eBook Thoughts

Last week, I was waiting for a friend of mine and, while waiting, was reading on my nook eReader. He hadn't seen it before and after making appropriate noises about the case (which I made) asked me whether I saved money by having one. Not at all, I had to tell him. I may pay a little less per book for new books, but I more than made up for it by buying so many more new books. I still love used books sales, and I prefer to have nice hard cover copies of my well-loved novels, but for day to day reading, ebooks had really spoiled me.

I'll give you an example. Yesterday morning, I woke up very early (one of the hazards of being pregnant, I've found, is how hard it can be to sleep in). I had just finished one book and, as is so often the case, was uninterested in the TBR pile next to my bed, or any of the other books on our shelves I've never read. So I picked up my nook and looked at the Wishlist I had created there. One title stuck out at me - The Magicians by Lev Grossman - so I bought it. A few minutes later I was happily curled up in my comfy chair reading it. All this, before the sun had even come up all the way.

I still love physical books and I can't ever imagine not being surrounded by them. But I have unabashedly become a fan of ebooks, and I foresee that as time goes on, I will buy even more of them.

Book Covers

Huffington Post's Coolest Book Covers of 2010 (via Shelf Awareness). I'm not familiar with any of these books, I'll confess (though I've read a couple of the authors) but I always love hearing the behind the scenes take on a cover.

Book Art & Links

Here's some cool book art by Mike Stilkey I saw on Shelf Awareness some time ago -


More at This Blog Rules.



This calls itself a bookshelf, but I'm not really sure how well it would work. Maybe its for people who put, like, three books and a bunch of knick-knacks on their shelves. My shelves are full, y'all. No way a fishnet is going to hold my collection. [via Design Milk]

Oh, I love The Onion. This headline says it all: Watching Faces Of Students As They Finish 'The Lottery' Highlight Of English Teacher's Year

Bookshelves

Regular readers may note that I love to post pictures of interesting bookshelves. Today's installment is brought to you by Woman's Day. [link via mental_floss] Of the photos they posted, my favorite is the Cave designed by sakura adachi.



The cute kid probably doesn't hurt, either.

Where Do the Books Come From?

My husband is pretty sure my books are breeding, but in actuality, I buy most of them. I've seen a lot of bloggers list where the last 20 books they've reviewed came from, and in honor of the FTC's new rules (even though I don't think they really apply to unpaid book bloggers), I thought I would do the same.

• The Dark is Rising: Bought used.
• The Magician's Elephant: At my request, from Publisher for review.
• Walking the Bible: Bought new.
• Looking for Alaska: Bought new.
• Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife: Library (actually, I borrowed it from a friend, but he had borrowed it from the library).
• Catching Fire: Bought new. And in hardcover even! Because, like crack, the first one may be free, but then they get you as a repeat customer.
• No Dogs in Heaven?: Bought new.
• Good Omens: Borrowed (so to speak) from my husband. Since he's owned it for probably 15 years, I think we can safely assume he bought it at some point.
• The Prizewinner of Defiance Ohio: Bought used.
• Black Water: Bought used, a million years ago.
• Witch World: Another one from my husband.
• The Book of Unholy Mischief: From Author for review, via Pump Up Your Book Promotions tour.
• The Name of the Wind: Gift.
• The Middle Place: Bought new.
• The Android's Dream: Borrowed from friend.
• The House of the Scorpion: Bought used.
• Dead Until Dark, Living Dead in Dallas, and Club Dead (Sookie Stackhouse novels 1-3): Bought new.
• Broken (Women of the Otherworld, Book 6): Gift.
• The 19th Wife: Bought used.
• Terra Insegura: At my request, from Author for review, after I won the sequel in a contest on his blog. Er, um, I got that backwards. This is the sequel, which I won in a contest. The author gave me Marserguro, the first book.

And there you have it. What did we learn? Only 3 out of 20 were review copies and I spend way too much money on books.

Bookshelves

You all saw Neil Gaiman's Bookshelves on Shelfari, right? Anyone else jealous? His library makes mine look like a joke!

Speaking of lusting after other people's bookshelves, did you see Caite of A Lovely Shore Breeze's Scene of the Blog back in August? Not only does she have a super-comfy looking reading chair, she has one of the nicest bookshelves I've seen.

Here are some other (funkier) bookshelves to look at: 15 (More!) Creative Bookcases & Book Storage Solutions at WebUrbanist. I've actually posted several of those here before, but its still cool to see what people do with bookshelves.

Book Links

Presented without comment, here are some interesting links about book covers/art for your amusement:

Lookalike book covers: Give 'em the boot!

More books as art (or ads)

Via Pimp My Novel, Cover Trend: Book as Art Object at Galley Cat.

Bookish Stuff

Digging through my Reader post-vacation, here are some links I thought I'd share:


Where the wild things are furry about a version of "Wild Things" by Dave Eggers and Spike Jonze with a fur cover. That image is unbelievable creepy to me.

Via Bookslut: Kill Your Darlings: designers on book covers that were killed.

Via Scott Westerfeld's blog, a link to download Uglies for free. Its a limited time thing, so go now if you are interested. I loved that book.

Way back in July, Tamora Pierce (who I was my fave author in my pre-teen years) published a list of her teen reads for the summer. I don't think I've read any of them, though I recognize a few of the titles.

Bookish Stuff

Here are some book related links that caught my eye as I cleaned out my Reader this past weekend.

The Johnson County Library in Kansas had the Barkley Ad Agency whip up some snazzy courier trucks (pro-bono) to help promote the library, classic lit, and reading. [Via Nicolette Mason]

Awful Library Books is a collection of the worst library holdings. The items featured here are so old, obsolete, awful or just plain stupid that we are horrified that people might be actually checking these items out and depending on the information.

And my favorite - book art:


The work of Guy Laramee, including this fantastic sculpture of Petra.
[Via Jezebel]

Interesting Links

Popping over again to share these interesting links...

Great photos of the new High Line Project by Color Me Katie

More cool bookshelves at Incredible Things. I've seen some of the bookshelves previously (like the couch/bookshelf), but there are also some nifty new ones. [via Fear and Loathing]

I want one of these crazy cool candles.

Sorry for the lack of photos, but I am trying to be quick about this. I'll be back tomorrow with some real content, promise!

Bookshelves as Art

From dornob, Job Koelewijn's infinite bookshelf:


From Jacket Copy, Jordi Mila's "Wisdom Tree" bookshelf:


Related: books as art, and cool bookshelves.

Classics with One-Star Amazon Reviews

You Can't Please Everyone is a series of posts from Cynical-C about classics (books, movies, albums) with one-star Amazon ratings. Some are funny and some are very, very depressing. Here's a sampling (and [sic] to just about all of these):

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Who the hell is this Mark Twain character?! Simply put: What a lousy novel! Maybe this was his first novel…I don’t know. Anyways, I sure hope he doesn’t plan on writing anything else. I read this book, initially, in the author’s native bulgarian language…and it was even worse! The translator was probably trying to do us a favor by touching up this P.O.S. novel, but I think it would take an act of God to save this text…

1984: i give this book one star i had to read it for class and i know it’s suposed to be a “classic” but god itis awful. first of all its NOTHING like the future is probly going to turn out. second of all every one says the aurthor george orwell is so trippy and wierd but i think he’s just trying to cover up for the fact that HE CAN’T WRITE. please george do us all a faver and stop writing books.

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band: This alBUM and the beatles in general are way too over-rated! How can you people say this album is perfect without it having ONE GOOD METAL GUITAR PART! you people need to learn what GOOD music is. I suggest: Dragon Force, Megadeth, and Death Cab for Cutie.

I have to confess, though, I didn't like Catcher in the Rye, either, so I won't criticize anyone else's one-star rating of it.

Thanks to mental_floss for the link.

Bloody Bookmarks

It looks like these cool bookmarks are from Japan, based on the packaging. Anyone know if they are available in the US?

Round Couch

Via Jacket Copy



Pretty cool looking, though I'm not sure it's so practical. As the article says, maybe if it was rollable, and you could push it around to wherever you want to sit.

(Previous post about cool bookshelves/furniture.)

What's Going on Here?

I fear that book publishers are in a sinister conspiracy with bookshelf-makers to get us all to buy more furniture. That must be it, or why else would they randomly change the size of a standard paperback? My evidence (sorry for the quality, I took it with my cellphone):



This may be a little hard to tell but the books in the upper right corner (Thomas Haris's Red Dragon) are about a half-inch taller than the other books on the display shelf. And it's not just this title. The last several times I've gone to the bookstore, I've noticed one or two of these larger volumes. They aren't enlarged print, just formatted differently.

Publishers, I do not approve. I can barely fit all the books I own on the shelf, and the only reason I can do so now is that they are all pretty much the same size (the trade paperbacks, at least) which allows me to stack them on their sides and double things up on the shelf. If you start mucking about with the book sizes, I will get annoyed. So let's just nip this in the bud and keep what we've got, mmkay? Thanks!

Cut Down on Books? Why?

From Lifehacker [via S. Krishna]:
Cut Down on Book Hoarding

Make a rule that you will read X number of books you currently own before buying another one.

Why would I want to do that?

Bookshelves

Some inspiration for those of you who like creative bookshelves (with a few secret rooms thrown in for good measure) from WebUrbanist:

20 Unusually Brilliant Bookcase and Bookshelf Designs: Creative, Modular and Unique Furniture

15 (More!) Unusually Brilliant Book Shelving Systems: Creative and Modular Urban Furniture

I've seen many of these before but thought the links were worth sharing. I do like this chair quite a bit. I'd never move on a Sunday afternoon!

Hollywood Books

Interested in giving Hollywood books for the Holidays? Check out the long list at Deadline Hollywood Daily (here).

Books for the Holidays

Surprise, surprise, I like to give and get books as presents. Many of my fellow bloggers have pledged to Buy Books for the Holidays. And now, the publishing industry is urging you to do the same, with the launch of Books Are Great Gifts, and even included some reasons why.

For Christmas:
They always fit under the tree.

For Hanukkah:
You can give a different one for each of the 8 nights.

For the New Year:
With the right book, you can finally learn what Auld Lang Syne means.

Do you know what else makes a great present? A puppy. (Hint, hint.)

2008's Best Covers

The Best Book Covers of 2008 (via Bookslut). And don't forget to vote on which one you like.