A heartwarming story in today's Washington Post tells of the local bookstore in the tiny town of Poligny, France. The owner was about to close the store, which she could no longer run, due to her failing health. One hundred city residents pitched in about $750 each to form a corporation/… Read full post »

One of my favorite Kindle features is "sample this book." For no charge, you can download the table of contents and the first chapter or two of any Kindle book and decide at your leisure if you want to buy the book and read further.

Now… Read full post »

How do you choose which books you'll read? You probably have a variety of sources for new reading ideas: books you've read or heard about online or on radio or TV, suggestions from friends, browsing the bookstore and library. But unless you belong to a book club, you probably don't have… Read full post »

There's nothing more fun than a scandal, and the book world has been full of them lately. It's getting so that I can barely keep up with the book scandals, let alone the very entertaining British Ministers of Parliament expenses revelations. And actual news? Supreme Court nomina/… Read full post »

The Second Annual Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award (ABNA) Contest is in progress. The grand prize is a publishing contract with Penguin.

I didn't intend to participate – I don't have a novel inside me. But then an email arrived. “Dear Amazon Reviewer, You have been/… Read full post »

Mondegreen: A form of error arising from mishearing a spoken or sung phrase.

etymology:  Coined by Sylvia Wright in Harper’s Magazine (The Death of Lady Mondegreen, Nov 1954) from a mishearing of/… Read full post »

Late breaking news from Entertainment Tonight (ET) reveals that author Dan Brown has completed the long-awaited sequel to The Da Vinci Code! The blockbuster news was divulged by Angels & Demons director Ron Howard (who will always be Opie Taylor to some of us), who admits/… Read full post »

If you're a newspaper junkie, you may already know about the Newseum website. But I've just found out about it and I can't take the chance that some of you may not have discovered it yet.

The best feature is the Today's Front Pages i… Read full post »

 Green Eggs and Hamlet

Would you kill him in his bed?

Thrust a dagger through his head?

I would not, could not, kill the King.

I could not do that evil thing.

I would not wed this girl, you see.

Now… Read full post »

The publishing house MacmillanUSA has finally revealed the true story behind how a book makes it into print. This 3 minute 37 second video, titled From the Typewriter to the Bookstore: A Publishing Story is a real eye-opener for aspiring writers. Take notes and be prepared for the Shocking Truth.

&nb… Read full post »

copyright Warner Bros. 2001

Quick, how many Canadian authors can you name? If you can think of just one, then you named more than 47% of 1,502 Canadians surveyed, according to this article that recently appeared in the daily Canadian newspaper The National Post. It says that only/… Read full post »

Here's a do-it-yourself project for those of you who are handy.

 video courtesy of Videojug

How I Turned $1,000 Into a Million in Real Estate - In My Spare Time. Isn't that a great title? I love this book. I've never actually read it, although I've leafed through it to see why it's so popular. The first line is ''The road… Read full post »

The To-Be-Read pile is getting out of control. I used to keep it on a shelf in the bookcase, but if it isn't in my direct line of sight, I tend to forget about it. Now I keep the TBR pile on a table where I can't miss it.… Read full post »

It's time to shop for gifts and although it goes without saying that books are the best gift of all, sometimes it's hard to pick just the right book for some people. (Although undertow has some original and unexpected book suggestions for just about everyone on your gift list.) Book-related… Read full post »

"December 7, 1941 -- A date which will live in infamy."

We stop every year to recall what happened on that day, and think about what followed. We commemorate the date that we were attacked. We try not to think too much about the injustices we committed at home.

The Japanese internment… Read full post »

Fast food is not one of our many vices, but lately we've found ourselves in several fast food establishments and I must reluctantly report that there is some unsavory business going on.

When we're out and want a quick meal, we usually stop at a Subway for a… Read full post »

Thanksgiving is over and our thoughts have turned to gift-giving. Well, gift-receiving, to be more precise. Imaginary gifts. No way we'll be getting these. But this is what Steve wants for Christmas.

It's The Penguin Classics Library Complete Collection – 1,082 paperb… Read full post »

 new books

old books Read full post »

Maxine Hong Kingston, author of The Woman Warrior and many other works, received the 2008 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters at the National Book Awards ceremony last night.

In her acceptance speech, she said that after her award was annou… Read full post »

How much do you love your favorite bookstore? Enough to name your firstborn after it? Okay then, how about your second born?

That is exactly what Audrey and Kevin DeKam did. Their son, born on October 3, 2008, is named Powell Finley DeKam, after their favorite bookstore, the entirely wonderful… Read full post »

Imagine walking up to an ATM, pushing a few buttons and after a few minutes of mechanical whirring sounds, out pops a fresh new paperback book.

The Espresso Book Machine is rather like that. The size of a small car, it can print out and bind a book in a few… Read full post »

I'm tired of being scolded for not supporting my local independent bookstore.

Stop guilting me for not paying full price for a book when it's available for half price. I don't have money to burn, and I'll bet you don't either.

It happened again last… Read full post »