Dan Gardner envies Mark Steyn. He said so in a recent piece in the Ottawa Citizen. You see Steyn is a master at the craft of controversy. Controversy sells books. Gardner wishes his book would sell. To quote him…
In my most secret dreams, Heather Reisman wears black leather chaps and inflicts a little of that [...]
Indigo books launched a new boutique green brand at their AGM. The new brand will be called ‘Pistachio’. It will exist inside existing stores (does anyone remember the Indigo-owned Cruikshank’s gardening concept?) and may be spun off as its own storefront — possibly abroad. The store will sell organic paper and other non-book eco-friendly widgets.
Is [...]
The esteemed Kevin Kelly posted a list of books that changed his life.
The one book on his list that I hadn’t heard of was Finite and Infinite Games by James Carse. This is from the book’s wikipedia entry…
His idea is that when a person sees themselves as “playing” in “games” usually seen as serious events, [...]
The Book Design Review is showcasing two covers I really digg. Maybe I am just thirsty.
Ethan Kaplan is pointing to an epic email rant from Bill Gates regarding usability. This has nothing to do with book publishing in Canada, but I, for one, have worked for that founder that throws grenades around via email — sometimes those emails unexpectedly hit on the truth. Here is a sarcastic morsel…
These 45 names [...]
Reading Wired this month, I learned the author of Risk — Dan Gardner — is a Canadian journalist. Didn’t know that. Also didn’t know the US folks changed the title and cover. I have seen Risk in the bookstores. I wasn’t interested in it until I saw the US edition. I think the US concept [...]
Paid Content is reporting that…
Leonard Tow is pledging $5 million to the Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, and $3 million to the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism, to fund R&D and innovation efforts and figure out the future of newspapers, both in print and online.
Hmm. I guess the first step [...]
I just saw this post about Topspin Media on TechCrunch and it got me thinking about the new breed of book publisher. Topspin is essentially a distribution company for unsigned musicians — or more accurately musicians that choose not to be ’signed’.
Ingram and Amazon are falling over each other to fill the digital distribution space [...]
Rob Horning’s great Marginal Utility post at PopMatters called the time cost of free goods got me thinking how great it would be to be able get a book for free then only pay when you use it. If your attention wanes at page 23 of that new novel, then you would pay a fraction [...]
Entertainment Weekly published a list of New Classics: the 100 best reads from 1983 to 2008.
I am all for list making but this kind of exercise leaves me dead inside. I stopped reading the magazine last year, so please, if you are a regular reader let me know if they published the list of the [...]