May We Suggest ...
DAVID SHAPIRO
My Christmas present was an Amazon Kindle e-reader, although I didn't actually get it until February because it's so popular it's on back-order. Amazon hopes the Kindle will do for books what Apple's iPod did for music. This remains to be seen as Apple itself decides whether to enter the book space, but the Kindle is a groundbreaking device that does have potential to change the way we read.
It's the size of a trade paperback but lighter and thinner, with an electronic display that really looks like ink on paper. More than 100,000 books are available from the Kindle Store, along with newspapers, magazines and blogs. They can be purchased from the Kindle and downloaded to the device instantly with Kindle's free wireless connection. It can hold some 200 titles at a time, and the battery lasts a week between charges.
The price is steep at $399, and the $9.99 cost of best sellers and new releases seems high since they don't have to print, warehouse or ship. But if you read a lot, the Kindle can greatly lighten your load.
I was attracted to the Kindle as a publishing platform as much as a reader. Amazon allows anybody to upload books for sale at the Kindle Store, and if electronic publishing corners a good share of the market, this could become a way around the print publishing establishment.
I finished a novel I liked two years ago, Scattered Remains — A Novel of Ghostly Infidelity, but lacked the stomach to court indifferent agents and publishers, so it's sat on my hard drive. When Kindle appeared, I said what the heck, did a little basic HTML formatting and uploaded it priced at $4.17. The next thing I knew, I was a published novelist alongside Stephen King, Ken Follett and Jennifer Weiner. The challenge, of course, is getting my book noticed in such company
.In addition to the Kindle version, I posted an Adobe PDF version that can be read on computers and other e-readers and a mobile version that can be viewed with a free reader on smart phones like the Treo, Blackberry and Windows Mobile. I've read many books on my Treo and the little screen is quite legible. Apple is bound to eventually put an e-reader on its iPhone and iPod Touch with their big screens and easy navigation and sell books on the iTunes Store.
If anybody has thoughts about opportunities and challenges presented by electronic and other non-traditional book publishing, email me at volcanicash@gmail.com and I'll share what I learn.
Kindle version of Scattered Remains — A Novel of Ghostly Infidelity
PDF version of Scattered Remains.
Mobile version of Scattered Remains.
DIDI WOOD
I spend many hours each week in my car, and while music is great, I can screech along with Puccini arias only so many times before my voice gives out. Books (unabridged, of course) on CD are a great alternative. Here are a few titles I've enjoyed recently — read with the eyes or with the ears, they're a treat.
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
Prayers for the Assassin by Robert Ferrigno
(The sequel, Sins of the Assasin, just came out, and I'm looking forward to it.)
MARY ESTRADA
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Confident bilingual voice — moving, funny ambitious story.The Diary of a Bad Year by J.M. Coetzee
I just started this, but am enjoying the combination of political essays — the diary of an old writer ( presumably the author) — and a narrative about the ripe young woman he hires to type manuscripts. (Her radiant heat warms his bones.) The unconventional formatting is kind of a gimmick. The pages are sectioned off into the three voices. It seems like the politics may get a bit strident, but this is a good year to keep our blood boiling.Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany (Hardcover) by Bill Buford
Love this book. It has everything. Recipes, mid life crisis, and Italian food — a book I will read more than once.Born Standing Up —A Comic's Life by Steve Martin
I bought this as an audio book, because I've enjoyed his other books and I love hearing Martin reading his own work.
SEAN McKLUSKY
Pink Box Inside Japan's Sex Clubs by Joan Sinclair
I don't apologize for enjoying erotic photography, and although I enjoyed the articles and fiction when I subscribed to Playboy as a young man, I liked the pictures even more. Pink Box isn't going to win an award for erudite prose but it is an honest introduction to another world, another culture through the eyes of an American woman. Not to be confused with seedy, underground, drug-laden, misogynistic brothels, these are fantasy lands for grownups and despite their unseemly character and overt pandering to kink, there is ample evidence that the culture benefits from their presence. Indeed, it's the second largest industry in Japan, next to automobiles.