Daily Thoughts 06/05/2012
I went to Random House in the morning for the Librarians Breakfast. If you are walking into the Louis L'Amour room where the event was held, you see pictures of the different The breakfast was at 7:30 a.m. I got there a little late, but heard most of the presentations. I especially liked the sound of the book, The Headmasters Wager. The setting in a Chinese city in Vietnam was very intriguing. Also the idea of Mahjong, sex, and literature all in one novel intrigued me. Another book which caught my attention was The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe.
There is so much to see at Book Expo America that it can be overwhelming. It is a constant stream of authors, books. librarian, publishers, ebooks, and editors. The floor was quieter this year than last. There were also many more ebook vendors and digital publishers this year. There were also a lot of specialty digital printers.
After the breakfast, I walked back to the Book Expo America. I had some time to wander a bit. I stopped by the Librarians Lounge which is at booth 2148 and had some more coffee and looked at the books from the author breakfast. The librarians lounge was right near the digital zone. I recognized one vendor from last year, Autography which does digital signatures for ebooks. They took a picture of me. They were at the Book Industry Study Group Digital Show and Tell last year. So, it was interesting seeing their product again.
The Digital Show and Tell on Thursday at Book Expo America from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. should be very interesting. I am looking at the people who are showing. I am looking forward to seeing Read Social, Wavecloud, and Bookshout. The session should be very interesting.
I walked around for a bit looking at the different booths. I filled another bag of books which I plan to give to my library. There are so many of them there. Some of them are delightful like Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Return of Tinkletrousers by Dav Pilkey which is meant for children. It is quite funny. It also has been banned in a few places because of its extreme irreverence. Another young adult book which intrigued me was Not for Parents New York City Everything You Ever Wanted to Know published by lonely planet. It is honestly one of the first young adult or possibly tween travel books that I have ever seen.
On the more serious side there was Eating Mindfully, Second Edition How to End Mindless Eating & Enjoy a Balanced Relationship with Food. by Susan Albers, Psyd. New Harbinger the publisher produces some excellent reality based therapy books. I also had a chance to look at the Baker Bible Commentary which is a reference work on the bible. The full color illustrations and desgin of the book are quite beautiful.
I walked a considerable amount of the show floor before the BEA Authors Libraian Luncheon happened from 12:15 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. The luncheon was arranged by the AAP American Association of Publishers and Earlyword. Earlyword.com has some very nice reviews it also consolidates many different publishers catalogs in one place online in an A to Z directory which can be very useful.
The talk was very good. First was Nora Ephron who talked about her novel, The Lion Is In which had a very surreal quality to it. The very fact that there is a lion in a cage in a bar makes it a bit different. The picture of three women on the cover in a car with a lion is quite intriguing. Two of the authors, Dennis Lehane who wrote Live By Night, and Jonathan Evison gave some of the most humorous talks I ever heard about books. Joseph Kanon had a very intriguing book called Istanbul Passage which is a spy story with some very strong moral dilemmas. All four speakers were excellent.
I was exhausted by this time, so I left a bit early to catch some rest for tomorrow. I finished reading The Great Divergence America's Growing Inequality Crisis And What We Can Do About It by Timothy Noah. He goes into why economic inequality damages an economy. I was surprised there was not that much talk about how the middle class moves upwards and drives economies forward. I felt there was a lot missing from this book which might have been covered. I also think it did not really address more radical approaches to economic growth like employee ownership, coworking spaces, experiments in education, and new technology. It was very much a middle of the road read with a generalist approach.
I started reading Clean Tech Nation by Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder. The authors write for Clean Edge which is a technology advisory company. Clean tech is very interesting to me. I like the idea of electric cars, led lights, green buildings, wind power, wave power, solar power, and biofuels and believe the United States should lead the world in all of them.
Web Bits
Ebook Adoption in the U.S. Nearing 25%, India and Brazil the Best New Opportunity
http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2012/e-book-adoption-in-u-s-nearing-25-india-and-brazil-best-new-opportunity/?et_mid=560191&rid=233624721
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