Sunday, October 27, 2013

Are you excited for the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special?

"You want weapons? We’re in a library. Books! The best weapons in the world!"

- The Tenth Doctor

 

On November 23rd, 1963, the BBC introduced the world to The Doctor. Eleven incarnations, dozens of companions, one K-9, and countless TARDIS rides later, Doctor Who has become a worldwide cultural phenomenon.

 

On November 23rd, 2013, the BBC will air the 50th Anniversary special of the popular British science fiction television program. Titled The Day of the Doctor, this highly anticipated episode will be broadcast simultaneously in over 75 countries spanning six continents.

 

If you're as big of a Whovian as I am, I'm sure you've been planning your parties and getting your costumes ready for months now. But to help you prepare and build up some excitement for this historical event in popular culture, here is a selection of eBooks and Audiobooks, available for purchase in Marketplace, that feature each incarnation of The Doctor.

 

First Doctor (William Hartnell)

The Reign of Terror

 

Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton)

Evil of the Daleks

 

Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee)

Doctor Who and the Silurians

 

Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker)

Doctor Who: Demon Quest, The Complete Series 

 

Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison)

Tales from the Tardis: Volume 1

 

Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker)

Vengeance on Varos 

 

Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy)

Death Comes to Time

 

Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann)

Tales from the Tardis: Volume 2

 

Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston)

The Stealers of Dreams 

 

Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)

Doctor Who: The Price of Paradise

 

Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith)

Doctor Who: Plague of the Cybermen

 

I hope you have as much fun reading and listening to these titles as I had putting the list together. Feel free to share some of your other favorite Doctor Who titles or favorite memories from the last 50 years in the comments section. Allons-y!

 

Rachel Somerville is an Account Specialist with OverDrive.

 

 

Digital Comics Best-Sellers for October 27, 2013

Pretty Deadly 1

Here’s my weekly look at the best-selling digital comics of the week, as of Sunday evening.

ComiXology

1. Wolverine and the X-Men #37
2. Justice League #24
3. Uncanny Avengers #13
4. Pretty Deadly #1
5. Young Avengers, vol. 2 #11
6. Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #28
7. Velvet #1
8. Justice League Dark #24
9. Aquaman #24
10. Captain America #25

Marvel takes the week with five titles in the top ten, while DC has only three. The other two are new series debuts from Image. Pretty Deadly was the subject of a bit of controversy this week, when a reviewer mentioned his retailer disliked it so much he ripped up a copy. Writer Kelly Sue DeConnick’s response was measured and professional: She didn’t care about the ripping up of the comic, but it sold 57,000 copies in print, far beyond her expectations, and she was disappointed that the retailer’s stunt took attention away from that. It looks like plenty of people liked it in digital, too—and you can’t rip up a digital copy.

Kindle

1. Stephen King’s N
2. Spider-Man: Big Time
3. The Walking Dead, vol. 1
4. Astonishing X-Men, vol. 1: Gifted
5. The Hedge Knight: The Graphic Novel
6. The Sandman: Overture #1
7. The Sandman, vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes
8. Fables, vol. 1: Legends in Exile
9. The Walking Dead, vol. 2
10. Batman: The Killing Joke

This week’s Kindle best-seller list is very similar to last week’s. The Spider-Man and Astonishing X-Men books are still on sale, and the Walking Dead is still a monstrously popular franchise. Both The Hedge Knight and The Sandman: Overture #1 are pre-orders, so I expect we’ll continue to see them on the chart for several weeks to come. It’s interesting to note that although Amazon sells single-issue comics, every title on this list except The Sandman: Overture is a graphic novel. That’s what people seem to prefer on their Kindles, at least now that Injustice: Gods Among Us is on hiatus.

Nook

1. Ghostopolis
2. It’s a Dog’s Life, Snoopy
3. The World According to Lucy
4. Snoopy at the Bat
5. Sandman #1
6. The Walking Dead, vol. 1
7. Injustice: Gods Among Us #1
8. Big Nate: Game On!
9. Injustice: Gods Among Us #2
10. Injustice: Gods Among Us #36

There’s a new top seller in the Nook store: Doug TenNapel’s Ghostopolis, a full-length graphic novel for children, marked down to $1.99 at the moment, which probably explains its popularity. It’s also very good, and well worth a read at any price. Aside from that, it’s the same ol’ same ol’, with Peanuts, Injustice, and The Walking Dead dominating the lineup.

iBooks

1. Blue Is the Warmest Color
2. The Walking Dead, vol. 1
3. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic #11
4. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic #1
5. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic #2
6. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic #4
7. Watchmen
8. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic #12
9. The Walking Dead, vol. 18
10. The Walking Dead, vol. 9

Finally, we get a bit of variety in the iBookstore as Blue Is the Warmest Color tops the charts. This is another book with a bit of controversy behind it. It was the basis for the film of the same name that won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and had its U.S. premiere this past weekend, but the actresses, director, and writer have all had sharp words for one another. Clearly the film and the gossip have folks reaching for the original graphic novel, and digital is the quickest and easiest way to get it. (It’s also available on Kindle, but apparently not on Nook or comiXology.)

Digital Comics Best-Sellers for October 27, 2013 is a post from: E-Reader News

eBook Review: Allegiant by Veronica Roth

allegiant-book-cover-high-res

Verdict: 2 Stars

Just when you think you’ve endured as many pages of suffering and hurting as is possible to squeeze between the covers of a book, it gets worse.

Allegiant is the long-awaited final book in the Divergent trilogy, a young adult series by author Veronica Roth. Without having to write the dreaded words “spoiler alert,” let’s just say that Roth spent a great deal of time torturing many of the characters that readers already suffered alongside in the first two books.

Interestingly, part of the problem with this final installment was the amount of time it took to come to readers’ bookshelves, a by-product of the spoiling nature of digital- and self-publishing. Where readers are growing more and more accustomed to the rapid release dates afforded by ebooks, having to wait for a traditionally published sequel–especially one whose title wasn’t even released by the publisher until this fall, as if titles are now top secret–was not exactly agonizing, but more like irritating. In the time I’ve waited since first falling in love with Tris and Four and rooting for the factions and factionless alike, I’ve found twenty other authors that I like better, and just as many story lines and compelling characters to keep me entertained.

Okay, fine…spoiler alert: I feel ripped off by the publishing industry over this book. I became a fan and a believer, only to spend two years of my life waiting for THIS ending to the series. Read at your own risk.

Allegiant is available now from ebook and print distributors everywhere.

eBook Review: Allegiant by Veronica Roth is a post from: E-Reader News

Leadership Change at Amazon Publishing

AmazonPublishing

When online book retailer Amazon decided to venture into traditional publishing more than two years ago, it staged a coup of sorts by winning over long-time industry professional Larry Kirshbaum to head up their operations. Now, with eleven distinct imprints and a staff of editors nearly thirty-strong, Kirshbaum is leaving Amazon Publishing and returning to his former role as a literary agent.

In an official statement, Amazon wrote, “Larry joined us two and a half years ago and has been instrumental in launching our New York office, including our New Harvest partnership, and establishing our children's book business. We're sorry to see him go, and wish him the best of luck as he returns to life as a literary agent.”

Some sources don’t see this as a cause for alarm where Amazon’s different imprints, each based on a specific genre or market, are concerned, as the established market for niche-specific titles continues to flourish. What remains to be seen will be Amazon Publishing’s success with a still-elusive market, brick-and-mortar bookstores.

To fill Kirshbaum’s esteemed shoes, Amazon will pass a large portion of the responsibilities to Daphne Durham, who began with Amazon Publishing in 1999 and has already taken some of the responsibilities within the company from Kirshbaum.

Leadership Change at Amazon Publishing is a post from: E-Reader News

Kobo Arc 7 and Kobo Arc 7 HD Comparison Video

kobo arc 7 and kobo arc 7 hd

Welcome to another Good e-Reader Comparison Video! Today we look at both of Kobo’s latest generation seven inch tablets that are available right now. I am of course talking about the Kobo Arc 7 and Kobo Arc 7 HD. We put these two devices head to head reading eBooks, watching videos and a whole lot more!

You can think of these two new gadgets as looking aesthetically the same but having very different internals and overall resolution. You can put both of these in front of your average customer and they would be hard pressed to tell you the differences, other than the price.

The Kobo Arc 7 features a seven-inch capacitive LCD touchscreen with a resolution of 1024×600 pixels. Kobo had to sacrifice screen quality to drive down the price, but if you are buying this just to read eBooks, magazines, and newspapers, it should be more than sufficient. Underneath the hood is a Quad-Core, 1.2 GHz. processor. There are also 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of internal memory, you can enhance the memory up to 32 GB via the Micro SD.

The Kobo Arc HD features a seven inch capacitive touchscreen display with a resolution of 1920×1200 pixels. It currently has over 323 PPI and will play back videos in pure 1080p. This is quite an upgrade in screen technology over the original Arc, which only had 1280 x 800 HD resolution and 215 PPI.
Underneath the hood is an Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor that is running a very solid 1.7 GHZ. There is also 1 GB of RAM and 16/32 GB variants for storage space. There is no expandable storage with this model, so make sure you buy the one that suits your needs.


Kobo Arc 7 and Kobo Arc 7 HD Comparison Video is a post from: E-Reader News