File: Logistics

As you can see, brand new look and feel.

New review in the library as well.

From The Stacks

A lot has happened since my last post.

I need to admit full disclosure: I went to work for a publishing company, which technically, makes me one of them. I am an editor, but I'm working with already-published-books, deploying them onto a popular website. (The company owns all the content rights.) This will not affect my judgment, the reviews, or my desire to post about book publishing.

And, I've been reading. A lot (see below). It's the time of year when I hunker down and read all the books that have been sent to me before my deadline passes, which is early next week. So, that's why there's been an interruption in the news and views of BookADay and I will soon return regularly.

I got tagged by Karen and it's a fun one about books, so I thought I'd post it here. Feel free to post your own.

Meme instructions (I modified slightly): Look at the list of books below. Bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones you might read, cross out the ones you won’t, put astericks by the ones on your book shelf, and place parentheses around the ones you’ve never even heard of.

The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
*The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
*The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams
*The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald
*To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
*The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
(His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman)
*Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J. K. Rowling
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story - George Orwell
*Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
*1984 - George Orwell
*Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J. K. Rowling
*One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
*Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
*Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
Angels and Demons - Dan Brown
*Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
Neuromancer - William Gibson
(Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson)
(The Secret History - Donna Tartt)
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
*Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
*Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C. S. Lewis
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
(Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell)
The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Good Omens - Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman
Atonement - Ian McEwan
(The Shadow Of The Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon)
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
*The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
*Dune - Frank Herbert

So, play nice until next time. Also, I'm currently searching for nice quotes. Anyone have any?

Currently Reading:
The Litigators, Pg. 16

2006 Books Completed (in no particular order):
1. Spook: Science Tackles The Afterlife, 288 pages
2. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, 272 pages
3. The iTetralogy, 365 pages
4. The March of the Frozen Martyrs, 404 pages
5. Noble Vision, 338 pages
6. Abrasoka, 197 pages
7. Athena's Forum, 329 pages
8. The Champion Maker, 270 pages
9. Cryptid: the Lost Legacy of Lewis & Clark, 299 pages
10. DiVerse, 123 pages
11. Letters to Allie, 178 pages
12. Liars Dice, 364 pages
13. A Castle in Romagna, 103 pages
14. Nocturne, 379 pages
15. Rocks That Float, 282 pages
16. The March of the Frozen Martyrs, 391 pages
18. The Time Keeper, 235 pages
19. Gardening Made Easy
20. Organize Your Closet
21. Beyond Business Casual, 192 pages
22. Real Style, 192 pages
23. What Should I Wear? Dressing For All Occasions
24. Before You Put That On, 384 pages
25. How to Gain The Professional Edge: Achieve the Personal & Professional
Image You Want, 155 pages
26. Nice Girls Don't Get The Corner Office 101 Unconscious Mistakes Women Make That Sabotage Their Careers, 288 pages

No links on that one, it's a lot of coding.

Total Approximate Pages Read: 5,537

A Tribute to Wendy Wasserstein

Playwright Wendy Wasserstein has died.

There are a number of beautiful obituaries for her on the web right now and I'm sure they'll continue as the day goes on, but the one I find the most comforting is from The Miami Herald.

I loved Wendy Wasserstein's work. I loved them for their wit, for their ridiculous humor, for their unabashed blatant political statements. I even loved them for the things I hated: the similar characters and dialogue, the whining, the pseudo-man bashing. Maybe it was because I could see their flaws and respect her work anyway. Maybe it was because I, too, am a Jewish girl with overprotective parents. Maybe it was because her characters saw what they wanted and went after it-- a character trait I admire. Whatever it was, her work inspired me to continue writing.

Sometimes it's about timing. She caught me at the exact right moment with The Heidi Chronicles, a pick from my 10th grade English class. Her plays led the life I wanted (well, except for the dead-end romances with schmucks), told with the sense of humor I stole as my own.

I followed her career as my own began, even forgiving her missteps (An American Daughter, which disappointed me when I saw it on Broadway) because every interview I read of hers was a delight. She was a woman I admired; a woman I wanted to befriend.

I never did, but I thought about writing to her a lot. To tell her that her words danced across my mind, reverberated, making me feel dizzy and real. To tell her that her feminism was my blueprint; that her work and her life meant something to me even though I later discarded her brand of identity for my own. That her books sit on my office's inspiration shelf and that even now I thumb through them on bad days reminding myself why I write.

Her death makes today one of those bad days. Yet, even though she is no longer with us, she still inspires me and reminds me why I write. This time, it is to her.

Ms. Wasserstein, you'll be sorely missed. Thank you for all you've done for me.

How Do You Read?

Pop Quiz: How do you read? What are your preferences? Hard cover, paperback, ebook? Do you ever read books onscreen (via PDA, cell phone, ereader, monitor)? Would you?

My preferences: paperback (easier to haul around in my purse). I'm trying to get into the ereader thing. I started Silas Marner on my PDA/cell phone.

Two new book reviews up in the Book Review section. I also moved all the 2005 reviews over to the Book Review Archive.

Currently Reading:
The iTetralogy, Pg. 255.
Scion brochure.
Silas Marner, Pg. 2.

My eRead Over The Ocean

Our friends over at Britain's Observer report on a story about the next big advance in publishing: the ebook.

Yeah, I know, sort of old news. But the article is a great read, especially because it wanders through all points of view.

Most exaggerated quote from the article:

Weisberg, a passionate bibliophile who delights in trawling secondhand bookshops for modern first editions, concedes that a book is a lovely thing and believes that hardback books will become more like illuminated manuscripts after Gutenberg. 'You will keep in your home only ones you find attractive, or have a sentimental connection to. Owning printed books will eventually become synonymous with collecting them.'

Of course, I think that's a bunch of bunk. And I'm a big fan of ebooks.

A quote that makes more sense from the same article:

"When the e-reader emerges as a mass-market item, the shift will be very rapid indeed. It will soon be a dual-format market."

Yeah, much better.

In other news, three new reviews coming this week (hopefully). One's in the can, one's in my head, and one's still being read.

Currently reading:
The iTetralogy, Pg. 168.
The New Yorker, current issue, Pg. 27. (Yeah, I know it's not a book, but it's what I'm reading.)

New Year, New Me

And, we're back.

First, a thank you to all of the very, very patient BookADay readers.

I've looked at BookADay in 2005.
Here it is, by the numbers:

10 reviews posted, about one per month, except when on sabbatical
48 posts, 2 more than in 2004


That's not good enough.

When I originally started this my goal was to share what I was reading. I had always been that friend people asked what was good to read. But, I've been a miserable friend, the kind who doesn't return your phone calls because she's off hiking the Alps or something. Part of that is because I began reading a lot of books for a contest that I was judging at the time, so I got away from the core, replacing it with news and other tidbits. Part of it was because I was too busy/lazy to update on a regular schedule. Part of it was because I was trying to find my voice on deciding what I would and wouldn't publish. (Regular readers know about my good review/bad review debate.)

Speaking of reviews, I'd like to announce the BookADay Awards for Excellence in 2005.

BookADay Reviewer of the Year
Shane Wilson.
Shane's diligence and prolific review writing has kept BookADay going this year, almost single-handedly. I'm incredibly grateful to his fervor, anger, and well written book reviews.

This year there's only one category. Next year, I'll ask you to read the awards wearing a tux with tails, and I'll write them in a flowing dress with plenty of bling. Seriously, congrats and thank you to Shane.

It's a new year and I've think I have it figured out. Which could mean I don't have it figured out at all. Anything's possible.

Due to wonderful advances in technology (way to go Palm Treo and Blogger Mobile), I can now post from just about anywhere. I'm going back to the core--less news more books. Which means more reviews and more regularly scheduled posts. And, if I'm going to be off traveling, there will be guest contributors to keep this going. Because I owe it to you, and truthfully, to me as well.

New features for 2006:
-Search capabilities of reviews. People have asked for this and I'm going to figure out how to make this happen. If there's a developer in the house,
-More indy book reviews. I'm currently working through a stack that will be up in the next few weeks.
-Possible new design.
-Interviews.
-Much more fun and exciting innovations I can't tell you about because I haven't thought up yet.

Thanks again to everyone who reads BookADay. There's a new review by Reviewer of the Year Shane Wilson up in the BookADay Book Review section.

And now...your regularly scheduled post ending.

Currently reading:
The i Tetralogy, Pg. 68
Tori Amos: Piece by Piece, Pg. 18

2006 Books Completed:
1. Spook: Science Tackles The Afterlife
2. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
Total Pages Read: 583

What? Still On Leave?

It's the New Year, for crying out loud.

Yes, yes, I've heard your cries and I apologize.
Putting together a nice big post, including a year wrap up.
New reviews as well.

Coming January 9.

BookADay on temporary leave.

I'm currently headed to Mexico on business. Unsure of Internet access. Taking lots of reading with me.

Sorry for the short hiatus. Expect to return to the States the 10th of December.

Book Texting

Dot Mobile, a cell phone company out of London, is texting students the Cliff's Notes of literature, complete with text message slang. Article via:
Slashdot: Literature Teeters on the Edge of a 'Gr8 Fall'.

Both Yahoo! and Slashdot seem to think this is an awful idea, but I see it as another step in the right direction. I don't like the text slang, but with mobile devices becoming the next thing in communication, it makes sense for phone companies to begin competition outside of ringtones and wireless. Why not books? Books as PDF are taking off--I know quite a few people who read them on the Palms. I hope Dot Mobile sees the greater value of these summaries and eventually pairs them with the full books.

$8000=Entire Penguin Collection

Over the summer, Penguin released its Classic Library Complete Collection available through Amazon. For slightly less than $8K, you can own almost every book in Penguin's catalogue. It's a good thing the shipping is free because it weighs 700 lbs. Wow.

The New York Times: 1,082 Penguin Books story has the tale of one family who bought.

Can you imagine if all publishers released their collection this way? Granted, Penguin's collection lends itself the most easily to this, but wouldn't it be cool for bibliophiles to own the collections of their favorite publishers in one bulk purchase.

In case you're curious of what to get me for the holidays, it's on my wishlist.

Thanks to Shane for the update.

Review of Reviews

Priya Jain writes forSalon.com Books "Years of magical thinking" a nice review that, in addition to reviewing the memoir, reviews the author's history and the other reviewers.

More Eleventh Hour Votes For Limits On The Patriot Act

New bill up in the Senate (S.1389) gives greater reader privacy than the House version. The Senate legislation restricts bookstore and library searches under Section 215 of the Patriot Act to the records of suspected terrorists or those in contact with them. If you agree, contact your senator with your support.

Two Links:
Rising Support Cited for Limits On Patriot Act

Campaign For Reader Privacy

Delicious Library

Woah, what a cool program. For $40, it allows you to catalogue your entire book, music, and DVD library. I'm currently trying the demo version to see how it handles my personal book library (at the last move over 800). I'll report back on how well it does.

The Theory on Bad Reviews

We're at the point that I need to address something that I've been trying to avoid: the subject of bad reviews. Authors and publishing companies send us their books. I feel it's both a great honor and a great responsibility. These are works that people have labored over. The majority are small publishing houses that don't have a lot marketing dollars, including money to send review copies. That means that these same small houses don't receive a lot of reviews for their books. That means they don't generate a buzz, which means the books are harder to sell.

Now, sometimes, these small houses are one-man-bands. The self-published author. This is generally a person who has invested his or her own money into making the book a reality. Sometimes, albeit rarely, self-publishing works. There's a great book out there that, for whatever reason, mainstream publishing companies aren't picking up. These people have even fewer shots of getting reviews for their books, and even less of a chance of distribution and sold copies. These are the books I want to champion.

My interest in publishing has always been wide. The publishing companies are working hard to keep their doors open. The authors often don't make enough on a book to quit their day jobs. Not a lot of people are getting rich. Yet, it's an industry that is flooded with books. It's overwhelming to readers. I originally created this blog for people interested in both reading and the business of books. I've posted the occasional negative review about a book from a large house. My reasoning: there is so much press about the books from big houses that another commentary is just that: another voice in the mix.

But, to this point, I haven't posted a bad review of a book from a small press. I have read some books that were lacking, and written a few negative reviews. But, after doing some Internet searches on the books in question and finding no information, I decided not to post the reviews. The reason? Why should the only mention of a book be negative? Perhaps nobody is buying it in the first place, why bother to post reviews of something not being read? I don't want to hurt a small house that is struggling just to meet its overhead. Yet, at the same time, the publisher has sent their book to me, a reviewer, to critique. Perhaps authors are wondering what happened to their books? (For the record, the process is like this: books come in, are logged and then put in line to be read, critiqued, then at the end of each calendar year, given to the reviewers or donated to the local library.) Why is this blog, one that strives to devote itself to the small press, lacking in book reviews about the small press?

The answer is two fold: 1) some of the books sent to me from small presses have received negative reviews that I chose not to post; 2)I give reviewers the freedom to choose the book they want to discuss.

But, I have a responsibility to readers. If someone sends a book, they do it in good faith. If the book was good, I'd post it in a heartbeat. If the book deserves a negative review, it also should be posted. The first negative review is being posted today. Give me your feedback. Based on that, I'll decide whether or not to post others.

By the way, if you're a publisher who wants your book reviewed, or a reviewer looking for a home for your reviews, address queries to me: Brandi Larsen-- bookaday at gmail.com.

Google Print

The debate continues.

Opposed, in today's Washington Times.

For, from Google.

What Goodle is doing to reading, by Gregory Crane from Humanities.

What's your take?

People Reading on The Train

Red Eye.
The New Yorker.
Devil in a White City.
Harry Potter.
That Was Yesterday. I'll keep notes this morning.

New reviews will be posted on Friday.

Update, 9am.
This morning's train readings:
Red Eye.
Chicago Sun-Times.
A T-Mobile Sidekick.
Jewels of the Sun.
The Mercy Ruler (a library book!)
Jarhead.
Cornwell.
The Time Traveler's Wife.

The Quill Awards Are Going On Right Now

Best Debut Author: Elizabeth Kostova, The Historian
Best Humor: Jon Stewart, America (The Book)
Best Business: Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, Freakonomics
Best Children's Chapter Books, Middle Grade: J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Best Cooking: Rachel Ray, Rachel Ray's 30 Minute Get Real Meals
Best Children's Illustrated Book: Shel Silverstein, Runny Babbit
Best Religion/Spirituality: Deepak Chopra, Peace Is The Way

The full list is at their website: www.quillsliteracy.org. (Shame for posting prior to the full televised cermony.)

Yes, I'm back. I'm sorry for the long delay.

New Book Review Friday

New Book Review Friday!

Nice article.

I'm a big fan of Jeanette Winterson's work. She just redid her website (well, I imagine her people just redid the website). In any case, she wrote a nice journal entry in this month's newsletter about books and their ability to rejuveniate.

If you haven't read any of her books, start with Written on The Body.

The Book Vending Machine is Here!

Okay, not here. Paris. But still, the concept has been actualized. Even more gratifying than Amazon and ebay put together: The Book Vending Machine. You have to read the full article.

I think this is the coolest thing ever.