Archive for the ‘technology’ Category

Soundtracks for ebooks

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011

Technology marches on. Ebooks are going to have soundtracks. The days of a quiet read are over. Last week, the first so-called “enhanced ebook” was released in the UK – it was The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Speckled Band and it came complete with driving rain, thunderclaps and blood-curdling screams. It sounds like a lame night at the amateur dramatics. The Daily Telegraph has the story.

Some people will love this. Classical music can be a wonderful companion to a good book. Myself, I nearly always read in complete silence at the end of the day. I have one exception. Back around 2000, I read Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor and put Massive Attack’s Mezzanine album on a continuous loop while I was reading.

Mezzanine (which I also recommend) is dark and threatening electronica, and perfectly accompanies Stalingrad where Beevor describes one of the most brutal of all World War II battles. Beevor’s account of the conditions endured by the city’s residents should be read by everyone. I finished the book and thought ‘How did this happen?’

Just think, if you are reading Jaws by Peter Benchley on your ereader you can have John Williams’ legendary movie soundtrack playing as the Great White takes a chunk out of a swimmer.

Electronic travel guides fail

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010

In the seemingly constant ebooks vs. print books (I just can’t bring myself to call them pbooks) war the travel guide market was one battle which I was actually pretty confident that the electronic version would win out in.

I really enjoy traveling, a lot. I like nothing more than setting myself down in a new city and just exploring. Lugging a massive guide book around and fumbling though it for maps and blurbs, however, is not something I relish.

It seems however this AP reporter suggests that the ebook still has some kinks to iron out still

Holding the paper version, I simply kept my thumb on one page and a finger on another to flip back and forth between the narrative and the deeper descriptions. The map was either on the same page or just one page away.

With the e-reader, I had to hit “next page” and “prev page” repeatedly, and the pages took their sweet time to turn, because the “electronic ink” technology of the screen doesn’t respond as fast as a computer screen. Out of frustration, I flicked a switch to turn the device off instead.

Via MobyLives

Book Killer

Wednesday, November 10th, 2010

Warning – A real book dies in this video where an Associated Press journalist slices up a 1913 copy of Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Somebody should pay this guy a visit.

The wrong Neil

Monday, November 8th, 2010

Here is a wonderful Twitter conversation between Neil Gaiman and a lady in the American Midwest, who thought Gaiman was the actor Neil Patrick Harris.

AbeBooks is hiring

Thursday, November 4th, 2010

AbeBooks is hiring! If you are interested in a fast-paced working environment and want to surround yourself with energetic, innovative colleagues, and have experience in software development, software development management, online marketing management or quality assurance, then we would love to talk to you. You can learn more about our current jobs in our careers section.

And what sort of people are we looking for? AbeBooks looks for folks who are motivated and capable to getting things done. Ecommerce is our business so you have to understand online shopping and know what’s happening in this industry. We’re looking for people who are outstanding in their field. We are committed to our customers and that means book-buyers and booksellers, so you need to understand our business, how it works and how we make our money.

You can send your resume to me at rdavies@abebooks.com

I have two roles at AbeBooks – publicity and press manager, and merchandising manager. I have been here since January 2005 and can vouch that this is an excellent place to work. I would describe my work as challenging but fun. I have to interact with technology experts, our customer support team, our finance folks, our bookseller management team, our CEO and the people at our European office, as well as journalists, buyers and the booksellers. This ability to work with many different areas of our company is important and everyone requires this skill.

‘Death of the book’ predictions keep on coming

Tuesday, October 19th, 2010

This man is wrong in so many ways. Physical books are far from doomed.

What We Hide Behind Our Electronics

Friday, August 6th, 2010

book-shelf

Thanks to Gabriel for sending me this great Slate.com article about e-books vs. physical books and another aspect of loss in that changing tide.

It really struck a chord with me, because books, and the books that people choose to read for pleasure, are an endless joy and fascination for me. One of my favourite things to do (occasionally surreptitiously and politely, but usually unabashedly) when I am in a new friend’s home for the first time is to peruse their bookshelves. Is it neat and orderly, tidy? Is it largely textbooks and career books? Is it stuffed to overflowing, books crammed here and there at various angles? Does he have rare and collectible books? Does she have a secret shelf of shame devoted to bad romance and old Sweet Valley High from her tween years? What’s on the nightstand? Which book looks to have been read the most?

We lose all that, now. I imagine it would be considered very rude indeed to pick up someone’s e-reader and start idly flicking through, but inching from one end of a shelf to the other, head cocked at an uncomfortable angle, glass of wine in hand, is perfectly acceptable, joyful snooping. I love exclaiming when I find one of my favourites on their shelf. I love begging to borrow when they have a book I’ve been dying to read. I love silently judging when they have Grisham, Clancy, Koontz, and perhaps old issues of Soldier of Fortune.

For me, books are part of my house, part of my decor, and part of who I am. When you come into my home (mind the clutter), I expect and welcome you to eye the shelves, laugh at how much Calvin & Hobbes I have, ask about titles, pull down copies, admire my few cherished collectible books, borrow, and discuss.

The thought of replacing the four plus shelves worth of dusty, papery, dog-eared books in my home with one sterile e-reader seems efficient, yes. Tidy. Minimalist. And it makes me sad, at all the happy chatter and exchange of ideas and understanding, of bonding, that might be lost as a result.

New AbeBooks feature: recently listed book search

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009

recently-listed-search

Regular visitors to AbeBooks will be very familiar with our advanced search which helps customers search for very specific books on our site. We have just added a new feature to advanced search in order to help customers search for books that have just been listed for sale. Simply click on the button for books listed in the past 24 or 48 hours and enter a search term.

the-old-man-and-the-seaSo a search for books containing the keyword of ‘cricket’ reveals 60 new listings were uploaded in the past 24 hours, including a 1950 reprint of JM Barrie’s cricket book, Allahakbarries C.C., from 1899. This book is very hard to find and I’m sure it will sell very quickly.

A search for Ernest Hemingway reveals 66 new books listed in the past 24 hours, including this 1953 reprint of The Old Man and the Sea offered for sale by the excellent Royal Books in Baltimore.

A search for Agatha Christie reveals 208 new books appearing in the past 24 hours, including a series of collectible gems like a signed copy of They Came To Baghdad.

the-clueI also discovered a beautiful copy of The Clue by Carolyn Wells – her first Fleming Stone novel from 1909. What a stunning cover design by Frances Rogers. This book will probably also sell very quickly.

I could go on. Many collectors trawl AbeBooks each morning in the hope of finding just listed treasures. They might be looking for a particular book or scanning through a particular genre or a particular publisher from a bygone age. AbeBooks’ inventory is very fluid and this feature shows just how many fresh books are being listed for sale each day. The early bird gets the just listed rare book and this feature is going to help those early birds.

Author Tim Guest dies

Thursday, August 6th, 2009

Tim Guest, a 34-year-old author from the UK, has been found dead in his bed by his wife after a suspected heart attack. He wrote My Life in Orange about being brought up in communes and Second Lives about virtual communities.

The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal – Author Defends Book

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and BetrayalIt’s no accident! My book is a non-fiction narrative in my own unique style! That could be what author Ben Mezrich’s FaceBook status message states.

Mezrich is facing criticism for his book The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal which details the creation and rise of the popular social networking site.  Reviewers of the book are saying that it’s a fictionalized account of the founding of FaceBook and not a non-fiction work.

Mezrich defends himself saying, “It’s a non-fiction book. It’s a true story. I am a narrative non-fiction writer in a way that other people don’t write. I’m trying to create my own genre of non- fiction.”

FaceBook’s spokesman counters, “Ben Mezrich clearly aspires to be the Jackie Collins or Danielle Steele of Silicon Valley.”

Mezrich is insistant that he followed standard journalistic practice yet he apparently didn’t interview Mark Zukerberg, the founder of FaceBook. Critics also say thta Mezrich doesn’t properly explain how Zuckerberg transformed from a somewhat anti-social student to a huge internet success.

Ben Mezrich speaks with Bloomberg about The Accidental Billionaires:

AbeBooks’ customer support staging open house on 29 July

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009

Job-seekers interested in working for AbeBooks are invited to attend an open house being staged by our customer support department on Wednesday 29 July.

As I am sure most people know, AbeBooks is an online marketplace for new, used, rare and out-of-print books. We are located in a fantastic office building close to downtown Victoria. From my desk, I can see float planes taking off, the Olympic mountains in Washington State, the Gorge waterway and its kayakers, and much more. This company was founded in 1996 and acquired by Amazon.com, Inc., in December 2008. More than 20 people are currently employed in the customer support section, which helps booksellers to sell books and booklovers to buy books.

Customer support is a vital part of our company and we’re proud of the level of support that we offer to buyers and sellers. Anyone interested in working in this part of AbeBooks requires a deep commitment to providing exceptional customer service, excellent communication skills and the ability to work in a demanding technology-driven environment. A sound knowledge of Internet-related technologies is vital.

Visitors will be given an introduction to the company and learn more about the skills required to work in this department of AbeBooks. There will also be a tour of the facility and the opportunity to meet Human Resources director Judy Hamza and Shaun Jamieson, Director of Sales and Account Management. Visitors are welcome to drop off resumes.

The open house will be staged on Wednesday 29 July from 1pm until 2.30pm. AbeBooks is located in a state-of-the-art office building at Suite 500, 655 Tyee Road, Victoria, BC, V9A 6X5 – just a few minutes from downtown Victoria. Refreshments will be served. Anyone requiring further details should email hr@abebooks.com

One other thing, AbeBooks is filled with people who began their AbeBooks’ career in customer support before transferring to other areas of the company. The marketing, quality assurance, operations, and systems departments all contain people who cut their teeth in customer support.

Bar codes 35 years old

Friday, June 26th, 2009

Happy birthday to the bar code.

Twitterature – Classic Literature Retold in “Tweets”

Thursday, June 25th, 2009

The Telegraph reports that two American students have been commissioned by Penguin to write a compilation called Twitterature: The World’s Greatest Books, Now Presented in Twenty Tweets or Less.

The book will be made up of classic novels, abridged in the style of Tweets. (For those not familiar with the lingo, Tweets are short messages sent via the social networking site Twitter.)

At this time, it’s not known what literary masterpieces will be dramitically pared down but the book is expected to be released this autumn.

Tweet Tweet Buy My Book

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009

Dream On by John RichardsonGotta hand it to this guy for doing a great job of self-promotion.

Prior to the release of his book Dream On: One Hacker’s Challenge to Break Par in a Year, John Richardson used Twitter to build up his profile. The result? Last week Richardson’s Twitter followers pushed the book to top spot on Amazon’s golf chart and into the top 500 overall. Before the publisher had done any media pushes, the book sold out on Amazon as well.

Says Richardson, “I became fascinated by the opportunity that Twitter offers for its users to interact with authors. In the past, if you read and enjoyed a book, it was almost impossible to contact the author to let him or her know. Twitter provides a way for authors and readers to interact in a very contained and interesting way.”

About the book:

‘I have a friend, a guy called John, who is undertaking a golf challenge. He has a full-time job and a wife and child and he’s trying to shoot a level par round within the year. When he started the challenge he couldn’t break one hundred. So he’s trying to take thirty-three strokes off his game in one year and he asked me to find out your opinion on that.’ Sam Torrance laughed, then slowly contemplated the question. ‘Well, you can tell him from me to dream on.’ Meet John Richardson, a regular bloke who enjoys a round of golf in his spare time. That is until he sets himself the challenge of playing a level par round within a year. With no natural talent, precious little time and no fitness level to speak of, can John pull it off? In spite of Sam Torrance’s scepticism, John remains resolute and so begins an exhausting but exhilarating year of living, breathing, eating and sleeping golf. A rollercoaster ride from beginning to end, “Dream On” is funny and inspirational, and a must for any golfer who dreams of improving their game.

The Book Borrowers Exhibit at the Bellevue Arts Museum

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009

core-4-brian-dettmer A week or so ago my boyfriend told me our plans for the day were a surprise, but that he was sure it was so up my alley it was practically made for me – and he was right. We went to the Bellevue Arts Museum in, well, Bellevue, and saw their current exhibition called The Book Borrowers.

The exhibit showcases the work of artists who, through various techniques and transformations, have created sculptures, objets d’arts from books. There was a copy of Shel Silverstein’s beloved book The Giving Tree in which the tree had been painstakingly carved and brought forward to cast its own shadow: a three-dimensional paper tree. The detail and intricate lines were amazing.

buddha-head-long-bin-chen There was a half prone figure created from books. Encylopedias and phone books, sandblasted into the appearance of stone, became stumps, mountains, a replica of the grand canyon. Some works were minute, microcosmic, with moving parts (I had a very hard time keeping my hands to myself). Some were abstract and strange, clearly intending a subtext beyond form or function. Some were so amibitious their completion amazed me. But all began with the humble book, printed words and pictures on paper, and brought from it something new.

From the web site:

A book can be many things: an object, a source of knowledge, a cultural artifact or an idea. From each volume, layers of meaning and subtext can be mined, not only from the words and images inside, but from the subtle design elements, the materiality of its pages and spine, and its symbolic value as a recorder of human evolution. For 550 years, the printed page has been our primary means of communication, though it is steadily being overtaken in the digital age.

The Book Borrowers highlights 31 works from locally, nationally and internationally renowned contemporary artists transforming books into sculptural works. Pieces in the exhibition explore the book’s inherent qualities and reflect upon this unique juncture in time. Manhattan White Pages turned into the head of Buddha, laser engraved volumes poignantly dissected, stacks of encyclopedias sandblasted into monumental landscapes – the works in this exhibition reveal new and unexpected layers of meaning that go beyond the book as a source of information and offer a fresh look at its place in an increasingly digitally oriented world. The Book Borrowers is both a nostalgic homage to the book and a reflection on our current progression beyond it.

churches-our-fathers-james-allenThe second paragraph was printed on one of the walls of the exhibit, and I was surprised to find that while I was fascinated by it, it also made me feel very melancholy. The idea of print media ceasing to exist, or being something for specialty collectors (like music on vinyl now) rather than the norm is heartbreaking to me. I love books. I love the weight of them, the feel. I love the softness of the pages of an old, old paperback. I love the thin ribbon bookmark that comes in some hardcovers. I love when there’s a blank, creamy page, empty save for the author’s dedication. I love a stack of books next to my bed, precarious, teetering, enticing. I love a book that has been read in the bath, and the way its pages become wavy and crimped, like a cocker spaniel’s ears. The Book Borrowers exhibit was comforting in that it showed the book will always be valuable, always be art, even if its form changes. The obvious dedication, time and skill that the artists put into each piece suggested reverie and respect. Books will always be loved. But the sense of loss at the words on the wall was real.

The part that devastates me perhaps most of all is the idea of losing that bookstore smell. I don’t believe it will ever come to that entirely, and if it does it is a long way off, but the notion was jarring. The smell of new bookstores is different from used bookstores, is different from libraries, is different from antiquarian collections, but they all have the musty, spicy, underlying smell of paper at their root, and my nose knows nothing better. I have difficulty imagining walking into an e-reader factory, closing my eyes, inhaling and smiling.

*Exhibition ends June 14th, so if you’re in the Seattle area and want to view it, now’s the time!