I’m trying to avoid getting too political in this blog, because that’s not what this blog is about. Although the subject of literature and free expression tend to easily get pulled into the political arena, so I’m forced to confront these issues head on.

Many have rightly pointed out that the alleged book list I linked to in this post is probably not the list of books Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin wanted to ban from her small-town public library. In that post I expressed my doubts, as I could not find a reliable source to back the list up. For all we know, the only true list of books Sarah Palin wanted to ban from the library only exists on a lipstick-smeared napkin tucked between her bible and the corpse of the latest moose she killed.

All this attention given to Palin’s attempt to have certain books pulled from the library is finally catching the attention of the McCain Campaign, and they’re fighting back. Nothing surprising there. I did find this article on the Huffington Post blog about the issue and thought it raised some interesting points – despite there being no official list:

Certainly, there was no official list drawn up. However, in a fact the McCain email leaves out, Palin approached the librarian three times to ask about the possibility, which could legitimately appear to some as something of a pressure campaign (especially considering that Palin attempted to have the librarian removed afterward).

Continue Reading

There’s no question that technology is changing the way we consume all types of media, including literature. But what happens when you want to turn the novel into something akin to a movie or television show?

One person is trying to do just that, and he calls it the "digi novel". Who is he? It’s Anthony Zuiker, the man behind the popular CSI series (which, I must confess, I have never seen a complete episode). I came across this blog post from the UK site Guardian Unlimited. Here is Zuiker’s idea:

With the modesty of one of the most important men in the American media, Zuiker thinks the digi-novel "offers publishing a chance to catch up with the YouTube generation that has lost passion for reading". That chance comes at a price; Penguin imprint Dutton are paying Zuiker a seven-figure sum.

Zuiker continues:

"I want to give traditional crime novel readers a more immersive experience," Zuiker explains of what’s been labelled "storytelling 2.0".

That immersive experience involves short video clips every few chapters of a novel. Certainly not something your run-of-the-mill paperback offers. Zuiker justifies this idea by saying that he wants "To be rewarded every couple of chapters by seeing something visual…" I think he’s missing the point of reading a novel to begin with.

Continue Reading

When I first came across this story in the New York Times, I almost thought it was a joke. The mere irony that this would happen to Edgar Allan Poe is something you just can’t make up (well, he probably could have, if he were still alive).

In case you haven’t read the article yet, here’s the lowdown: Currently, Poe is buried in Baltimore, MD where he died back in 1849. But another city, Philadelphia, PA, also lays claim to Poe’s body, since that is the city where the author wrote many of his most famous works.

The story doesn’t stop there, however. A Philadelphia Poe scholar named Edward Petit is the one fighting for the rights to bury the author in his city. This is what he said in a recent interview:

"So, Philadelphians, let’s hop in our cars, drive down I-95 and appropriate a body from a certain Baltimore cemetery," Mr. Pettit wrote in an article for the Philadelphia City Paper in October. "I’ll bring the shovel."

Continue Reading

All this talk about banned books (see my posts here and here about the controversy surrounding Republican VP pick Sarah Palin), got me thinking about ways to prevent books from being banned. There’s nothing worse than a government trying to censor what the public reads. Books are meant to be read.

And as many of you know, I’m a huge fan of ebooks. So I did a little research into how ebooks can help prevent those who want to ban books from public libraries, bookstores and other places, like Sarah Palin did, and keep books available for anyone to read. When you think about it, ebooks really are a perfect solution to keeping the power of choice firmly in the hands of the reader, where it belongs.

I came across this post from Epublishers Weekly from earlier this year that outlines 30 benefits of ebooks over print. And sure enough, at # 37, they hit the nail on the head:

Ebooks defeat attempts at censorship. All these works were banned: Analects by Confucius. Lysistrata by Aristophanes. Ars Amorata by Ovid. Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio by John Milton. The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne. Wonder Stories by H.C. Andersen. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Ulysses
by James Joyce. … Many of these books were confiscated, burned, or denied availability in libraries, bookstores and schools. Ebooks guarantee that readers maintain their right to read.

Continue Reading

Well friends, Friday is here and you know what that means – another installment of Friday Link Love! For those of you not familiar with this regular Brad’s Reader feature, I post a handful of links from around the internet for your reading enjoyment. The links will vary in subject, depending on what I find interesting during any given week.

This week has been a busy one. Just like last week, my attention was diverted to the Republican National Convention. Not nearly as exciting as the DNC last week, but still interesting nevertheless. I was, however, abhorred to watch as the RNC tried to politicize 9/11 under the guise of a "tribute video". If you read between the lines, it’s merely more of the same fearmongering that we’ve been seeing for the last 8 years. I have a link to one TV anchor’s reaction below, which pretty much says it all!

Anyway, two days of freedom await us. So, like always, have a happy and safe weekend!

Continue Reading

And the hits just keep on coming! I only say that because the story about Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin wanting to ban certain books from the library has taken root and is garnering more attention across the internet (especially the blogosphere). I wrote about it in this post, and generally felt disgusted that someone would want to actually deny the pubic specific books because that person found the books objectionable to his/her beliefs.

Then, this evening as I was blindly surfing the web, I came across a list of books Palin wanted removed from the public library. I emphasize the word "public" because that’s what is important – a public library that is supposed to serve the public, including people of all beliefs and creeds. If a book is found offensive by a person, then don’t check that book out!

Continue Reading

I’m not one to dive much into politics on this blog, there are too many political blogs to count if you’re looking for your politics fix. However, given that it is an election year and this next election will very much decide the new (or same) course the country will take, I can’t help but chime in now and then. And when the issue is libraries and books, you can bet I’ll have something to say.

News reports continue to surface about the past of the McCain presidential VP nominee Sarah Palin. Most of the reports are disturbing, to say the least. The latest sent a shiver down my spine as I read this article on CNN’s Time website that Palin wanted certain books banned from the library when she was mayor of a small Alaskan town:

Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. "She asked the library how she could go about banning books," he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. "The librarian was aghast." That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn’t be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving "full support" to the mayor.

Continue Reading

Move over ebooks, move over print books and what the heck, throw everything you know about writing a novel out the window. Well, maybe not quite everything.

Many of you are probably familiar with the micro-blogging tool called Twitter. Personally, I don’t use the service because I’ve never really had a use for it. And getting sent messages about the minutia of everyday life from people I don’t really know isn’t all that appealing to me.

Now there’s new use for Twitter – writing novels and instantly sending them to your mass following! One such writer, Matt Richtel, wrote about his thriller novel he "published" on Twitter, which he affectionately calls "Twiller" (get it? Thriller + Twitter = Twiller). You can read about his exploits in this post.

Continue Reading

Friday is here once again, and I have a load of links for ya’ll this week! Topics range on everything from a stroke victim who suddenly becomes very artistic to feeling confident about your own writing. Hopefully you’ll find these links as interesting and informative as I have.

This week went by fast, with a lot of my attention (like many others in the US) turned to the Democratic National Convention in Denver. I didn’t watch many of the speeches save for a few, but was more interested in how, or if, the Democratic party could come together after that slug-fest of a primary they had. Next week we move to the Republican National Convention and I look forward to hearing what they have to say as well.

As always, have a happy and safe weekend! And if you’re here in the United States, enjoy your 3-day Labor Day Weekend!

Continue Reading

I have a fickle relationship with the online superstore Amazon.com: I love buying stuff from them, I even have Amazon affiliate links and ads on this blog (hey, domain hosting doesn’t pay for itself), yet I’m beginning to feel that Amazon is starting to have an unfair monopoly in the book industry.

This uneasy feeling actually started when I wrote this post, this post, and this post about Amazon’s shady policy of requiring POD publishers to use their (Amazon’s) own printing service. Then today, as I was reading my favorite blogs on Google Reader, I came across this post on the Teleread Blog about Amazon acquiring Shelfari, a book sharing and social networking site for bookworms.

So let’s run down the list of of how Amazon has a tight grasp on the book selling market:

• Amazon is the dominant seller of books online. If you’re book is going to be published, there’s a good chance it’s going to be sold by Amazon.
• As mentioned above, they insist on POD publishers to print their books using Amazon’s own POD printing service. So even self-published authors who want to sell on Amazon have their hands tied.
• Amazon owns Abe Books, another online bookstore.
• Amazon has the Kindle – its own proprietary ebook reader. While you can upload your own content onto the Kindle, it still has an unbreakable tether to Amazon.

Continue Reading