At Melville House, Dennis Johnson discusses how the rapid demise of Barnes & Noble is slowly sucking the life out of the e-book industry. According to a survey, nearly 40% of shoppers inspect a book while on the shelf of a bookstore before buying the electronic version. So, without bookstores, big or small, marketing suffers across the industry.

Related Posts:

• “The Dean of the Clerks”
• A Library Without Books
• The Lonely Voice #21: So Long Adobe Books
• The Art of the Novella Subscription Series
• Help A Bookstore Out

Or rather, there will be books, but only digital ones, which patrons can read on e-readers in the library or at home.

Since “[t]he community around the proposed location currently has no public library and is home to a lower income population,” a few e-books could go a long way, publishing industry controversy notwithstanding.

Related Posts:

• Notes on E-books and Readers
• Sympathy for the Library-Fine Dodger
• The Biological Challenges of E-Readers
• Introducing (finally): the Digital Public Library of America
• Biting the Hand That Stamps Your Library Book

Plus, it seriously hinders his ability to “eavesdrop on what you’re reading.”

Check out the article and the cool reader map of the Chicago L here.

Related Posts:

• “It’s A War Zone Around There”
• Stakeout
• Book Industry Forecast
• A Library Without Books
• E-book Recommendations

Related Posts:

• Book Industry Forecast
• A Library Without Books
• The other other Borges
• “necktie popcorn”
• E-Books: “the book-cover equivalent of burqas”

If you’re in the market for e-books, yet share both our disgust at Amazon’s practices and preference for supporting local booksellers, Laura Miller’s Salon article is a helpful read.

Related Posts:

• Notes on E-books and Readers
• Goodbye to Goodreads
• Don’t Worry Too Much About Goodreads, Says Steve Almond
• Book Industry Forecast
• Best, Worst Review

“Just as the novel taught us how to be individuals, 300 years ago, by giving us a space in which to be alone, but not too alone — a space in which to be alone with a book — so hypertext fiction may let us try on new, non-linear identities, without dissolving us entirely into the web. It may give us room to concentrate on dispersion, to focus on distraction, and in that way, possibly, to get a sense of what we are becoming before the current sweeps us away.”

Related Posts:

• Literary Feuds in the Digital Age Get Ugly
• From Alcoholic to Diet Cokehead
• Stop Reading New Fiction?
• We Still Have A Long Way to Go
• Book Industry Forecast

To hear a demo you can check out this piece, which wonders whether readers will find the format distracting, while pointing out that that the concept seems to be gaining ground in the wider e-book realm:

“E-books with added interactive features and soundtracks may be the format’s next step. And thoughmany traditionalists will balk at the technology — just as many have, and still do, condemn Kindles — there could be some instances, such as Gore’s book, where the addition is less an unwanted distraction and more a new way to explore a centuries-old storytelling platform.

(Via Book Bench)

Related Posts:

• 5 for Print
• Book Industry Forecast
• A Library Without Books
• Protecting Possum Man’s Hard Drive
• The Future of StoryTelling

Of course it isn’t just scholars who prefer reading the traditional way. A lot of us like the feeling of knowledge asserting itself via the mere weight of a book. But just so you know, “It’s related to the fancy that what one loves about books is the grain of paper and the scent of glue.”

And as interactive book apps prioritize visual and audio interpretations of our favorites, and certain online marketplace behemoths ease selling of thousands of cut-and-paste “books,” and library starts to mean a platform rather than a place, looks like we’re all supposed to start hoarding these increasingly rare objects of our affections. Or maybe start a support group?

Related Posts:

• Cabbie Poetry
• Book Industry Forecast
• A Library Without Books
• Cheryl Strayed in the NY Times “Dream Dozen”
• E-Books: “the book-cover equivalent of burqas”

The book and its hype have generated all kinds of discussion–on parenting, on the popularity of e-books, on the genre of “children’s books for adults.” Particularly interesting are the questions of whether the book would have been such a hit had it been written by a woman, considering the different scrutiny burdening moms who are learning to be perfect on the job.

Slate now has a great piece drawing on Proustian/Freudian themes that calls us all out on our over-analyzing of this book, noting that if the tables were turned and kids could write their own “children’s book for adults,” it would be titled along the lines of “Have a Fucking Drink and Stop Hovering.”

And for good measure, here is Werner Herzog’s reading, along with a wish list of other performers. Somehow the first name I’d like to add to that would be Laura Bush…

Related Posts:

• Get Involved With A Blog About “Raising Good Citizens”
• Surprising Children’s Book Authors
• Fabricating Fear
• Biting the Hand That Stamps Your Library Book
• Book Industry Forecast

Chances are you haven’t, but one peek at that link will show you just how much you’re missing out on. Manuel Ortiz Braschi is one of the most prolific self-publishers on Amazon’s Kindle site and, as author of more than 3,000 e-books on topics ranging from herb gardens to potty training, seems a veritable 21st century renaissance man.

With just a bit of digging though, the Guardian profiles him as one of a growing group of self-publishers enabled by the Kindle platform to rack up as many books-and as much profit-as possible with little original effort. These ‘scrapers’ get by on aggregating topic-specific info from various sources, often already online, add some twists here and there, and voila–a book!

Related Posts:

• How to Look Like You’re Reading Something Smart on the Bus
• Book Industry Forecast
• A Library Without Books
• E-Books: “the book-cover equivalent of burqas”
• E-book Recommendations