Friday, January 22, 2010

Funday Friday

Laura visits from Combreviations to round up the week:

I have important, world altering news: writers skew liberal. Almost as liberal as professors. Dum dum dummmm. However, that doesn't stop publishing from postponing a children's book about smuggling dolls onto planes (but not bombs, and not in crotches!) or from having racist moments. Again.

Now, Amazon isn't racist (as far as we know), so that's a plus, but they have been a little "sketchy" and "monopoly-ish" in the past. Now that the Apple tablet is coming, Amazon is trying to play nice by opening the Kindle up to apps, offering iTunes-esque royalties, and removing the Kindle DRM. Next thing you know they'll be all about book rentals. And sure, it's still really difficult to get e-books to Africa, and no one really knows what enhanced e-books are (they're coming, I swear!), but maybe these are steps in the right direction?

I hope amateurs won't be in charge of these e-books, because Susan Hill will be so, so angry. Next thing you know, she'll be trying to give Emerson the boot from the canon, and fighting with the many heirs to the Sherlock Holmes franchise. And maybe supporting book trailers. I have been pretty straightfoward in my hate of book trailers, but there are some people that like them (go figure). Other things I hate include Second Life (sorry Jonathan Lethem) and text abbreviations.

See you all next week!

10 comments:

  1. I'm a writer and a professor; does that make me 80% more liberal? Or liberal squared?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Editorial Anonymous just posted that Bloomsbury is re-jacketing the US version of Magic Under Glass.

    ReplyDelete
  3. What the hell is the deal with second life? I'm a gamer. I played warcraft for like a solid year... but I STILL don't get the 2nd life appeal.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I agree with Susan Hill's point, but she comes off like an egotistical dick in the manner in which she expresses it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I knew there was a reason it takes so long to get a drink. Damned commie bartenders.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Good links.I liked Sherlock Holmes, the family curse.

    On that liberal poll. Some of the categories were a little weird. I mean, building managers and sorters and graders. Huh? And they clumped authors in with journalists. Well it hardly matters, Susan Hill is probably right, "we're stuffed."

    Commie bartenders:)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Religious workers - 46 % conservative / 15 % liberal... and nobody is surprised.

    ReplyDelete
  8. SecondLife is funny if you run around naked after creating a nice, huge pair of breasticles, but the novelty wears off after a while.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Could we add one more thing to the "Things I Hate" list? - Commercials at the movies! After paying $10.00+ dollars for a ticket, I have to watch commericals!? (Same goes for buying a DVD and finding the blooming things there, too.)

    ReplyDelete