Wednesday Links: 8-26-09
This’ll be my last Wednesday links post for a while. In September, I’m off to Madagascar for a few months, and hopefully getting some work done on my thesis along the way. I’m going to be prepping for the trip for the next few weeks, but I should be to turn in the odd post both in Sept. and from Madagascar, and I should be able to turn in some book reviews, too, as I won’t have Internet or TV. Anyway, let’s get to the news.
- If you haven’t heard, Sony announced a new wireless ereader yesterday, as well as support for Mac, and a partnership with the New York Public Library. Here’s my take on the announcement, including links to TeleRead’s excellent coverage of the event. Basically, I think Mac support is the big winner there. Most of the talk about library ebooks looks to be them rehyping existing features. Which is OK, I suppose, because nobody seemed to know about them. One other interesting tidbit is, as GalleyCat points out, the Netgalley/Sony relationship means that publishers and editors can send digital galleys, and presumably advance review copies (or ARCs) of books to each other and reviewers. Something that people have been asking for for a while.
- Europe is reinstituting banning people from the Internet as a solution for “the piracy problem.” Not good news.
- In literature news, Lemony Snicket is charmingly hinting at a new series. I enjoyed Lemony Snicket more than Harry Potter―why hasn’t there been another movie yet? Meanwhile, Joseph O’Neill’s Netherland is getting closer to a movie version. Sam Mendes and Oprah Winfrey have found a screenwriter. I’m not that excited, based on the book. (Also, guess who Oprah’s new favorite writer is.)
- TeleRead has a piece on what ebookstores could learn from Netflix. I agree, but can I add: ebook rentals please? They’ve also got another interesting post on ereaders and interactivity.
- Quick takes: Nathan Bransford has an overview of how a book gets published―sort of the bloggy, literary version of that old Schoolhouse Rock cartoon; A Commonplace Blog on Truman Capote’s yortsayt; an interview with Dan Chaon; the growing rise of urban fantasy; the book bucket list at the Australian’s book blog; Tarantino on writing (re: Inglourious Basterds: temper your expectations).
- Random of the week: This is like Bruce Lee’s Drunken Master, only without the master. Bonus: there are some awesome things tagged “wtf” at Amazon. The JL421 Badonkadonk Land Tank (as opposed to those air and water tanks), for instance. How can you go wrong?
