

Self-publishing is getting stronger every day making the ebook world a more interesting place every day, too!

Love it!

Books to Movies 2012

BuzzSugar posted a list of twenty books being made into movies in the next year.  Below are the book covers.  How many of these books have you read?

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