If you’re in New York City this weekend you might want to check out the Great Read In The Park on Sunday all day. It’s apparently a celebration of the 70th anniversary of the NYTimes best-seller list and the proceeds benefit libraries and schools in New York. Clearly they’ve got some big marketing bucks behind them. I like the idea of a Gently Used, Greatly Loved Book Sale.
Tag: books
using your author superpowers for good (causes)
This September, Neil Gaiman and other authors you may have heard of — John Grisham, Stephen King, Dorothy Allison — are having an unusual auction. If you’re the high bidder on these eBay auctions, these authors will put your name, or the name of your choosing I assume, in their upcoming books as specified. All the proceeds go to benefit the First Amendment Project. The auction page is fun reading, this is what King is offering…
“One (and only one) character name in a novel called CELL, which is now in work and which will appear in either 2006 or 2007. Buyer should be aware that CELL is a violent piece of work, which comes complete with zombies set in motion by bad cell phone signals that destroy the human brain. Like cheap whiskey, it’s very nasty and extremely satisfying. Character can be male or female, but a buyer who wants to die must in this case be female. In any case, I’ll require physical description of auction winner, including any nickname (can be made up, I don’t give a rip).”
unfortunate children’s books and library humor
A usually-amusing photoset on Flickr of Unfortunate Children’s Books. Here’s another one on library comics, humor and illustrations. [thanks jen & steve]
don’t own your textbooks, rent them!
Princeton University is experimenting with textbooks that have Digital Rights Management embedded in them. They have a lot of nerve calling a textbook that expires in five months “universal”. The press release states that students “save money” though it does seem to be comparing apples and oranges. Sure, textbooks are expensive and can be of limited use once classes are over but at least you own the darned things and can resell them or do whatever you want with them. And if you don’t have your own computer just make sure you can use the same one in the lab every time you visit because you can only load your textbook on to one computer, period. No returns. Not accessible via dial-up. How dare they say “the information is the same as the print version” although I guess as a profession we haven’t had to deal with information that expires now have we? Perhaps it’s time we start.
update: it’s not the school it’s the bookstore that is running this DRMed ebook experiment according to an update on the post. Different thing, different import. Ed Felten, who works at Princeton posted some comments “I don’t object to other people wasting their money developing products that consumers won’t want. …The problem with DRM is not that bad products can be offered, but that public policy sometimes protects bad products by thwarting the free market and the free flow of ideas. The market will kill DRM, if the market is allowed to operate.”
the only books you’ll ever need?
Apple computer makes its opinion clear. Note: books behind the laptops are photographs. [thanks jack]