CallMeIshmael.com is a fascinating and fantastic new way to celebrate books. The concept is simple:
Read More: Your New Favorite Storytelling Website Is All About Books | BuzzFeed
You did it, Internet readers. In just half a day, LeVar Burton’s Reading Rainbow campaign to raise $1 million on crowdfunding website Kickstarter has reached its seven-figure goal.
The money from nearly 23,000 donors will be used to bring Burton’s cult TV classic to a new generation of readers by building a web version for families at home, creating a classroom version for teachers and providing free access to it for schools in need.
The online campaign, fueled by buzz generated on social media, surpassed $1 million shortly before 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday. Burton, the creator and host of PBS’ series Reading Rainbow from 1983 to 2006, launched the Kickstarter project earlier in the day.
Read More: $1 Million in 1 Day: Reading Rainbow Kickstarter Earns Pot of Gold | Mashable
The original post is lengthy but worth the read, as it includes some discussion about censorship and creative user protest on the GoodReads platform.
With 20 million members (a number some have noted is close to the population of Australia) and a reputation as a place where readers meet to trade information and share their excitement about books, the social networking site Goodreads has always appeared to be one of the more idyllic corners of the Internet. The site sold to Amazon for an estimated $190 million this spring, and Goodreads recommendations and data have been integrated into the new Kindle Paperwhite devices, introducing a whole new group of readers to the bookish community.
But if, at a casual glance, the two companies — Goodreads and Amazon — seem to be made for each other, look again. A small but growing faction of longtime, deeply involved Goodreads members are up in arms about recent changes to the site’s enforcement of its policies on what members are permitted to say when reviewing books, and many of them blame the crackdown on the Amazon deal. They’ve staged a protest of sorts, albeit one that’s happening mostly out of the public eye. Their charge is censorship and their accusation is, in the words of one rebel, that Goodreads and Amazon want “to kill the vibrant, creative community that was once here, and replace it with a canned community of automaton book cheerleaders.”
Read the rest of the story: How Amazon and Goodreads could lose their best readers | Salon.com
The number of Americans ages 16 and older who own tablet computers has grown to 35%, and the share who have e-reading devices like Kindles and Nooks has grown to 24%. Overall, the number of people who have a tablet or an e-book reader among those 16 and older now stands at 43%.
Up from 25% last year, more than half of those in households earning $75,000 or more now have tablets. Up from 19% last year, 38% of those in upper-income households now have e-readers.
Read the full report or download the pdf.
via Tablet and E-reader Ownership Update | Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.
Great news for Canadian authors and women writers. Alice Munro first Canadian to win Nobel Prize in literature | CTV News. See this link In Case You Need a Beginner’s Guide to Alice Munro | Flavorwire.
Like scary stories. Flavorwire suggests 7 Scary Edgar Allan Poe Tales to Read Online.
Meredith Guthrie examines why E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey is not just ‘mommy porn’. “Whatever You Do, ‘Don’t Call It “Mommy Porn”: Fifty Shades of Grey, Fan Culture, and the Limits of Intellectual Property Rights,’ | Meredith Guthrie, University of Pittsburgh | Infinite Earths
Where would you sit, sleep?? The Man With 59,000 Books — In His House | HuffPost Books.
Canada Reads, the CBC’s “battle of the books,” is underway again. The annual radio showdown seeks to elevate one book that all Canadians should read.
This year, advocates will debate not only the best book, but also “the one novel that could change Canada.”
Read the story for the full details: Canada Reads 2014 seeks inspirational novels | Quill & Quire
HarperCollins has partnered with document-sharing website Scribd on a new ebook subscription service.
Dubbed “Netflix for ebooks,” subscribers pay $8.99 a month for the ability to check out an unlimited number of ebooks – up to 10 titles at time – from the Scribd catalogue, which includes backlists from HarperCollins and several small U.S. presses. The service allows readers to switch between browsers, Android, and Apple devices without losing their place.
HarperCollins CEO Brian Murray told the Associated Press that the partnership will provide the publisher with valuable data about Scribd readers. “This is going to help us make even better publishing and marketing decisions for our authors,” he says.
The international service is now available in Canada, although not all titles are accessible for download.
HarperCollins partners with Scribd for ebook subscription service | Quill & Quire
Travel writing is a glamorous but difficult genre. To a reader it’s an easy sell: you get to go to fantastic places and see unusual things without spending the money.
In this list, I’ve observed the following parameters: no recent blockbusters, like Eat, Pray, Love or Wild, as many of the world’s regions as one could possibly fit, and steering away from the older, 19th-century popular travel books unless there was something particularly remarkable about them.
See the list: 35 Great Travel Books That Will Take You Around the World Without a Plane Ticket | Flavorwire.
Prior to World War II, GLBTI literature was hidden, with knowledge of its existence largely known only to members of the community, who shared texts among themselves. Occasionally a work of fiction would find its way into general circulation, but the books typically resorted to coded inferences of desire or served as warnings against the danger and immorality of homosexuality. This pattern continued until the 1969 Stonewall riot, which is largely accepted as the beginning of the GLBTI rights movement. The last three decades of the 20th century saw the establishment of GLBTI presses, bookstores, awards, and reading and book clubs, as well as literary festivals, writers’ conferences, and professional organizations. The closet was open, and the GLBTI community had found its voice.
Collection development and readers’ advisory (RA) staff can take advantage of a unique opportunity for professional growth by acquainting themselves with the widely dispersed sources of information about GLBTI literature. The task of identifying worthy contemporary purchases is best accomplished by consulting awards and recommended reading lists.
See the full article (which includes a longish list of recommended GLBTI fiction): via GLBTI Fiction: Opening the Fiction Closet | Library Journal.
infophile 