| The Association of German Publishers have filed a complaint with the European commission that Amazon has created an audiobook monopoly via their Audible unit. Each year, Germans buy more audiobooks than e-books, and the voice actors are as big as rock stars. This past summer, 20,000 Germans filled a Berlin stadium just to listen to the most popular audiobook series. In 2013 close to five million German customers have purchased an audiobook and this is a huge deal, considering this accounts for 7% of the overall population. Audiobooks is one of the hottest segments currently operating in Germany and ironically 90% of all sales stem from Audible. Alexander Skipis, the head of the German Book Trade body, said: "The business model of Amazon and Audible is aimed at destroying the excellent book trade structure in Germany. These companies are avowedly on the way to establish a monopoly." He went on to say that Audibles dominant market position to force publishers to accept "unreasonable conditions." I really doubt anything will come of the petition to the European Commission to look into Amazons audiobook practices in Germany. There is simply no homegrown companies that have built any sort of traction and the ones that do exist are fighting for less than 10% market share because they are short on cash to woo publishers to investing into their ecosystem. |
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
German Publishers Accuse Amazon of Audiobook Monopoly
Top Manga Reading Apps for Android – 2015
| Manga e-reading apps have really grown up in the last few years as companies are starting to employ more features in order to standout in a crowded landscape. Some are trying to emulate the flat design principles that Google is hyping and others are just giving you an excellent user experience. Lets take a look at the best manga apps of 2015. Zingbox Manga – ZingBox is a free manga reader app for Android which provides the most amazing manga reading experience. You can read manga in a clean and easy-to-use interface. It supports paper-rolling, page-turning, landscape and portrait mode. What I like about this app is that they have a ton of original content. They make it easy for independent artists and self-publishers to submit their manga into their service. Manga Rock – Manga Rock is a brilliant app to read manga, not only has it one of the best reading UIs out there, but it's also extremely easy to get hold of manga as well. It can ever deliver manga in more than just English, which is great for those in other parts of Europe and even Latin America. I can't stress enough how good it is to see a developer take advantage of what Android 4.1 and above can bring to app design, the slide-out drawer and action bar are used to great effect and there's even smart use of gestures such as pinching and more. The vast variety of manga and fast speed of the app makes this a no-brainer for those already heavily invested in manga but, those just starting out will find a welcoming app to start something new. For those starting out I'd recommend just taking a look at the huge catalogue on offer and choosing something to get your teeth stuck into. Manga Rock will make your commutes quicker and your lazy Sundays more fulfilling. Don't forget to download which version you need, there's one for US residents and one for those outside of the US. Manga Box – This app was developed by DeNA who have an extensive track record of quality app development for Android. Manga Box is hosting manga from Kodansha, as well as Shogakukan and DeNA itself. The company also plans to add more publishers to the app in the future. Some of the manga featured on Manga Box are being published simultaneously in both English and Japanese, and the app is available on the iTunes Store and on Google Play in 140 countries and regions around the world. DeNA also plans to add more languages to the app in the future. Manga Box will allow users to read the 12 most recent issues of manga for free, and the users can also read the first 100 pages of the first volume of each series at all times. Shin Kibayashi (one of the many pennames of Tadashi Agi and the creator of The Drops of God, Kindaichi Case Files, and GetBackers), is serving as editor-in-chief of the app. DeNA is selling e-books and printed books of the manga published on Manga Box, and also plans “a variety of movie adaptations and merchandise based on the series in collaboration with Dentsu Inc.” Viz Manga – Viz is certainly a force to be reckoned with when it comes to manga production. They have lots of really great retro stuff such as Random 1/2, Berzerk and Bleach. The free VIZ Manga App continues to be the top application for reading digital manga and features a massive library of 2,000 volumes across nearly 200 different series. You can read manga in both portrait (where it appears as a single page) and landscape (where it appears as a two page spread) orientations. Portrait gives you a larger page, which is very nice, but landscape feels a bit more natural to me. They're both quality ways to read manga, and it's easy to adjust your reading experience to your preferred orientation. Viz's pricing is pretty good. It seems like it's divided up according to page count, with exceptions for certain titles. Most manga, such as the popular Shonen Jump or Shojo Beat titles, will run you $4.99. These books run in the neighborhood of two hundred pages, give or take a couple dozen pages. For $5.99, you can purchase longer works, from 200 to over 300 pages. This includes many of Viz's SIGIKKI books, several of which we've talked about before. These books tend to be aimed at a more mature audience than Naruto or other shonen titles. Crunchyroll Manga – Crunchyroll is best known for their television and streaming manga video app. They have dedicated apps basically for every single platform out there, including Android, Apple and Xbox. Last year they launched their impressive Android Manga Reader app and the big selling point is it has new manga chapters the same day they are released in Japan. Crunchyroll is different from almost all other manga services in one important respect: It is a streaming service. The user cannot download the manga. Given a choice between free streaming manga or download-to-own manga at a price, a substantial part of the manga audience has opted for the free service. There is no shortage of users that can use the service either, its available in almost 180 different countries. So how does the app actually perform? Crunchyroll Manga comes with a sleek, minimalistic interface and responsive swiping and zooming-in gestures, which make the reading quick and enjoyable. Also, the content, itself, looks great on a good screen. The guide mode shows you mangas, panel by panel, allowing you to focus on the drawings and observe even the smallest details. This is a great feature that no other manga apps we know of have. There is also a huge number of free chapters are available for sampling, making it easy for you to discover interesting titles. |
Amazon Kindle Basic Touch vs Kobo Touch 2.0
| Amazon and Kobo are heavily competing against each other when it comes to entry level e-Readers. The Kindle Basic came out at the tail end of 2014, whereas the new Kobo model was issued a few week ago. What device is better? Today, we evaluate the overall hardware and e-book experience. The Kobo Touch 2.0 and Kindle Basic are fairly similar when it comes to the specs. They both feature a six inch e-Ink Pearl display with a resolution of 800 x 600 at 167 ppi. It is important to note that these aren’t capacitive touch, like the Kindle Voyage or Kobo Aura, instead they are employing older Neonode Infrared technology. Underneath the hood is a 1 GHZ Freescale processor, 512 MB of RAM and 4 GB of internal memory. The one advantage Kobo has is the ability to clone the SD card that is hidden underneath the removable back plate and boost the memory up to 32 GB. In the video we will document the design differences between these two devices and look at the main UI features. You will get a sense of what Amazon and Kobo are both doing to differentiate themselves from each other and the competition. Additionally, we will also look at the internet browser and checkout e-books.
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1 Year of Amazon Prime Membership is $67 on September 25th
| Amazon is going to be discounting their Prime membership from $99 to $67 this Friday. This is a limited time offer that will start and end this Friday and they are doing it because of Amazon's five Emmy wins at this year's 67th PrimeTime Emmy Awards, the company says – and this is its way of celebrating. Many people are hearing about Amazons original content from their Instant Video service, due to the mainstream media attention. It is similar to Netflix, but the platform is only available in the US. Prime membership gives customers two-day, free shipping on tens of millions of items, as well as access to tens of thousands of free TV shows, movies, music, and books. It includes unlimited cloud storage for photos, too. |
A Thing Explainer word checker
| Want to try writing using only simple words? Here’s a writing checker you can use: xkcd.com/simplewriter. To help me write the words in my Up Goer Five picture, I taught my computer to watch my writing and tell me when one of the words I used wasn’t in the top ten hundred. After I put up my Up Goer picture, other people made things to check writing, too (like this one). When I decided to write Thing Explainer, I went back to the writing checker I had used and made it better. Now, I’m happy to be able to share it with everyone! To use it, just touch here and start writing. If you use a word that’s not in Thing Explainer’s set of the ten hundred, the word will turn red. (I usually count all forms of a word, like “kick” and “kicked,” together as one word, although there are a few special cases where I don’t.) Have fun explaining things! A note on the words: Some words are used more often in certain kinds of writing and talking than in others, which means different ways of counting words will give different answers for which ones we use the most. The set of ten hundred words in Thing Explainer comes from putting together many ways of counting how much people use a word to come up with a single set of ten hundred words that should sound familiar and simple to lots of people. Thank you to James Zetlen, who helped make the word checker work on other people’s computers and not just mine.  |
Fire OS 5 Adds New Accessibility Features to Fire Tablets
| Amazon’s new line of Fire tablets get released next week, and with their release comes a new operating system called Fire OS 5, aka “Bellini”. The updated software adds some new features like Kindle Word Runner, the new speed reading tool. Fire OS 5 also adds a few new accessibility features to Fire tablets for […] |
I’m going on a book trip!
| I made a book that explains things. It’s called Thing Explainer. It will be out soon! It’s a big flat book full of pictures of things with lots of parts. There are also little words that tell you what all the parts do. You can read more about it here! When my book comes out next month, I’m going to visit a lot of places with it! I’m going to New York, Seattle and Portland, San Francisco and Berkeley, Houston, Chicago and Naperville, and Toronto. If you live near one of those cities, maybe you can come see me! In each city I visit, I’ll be standing in a big room and talking to people. I’ll also be writing my name in people’s books, but only if they want me to.
Here’s how you can come see me in each city. (This part doesn’t use simple words, but that’s because I like the people whose buildings I’m visiting and don’t want to make problems by using different words from the ones on their signs and stuff.) TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24 MONDAY, NOVEMBER 30 TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1 WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3 MONDAY, DECEMBER 7 WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10 FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11 Other places Can’t make any of these events, but still want a signed copy? A limited quantity of signed Thing Explainers are available to pre-order from Harvard Bookstore and Porter Square Books. Already pre-ordered your copy? Email your proof of pre-order for the print edition of Thing Explainer—either a copy of your e-receipt or photo of print receipt—and mailing address to trademarketing@hmhco.com by November 15, 2015 and you’ll be entered to win one of 300 signed bookplates, which look like this:
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Fire Tablets 2015 Comparison Tables
| Now that Amazon has unveiled their new lineup of Fire tablets for 2015, a lot of people are wondering how each model compares to the other new and previous Kindle Fire tablets. A few days back I updated the Kindle Comparison Table to add the new Fire tablets to the list. The table includes all […] |
Put on your pageant dresses because we’re reviewing Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy
| By Kristin Milks, a librarian and Collection Development Specialist with OverDrive Put on your Dolly records, get out your tiaras, and make sure your pageant smiles are plastered on your face because Julie Murphy's new book Dumplin' is here.
While reading this book, I told some friends that Willowdean is my new spirit animal. She is a great role model with her love of who she is even when the world (and her mother) tell her to change her body so she can be happy, even though she's already happy. She's fierce, not letting the school bully get in her way or make her or her friends feel bad. She calls people out on their baloney and when her friends do the same to her, she listens. The secondary characters were great as well. Her group of three other "misfits" who enter the pageant start becoming close and their relationships enhance the book. This book was exactly what I wanted! Its light hearted, yet tackles some issues that everybody deals with, namely the loss of a loved one, self-perception, body image, and bullying. What I really loved about this book is that it didn't over dramatize everything. It felt real because it wasn't over the top, full of angst, or melodramatic. I also enjoyed that this was a book about women sticking together for the most part. A beauty pageant invokes images of hair pulling and gossip, but Julie Murphy stayed away from that stereotype, instead showing these girls rallying behind each other. SISTERHOOD! If you're thinking you need a great YA read or you need to recommend a YA read, I HIGHLY suggest Dumplin'. It's a great read-alike to Eleanor and Park and The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things. Oh and just try NOT listening to 'Jolene' when reading this book. I dare you.  |
Oyster Closing eBook Subscription Service
| Yesterday Oyster announced on their blog that they will be closing the doors on their ebook subscription service after just 2 years of being in business. Oyster’s explanation is rather vague and ambiguous; the post reads more like a plug for reading on mobile phones than a business closure statement. Giving customers an honest explanation […] |
Win big with OverDrive’s “In The Classroom” Contest!
| We’re excited to announce the 2015 “In The Classroom” content where schools can win content credit by showing how you’re using and promoting your OverDrive services with your students and your curriculum. One of the best ways to get students reading is enable them to do so with their favorite devices and by having them use the technology everyday. OverDrive wants to showcase how your school or district is utilizing digital content in the classroom. The top three submissions will win a $1,000 content credit and be showcased by OverDrive (with your consent) in our monthly webinars to prospective schools. All entries will be entered in a drawing to win an iPad mini. Key areas of OverDrive in the classroom implementation include:
If you’re looking for more ways to spread the word about your digital content be sure to check out our brand new school resources hub! Please be creative and tell us your story of how you are using OverDrive in the classroom. Submit your application by Monday, October 12, 2015. If you have any questions regarding this contest, please contact us  |
Sci-Fi your Pi
| Liz: Today we’ve got a guest post from our friends at element14, who have been running a competition over the last few months that’s had Raspberry Pi owners making movie magic. Our very own James Adams did the judging, and we’ve really enjoyed seeing the entries – we think you’ll find them as amazing as we did. Thanks folks! Whatever the science fiction film, television show or novel, all sci-fi fans share one commonality: an appreciation for the technology that helps their favourite heroes overcome even the most impossible odds. That appreciation is also evident with the Raspberry Pi, which has spurred countless science fiction-themed projects and inventions around the world. That's why we set up the Sci Fi Your Pi design competition, in which 25 challengers used the Raspberry Pi to bring their favourite science fiction projects to life. The participants worked tirelessly to complete their projects, documenting their progress along the way via blog posts, photos and video at element14. Today, we’re excited to announce the winning entry. After much deliberation, Enrico Miglino was named the winner for his MediTech system, inspired by the Star Trek series. Enrico's device used the Raspberry Pi 2 and a multimeter to create a portable multi-tool medical examination kit. The device measures heart rate, body temperature, blood pressure and blood glucose, assess eye health and is capable of doing body surface image analysis. For his design, Enrico will receive a replica of Boba Fett's Mandalorian helmet created by the legendary Don Post Studios valued at $2,300 (£1,500). Boba Fett’s ACTUAL helmet is currently a bit acid-etched. Several other participants impressed us with their creations. Finalist Michael Hahn also drew inspiration from Star Trek to build a scientific tricorder that can evaluate the environment's atmospheric conditions, temperature and humidity. Finalist Joey Thompson built a QuadCop, a low-cost, custom-built quadcopter that performs security screenings, inspired by the Terminator series. Frederick Vandenbosch, the fourth finalist, created a PiDesk, which leverages the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B+ to turn an ordinary work desk into an interactive series of touch and motion controls, similar to the one featured in the Tron Legacy franchise. As part of the challenge, element14 created the movie posters you can see above, representing each finalist's project and the film that inspired it. All 25 of the projects submitted show just how much the Pi has captured the imagination of engineers and tech enthusiasts alike. And while the Sci Fi Your Pi challenge may officially be over, this is just the beginning of new opportunities to creatively use our technologies in fun ways. Thank you to everybody who took part in the competition and to all Raspberry Pi enthusiasts at element14 and beyond who continue to inspire new applications for the Raspberry Pi 2. To learn more about the Sci Fi Your Pi challenge and view the full gallery of projects, visit www.element14.com/scifiyourpi. The post Sci-Fi your Pi appeared first on Raspberry Pi. |
Official Harry Potter Website Relaunches
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Pottermore.com today reveals its newly imagined website and positioning as the digital heart of J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World with a major redesign and packed with exclusive writing, features, and news. New writing by J.K. Rowling continues to be at the core of the site which also features a never before seen article by the author, revealing the history of the wizarding Potter family from its illustrious beginnings in the twelfth century. The new writing from J.K. Rowling sheds unexpected new light on the origins of the Potter family name, delves into Harry's ancestry, explains how his grandfather quadrupled the family's fortune and how the Invisibility Cloak became a family heirloom. Recently undergoing a design transformation, pottermore.com now includes more content than ever before and is designed to be consumed in a completely different way to the original site, which was launched in 2012. The new site contains entertaining features, commentary and articles about the Harry Potter series and the wider Wizarding World. Being designed first for mobile also helps users to easily share on social media as they go. For the first time ever, there will be reporting and features by the Pottermore Correspondent, a journalist dedicated to reporting on all the latest updates going on in the Wizarding World. In the months to come the Pottermore Correspondent will report on the forthcoming Warner Bros. feature film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, based on an original J.K. Rowling screenplay, and the stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, a new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, written by Jack Thorne, which is set to open in London in 2016. Susan L. Jurevics, Chief Executive Officer, Pottermore, said: 'J.K. Rowling is continuing to expand her magical universe, and as the Wizarding World expands, so does Pottermore. The fascinating story of the Potter family, from the author herself, will enthrall everyone interested in this world and shows just how J.K. Rowling's writing remains at the heart of our new site. Users will find all areas easier to access, due to the elimination of mandatory registration, as well as responsive designs for optimal viewing across a wide range of devices. Our new digital destination is tailored to unlock and stimulate the imagination like never before.' The new version of pottermore.com is an English-language site only and is a flexible and evolving digital platform for the Wizarding World. The Harry Potter eBooks and digital audio books remain available to buy in multiple languages via the Pottermore Shop: https://shop.pottermore.com |
Monday, September 21, 2015
Oyster is Shutting Down their e-Book Subscription Service
| Oyster has announced that they are shuttering their e-book subscription service in the next few months and customers will have to look for new options. The company raised over $17 million dollars during the lifespan of their company and this was not enough to keep them solvent. In a statement on the official Oyster Blog the company stated “we will be taking steps to sunset the existing Oyster service over the next several months. If you are an Oyster reader you will receive an email personally regarding your account in the next few weeks. We look forward to sharing more details soon, but rest assured, your account will continue to operate normally in the meantime. If you'd like to request a refund, please contact us at refunds@oysterbooks.com.” Oyster is the second company in the last few months to find that the entire e-book subscription concept is flawed and is an unsound business model. Entitle went out of business in July and like Oyster they were solely reliant on venture capital funding in order to keep the lights on, because the e-book subscription market does not have enough paid readers to make the business model viable on its own. One of the challenges that Oyster faced faced was having to constantly placate publishers concerns. The vast majority of them are very apprehensive about going the same route music or movies went. In a recent interview with the Bookseller, Arnaud Nourry, the CEO of Hachette said"We now have an ecosystem that works. This is why I have resisted the subscription system, which is a flawed idea even though it proliferates in the music business. Offering subscriptions at a monthly fee that is lower than the price of one book is absurd. For the consumer, it makes no sense. People who read two or three books a month represent an infinitesimal minority." Penguin Random House's CEO Tom Weldon echoed Arnaud's sentiments at the Futurebook conference a little awhile ago in the UK. "We have two problems with subscription. We are not convinced it is what readers want. 'Eat everything you can' isn't a reader's mindset. In music or film you might want 10,000 songs or films, but I don't think you want 10,000 books." The Penguin and Hachette bosses sentiments are oddly prophetic, it seems as though the e-book subscription service is flawed and all of the major companies in this space are going out of business. How a company burns $17 million in two years and is totally abandoning their business is totally beyond me. |
Kindle for Samsung Free e-Books for September 2015
| Amazon developed a customized version of their seminal Kindle e-reading app for Samsung in early 2014. It is now bundled on most of the companies smartphones and tablets and available in 80 different countries. Every month there are four e-books available in a pool and you can pick one to read completely for free. Today, lets look at the titles that are available for September. The Drowning Guard: A Novel of the Ottoman Empire by Linda Lafferty Each morning in the hour before dawn, a silent boat launches on the Bosphorous, moving swiftly into the deepest part of the waters halfway between Europe and Asia, where a man will die… The Drowning Guard is the tale of the Ottoman princess, Esma Sultan—one of the most powerful women in Ottoman history and unlike any other woman in the Islamic world. In a gender reversal of Scheherazade in 1001 Arabian Nights, Esma seduces a different Christian lover each night, only to have him drowned in the morning. The Sultaness’s true passion burns only for the Christian-born soldier charged with carrying out the brutal nightly death sentence: her drowning guard, Ivan Postivich. The Drowning Guard explores the riddle of Esma—who is at once a murderer and a champion and liberator of women—and the man who loves her in spite of her horrifying crimes. This textured historical novel, set in the opulence and squalor of Istanbul in 1826, is woven with the complexity and consequences of love. n the underbelly of Soho's organized crime ring, everyone knows that retired boxer Harry Woods is not one to mess with. And that goes double for his family. Harry has it all: the big house, the flashy cars, and an abundance of wealth. As much as money talks in his world, Harry knows deep down the only thing that really counts is family. Haunted by the sudden death of his wife, he'll do anything to protect his children, but truth is a heavy burden and hidden secrets can unravel even the strongest of bonds…. Without loyalty, family are bound together only by blood. Bad blood. Once Bitten by Stephen Leather There’s a full moon over Los Angeles, and for police psychologist Jamie Beaverbook that can only mean one thing: the crazies will be out in force. But when he is called into the station for a consult in the middle of the night, even the jaded Beaverbrook can’t believe his ears. The innocent-looking girl in the interview room doesn’t look a day over fifteen, yet the cops say Terry Ferriman was discovered in an alley off of Sunset Boulevard, her mouth smeared with blood as she crouched over the body of a man whose throat was torn out. A basic psych evaluation convinces Beaverbrook of Terry’s sanity and yet he can’t ignore the evidence that seems to point in one extraordinary direction. He tells himself he doesn?t believe in vampires, but after some digging, the good doctor begins to realize that the shadows of L.A. conceal a world where girls like Terry never age and where blood is more valuable than gold. Never Kiss a Rake (Scandal at the House of Russell #1) by Anne Stuart Bryony Russell and her two sisters are left destitute by the disgrace and unexpected death of their father, a wealthy shipping magnate. He left a cryptic note, and Bryony is determined to find the real villain and clear her father's name. In disguise as a servant, Bryony infiltrates the home of her father's business partner to find proof of his guilt…or innocence. It's not just clues that Bryony finds, but temptation too… Adrian Bruton, Earl of Kilmartyn, immediately suspects there is something not quite right about his new housekeeper. The brooding, irresistible rake plays along because he has his own guilty secrets, and his venal, scheming wife holds the key to them, trapping him in a hate-filled marriage. But against his will he's fascinated by Bryony, seeing past the scars on her face to show her the beauty she never knew she had. Bryony must uncover the truth and attempt to preserve her father's legacy, before things go too far and she falls in love with a man who might very well be her worst enemy. |
Nokia Developed a Secret e-Reader in 2013
| Nokia is well known for their foray into smartphones and to a lesser degree tablets, but did you know they were secretly developing an e-reader? In 2013, the same year the Kindle Paperwhite came out, Nokia had designed an e-reader that they were hoping to market all over Europe. The Nokia e-reader was known internally as Pine and it was running on Linux based system, where Nokia were teaming up with book providers to develop "interactive content". Stephen Elop the former CEO of Nokia decided to kill this device, as his first major decision when he joined the company. This might have been a bad move because the e-reader and e-book industry have blossomed into a multi-billion dollar industry. Likely, he was just totally inept when it came to technology because under his tenure Nokia annual revenues fell 40%. His only saving grace was selling the company to Microsoft. Could the Nokia Pine made a difference in the e-reader sector? I guess we’ll never know. |
10 e-Books to read this Fall
| GoodReads has just crunched the data from over 40 million users and put together a list of the top e-books that are going to be available in the next few months. If you are looking to curl up and read a new title or discover a new read, this is the list for you. Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg  This debut novel from a writer who is better known as a superstar literary agent is generating both a lot of anticipation and also stellar reviews on Goodreads. Goodreads member, Maxwell, says "It's these kinds of books, ones that you can't put down, that bring you to tears, or resonate deeply within you, that stay with you the most. It makes you grateful for the community around you; friends, family, even the people you don't think affect your life, but at the end of the day are all part of your story." Tip: This is a great book club choice, likely to provoke a lot of discussion about regret, redemption, and how life is impacted by small decisions and actions.  From the author of bestseller, The Secret Keeper, comes a new mystery set in Cornwall. A child goes missing in 1933, and in 2003, a London police officer on disciplinary leave, stumbles across the case and starts investigating. On Goodreads, Susan says "The book has so many layers and so many secrets that it's like an onion. The layers keep being peeled away and everything you thought you knew is gone in a poof of smoke. Things keep being revealed and you can barely put the book down because you just have to know what's going to happen next." (Will be published on October 20, 2015) Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff  One of the most talked-about literary novels this Fall, "Fates and Furies" is getting rave reviews from readers on Goodreads. In this story about a marriage of 24 years, you first hear the husband's side and then the wife's. Karen's review on Goodreads says "this is a story of the moving parts that keep a marriage going; the sacrifices and the machinations under the smooth façade. It's about how much work it takes to make it look effortless. It's about secrets." Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta  A coming of age story about a young woman called Ijeoma that reveals the suppression LGBTQ people continue to face daily in Nigeria. In her Goodreads review, Betsey writes "As the story progresses with a compassionate and vital energy, the reader is taken on a courageous journey of a woman who is fighting for love, family, personal justice, and as sense of inner peace. Okparanta, in this touching novel, gives voice to the many Nigerians who have been forced to go into hiding. She speaks up for love, in different forms." (Will be published on September 22, 2015) The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks  If your knowledge of the Bible's King David is limited to the battle of David & Goliath, this book by the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning "People of the Book" will open your eyes to his extraordinary life and times. Goodreads reviewer, Tony, writes: "Brooks' capacity to tell a gripping story, of a person who is immensely talented and deeply flawed is wonderful. David has an insatiable hunger for victory, love and sex. He is driven to rule and all that this entails—there is as much blood and slaughter as in several seasons of Game of Thrones here and almost as much lust." (Available on October 6, 2015) City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg  Everything about this debut novel is big; from the bidding war between ten publishers which led to an advance of nearly $2 million to its 944 page length and its pantheon of vivid characters who live in the New York City of the 1970s. Goodreads member, Susan, says "To try to capture the essence of this is impossible, but I would suggest that if you have read, and enjoyed, books such as "The Goldfinch," you might also like this. It has a huge depth and takes in disgruntled youth, those living on the margins, the ultra wealthy, the art scene, drugs, infidelity, insider trading, and much more." And for Goodreads member, Loring: "This book will haunt any reader for months, perhaps years, because it never is quite clear what we have and have not lost in the fire." (Available on October 13, 2015) Undermajordomo Minor by Patrick deWitt  In this dark and peculiar fairy tale, high jinks ensure when Lucien Minor takes a job at the isolated Castle Von Aux as an assistant to the majordomo. There's a crazy missing baron to find, the heart of the winsome Karla to win, and many secrets to uncover. Goodreads member, Sarah, calls it "wonderfully smart … a yarn for adults, a fable without morals/talking animals, and it made me remember what it felt like to be a wide-eyed kid being told a new favorite story of the very first time.” Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein  This is the revealing and raw memoir of Carrie Brownstein, the star and co-creator of the award-winning series, Portlandia, and musician in the feminist punk band, Sleater-Kinney. Goodreads member, Lisa, calls it "Terrific: sharp, smart, introspective, complex, funny, and sad. What you (I) want in a music memoir – a little creative process, a little zeitgeist of the times, a lot of self-awareness without too much self-indulgence." (Available on October 27, 2015)  Secret identities. A request to dig up a body. The debate over the heir to a dukedom. Sounds like something out of a novel, but this is the true story of one of the most famous court cases in the Edwardian era in England. Jane sums up many Goodreads reviews with "The question at the center of the case—whether T C Druce and the 5th Duke of Portland were two men or one—was beautifully balanced, and as the case twisted and turned, as new claimants and new evidence emerged, I could never quite make up my mind. I knew I could go away and look up the case, and I so wanted to know what would happen, but I resisted because I knew this was too good a book to spoil." (Available on October 5, 2015) |
How did Writers Create their own Ink?
| Writers and self-publishers in the middle ages had their work cut out for them. You could not just run to the local merchant and buy ink, you often had to make it yourself. It was equally hard to find a good quill and get your hands on parchment, papyrus, and vellum. There are several ways to make ink in the middle ages and many have recorded their instructions on how to do it. The following recipe comes from Theophilus Presbyter, who in the early twelfth-century created a work known as De diversis artibus (On various arts). To make ink, cut for yourself some wood of the hawthorn – in April or May before they produce blossom or leaves – collect them together in small bundles and allow them to lie in the shade for two, three or four weeks until they are fairly well dried out. Then have some wooden mallets, and with them pound these thorns on a hard piece of wood until you completely peel off the bark, which you immediately put in a barrel full of water. When you have filled two, three, four or five barrels with bark and water, allow them to stand like this for eight days until the water has drawn off all the sap of the bark. Then put this water into a very clean pot or into a cauldron, place it on the fire and heat it. From time to time, put some of this bark into the pot so that, if there is any sap left in it, it can be boiled out, and, when you have heated it for a little, take it out and put in some more. This done, boil down what remains of the water, to a third of the original quantity, pour it from this pot into a smaller one and continue to heat it until it becomes black and begins to thicken, taking particular care that you do not add any water except that which was mixed with the sap. When you see it become thick, add a third part of pure wine, put it in two or three new pots and continue to heat it until you see that it develops a kind of skin at the top. Then left these pots off the fire and put them in the sun until the black ink resolves itself from the red dregs. Afterwards, take some small, carefully sewn, parchment bags like bladders, pour the pure ink into them and hang them up in the sun until it is completely dried. When it is dried, take from it as much as you want, mix it with wine over a fire, add a little iron vitriol and write. If, as a result of carelessness, the ink is not black enough, take a piece of iron, an inch thick, put it on the fire until it is red hot and then throw it into the ink. There is something deeply romantic about forgoing a computer and all technology to write something. I think it would be a neat project to make your own ink, paper and go on a journey to find a writing quill and pen some short fiction. |
Librarian’s Share: Merchandise Your OverDrive Collection Like a Pro
| Last month I did something that I normally avoid like the plague – public speaking! Somehow I found myself at the podium at the 2015 Digipalooza Conference addressing a HUGE group of people (something I am more than a little phobic about). I was asked to speak about the experience our library has had merchandising our OverDrive collection with the curation tool in Marketplace. You know that I have to feel pretty strongly about something if I have agreed to do this dreaded task. First off, I want to tell you that curating collections is the favorite part of my job. I select adult eBooks for Toronto Public Library and oversee our OverDrive collection. I love putting together lists of great books and I create or add to existing curated collections almost daily. (Quite frankly, I am a little obsessed…in a good way.) The constant flow of new titles keeps the collections fresh and has helped to grow a following of avid eBook readers who go there first for reading recommendations. If you feature good content that you know you customers want, they will keep coming back for more. The feedback about our collections has been overwhelmingly positive. Our most popular curated collection is the "Hot Releases of 2015" list where we gather all the best sellers and books that have received media attention this year so far.  Let's face it, browsing through tens of thousands of eBook offerings is a daunting task foranyone. Offering a selection of hand-picked titles significantly enhances the user experience and allows us to engage with our public by providing a remote readers' advisory service. Curated lists can help your customers find the content they are looking for in one easy place. If you don't have a lot time to create and maintain curated collections, inviting your branch staff to help put together book lists might work for you. We maintain a "TPL Staff Picks" collection that does just that. Not only does it allow staff to let their expertise shine but it also fosters a positive attitude towards digital collections in general. Library branch staff are readers' advisory pros! The curated collections have also had a positive impact on our circulation and the overall turnover rate of our collection (Our library is on target to hit three million downloads for this year alone!). I regularly feature older best sellers or well-reviewed titles that have many available copies to get them circulating again. Do you have a ton of available copies of "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett on your virtual shelves right now? Are you awash in older John Grisham eBooks that cost your library an arm and a leg? Feature them in your curated collections and watch them get snapped up. Featuring titles works like a charm. If you need proof check out these two slides from my Digipalooza talk:
 
In addition to improving our circulation, featuring content has helped our library get a better return on our investment for our eBook collection. The harsh reality is that our budget is finite and many of the high demand titles are punishingly expensive. It's a struggle to provide adequate copies of the latest best sellers while the demand for eBooks continues to grow. Waiting lists for the hottest titles is a fact of life. Our curated collections help guide our customers to their next great read while they wait for the latest best seller. Read-alike lists are fantastic for this. I make it my mission to feature as many pricey older titles as I can in order to ensure that we are getting a good bang for our buck! Here are some examples of some lists that have been popular on our site:
The possibilities to promote titles in your collection are endless. Curating is fun, easy and highly addictive – you should give it a try if you haven't already.
Maria Cipriano is a Collections Librarian and manages the Electronic and Online resources for Toronto Public Library  |
Guitar boy
| Is it a guitar that’s also a Game Boy, or a Game Boy that’s also a guitar? We just don’t know. This is a thing of beauty. Best of all, for me, is the way the A and B buttons don’t just control the Game Boy; they’re also volume and tone dials. The build uses the guts of a real guitar. Fibbef, the maker, who created the Guitar Boy for the BitFix Gaming 2015 Game Boy Classic build-off, built his own guitar body with a screen and rammed a Raspberry Pi running the RetroPie games emulator in there, ending up with a functional guitar that’s also a functional (giant) hand-held gaming device. If you want to see more of the build, Fibbef documented it in this thread at the BitFix forums.
The post Guitar boy appeared first on Raspberry Pi. |