From the L.A. Times blog — Jacket Copy: Book News and Information
Chances are Sarah Palin is having a pretty good day. Yesterday she was governor of Alaska; today she’s John McCain’s running mate.
Kaylene Johnson must be nearly as happy. She is the Alaskan author who penned “Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska’s Political Establishment Upside Down.” Will people wanting to know more about the Alaskan governor turn to this bio to tell them more?
Esquire magazine will print the cover of its 75th anniversary issue on electronic paper, a material that’s flexible like real paper but can display moving black-and-white images. The technology is similar to that used in e-books like the Amazon Kindle.
“BibSonomy is run by the Knowledge & Data Engineering Group of the University of Kassel, Germany. This system is intended to support everyone, but in particular researchers, in sharing bookmarks and bibliographies. One main reason is that we have to deal with bibliographic data all the time, needed a more coherent way to manage our bibtex data. Another – even more important – reason for setting up BibSonomy is that social resource sharing systems are very popular nowadays, but do still lack theoretical foundations. Our aim is to tackle the research challenges that arise around systems like BibSonomy, and to provide more sophisticated support for tasks like browsing, searching, ranking, and community discovery.”
While few can recall the early days of the comic book industry, Sitton and his memories share space in his Houston apartment, where pen-and-ink posters from those long-ago comic book pages cover his walls.
It was an unparalleled time in the comic book industry. There were more comic book houses in those days, flooding the market with innumerable titles. Now, comic books must compete with television cartoons, video games and other forms of entertainment.
Talk of a new version of the Kindle e-book reader, aimed at college students, has been echoing around the blogosphere and has even reached your dutifully vacationing Bits correspondent. I asked Craig Berman, Amazon’s chief spokesman, for comment on a possible Kindle 2.0, and today he responded.
“Don’t believe everything you read,” Mr. Berman said. “There’s a lot of rumor and speculation about the Kindle. One thing I can tell you for sure is that there will be no new version of the Kindle this year. A new version is possible sometime next year at the earliest.”
Mr. Berman declined to speculate about the new model or if it will be aimed at a particular audience — though the $5.5 billion textbook market, and all those heavy student backpacks, certainly seems like an appealing target for e-book publishers.
Book review at Salon.com of the book “Reinventing Knowledge: From Alexandria to the Internet”
How do we know what we know? A new book takes a long view of knowledge, from ancient oral traditions to the rise of universities and the Internet.
We live in the information age, when networked computers give millions of users unprecedented access to communications and data. But so what? That is, in effect, what Ian McNeely and Lisa Wolverton have to say at the conclusion of “Reinventing Knowledge: From Alexandria to the Internet.” The authors are indeed hard to impress. Their small book takes a long view — an exceedingly long view, beginning with the birth of Western civilization in the philosophical academies of ancient Greece and wending its way, century by century, to the present. McNeely and Wolverton remain unpersuaded that the Internet is as revolutionary as it’s cracked up to be.
Full review here.
The author we are spotlighting is fictional. J.R. Hartley was a fictional author in a British telephone directory commercial. In one poll of the 100 greatest commercials of all time the J.R. Hartley commercial was ranked 13th by British telly watchers.
For best effect you should watch the original commercial here and read the Wikipedia entry for J.R. Hartley here.
Fly Fishing by J.R. Hartley
The actor that played J.R. Hartley was Norman Lumsden. According to his obituary Mr. Lumsden had another connection to the book world; he was also a book designer for the publishers Hodder & Stoughton.
Citizens in Gilroy CA, the ‘garlic capital of the world’ will decide in November whether or not to support a bond measure for their library. The local paper shows us a poll and likely results on the measure.
One of the pro comments: “Yes. We need to think about what enhances a city and a good library is one of the most valuable resources. If you need an example of one, go to Encinitas and enjoy theirs. Their citizens clearly focused on something valuable for everyone … Go to their website and visit it virtually. “
Time for one of those ‘stuff found in returned books’ stories, this time from the Public Library in Chandler AZ.
According to library aide Marj Pals, most of the cash discoveries are just a dollar or two, but several years ago she found an envelope containing a $10,000 check. When she couldn’t trace the name of the recipient in library records, she returned it to the check writer. That person, whom Pals would not identify, sent a thank-you card in which he explained the money was sent to his son for a down payment on a house.
There are lots of reasons to have a valid and up to date library card, but here’s one you might not have thought of…
In keeping with National Library Card Sign Up Month, the local independent bookstore La Vieille Maison des Livres announces a free book giveaway. Bring your new (dated September 2008) library card and receive a free children’s book. This offer is open to all new library sign ups by children of Union County (PA) in grades 1-6.
Hopefully Mom & Dad will also shop around and find something to their liking at the bookshop and keep their dollars in the community.
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