Fear of Kindle: Don’t Bet Against the Paper Barons and How Newspapers Will Survive, both by science fiction author and music critic Tom Purdom.
I can totally get into the Harvard Bookstore’s new bookmaking robot, known to friends as “Paige M. Gutenborg.” I mean, it’s a robot. How cool is that? Now if the robot could write books, too, that would be something, and we’d really be living in the future. Here’s what you can get so far.
Luddite that I am, I doubt I will ever buy a vook, but the idea is kind of cool and science-fictiony. Even though the name is so silly I’m having trouble taking it seriously. The concept sounds similar to online games – maybe if they did a vook of Leather Goddesses of Phobos I’d be more interested! Or perhaps vooks of slipstream fiction might be appropriate. Here’s an enthusiastic article at The Creative Penn about possible uses for the vook.
Conversations with Isabel Allende, a book which I discovered only recently, looks really interesting. “Every writer of fiction,” Allende asserts, “should confront these three challenges: write short stories, an erotic novel, and children’s literature.” Allende has already written a story collection and a children’s book; although she has certainly written several erotic scenes in her fiction, and devoted an entire work of nonfiction (Aphrodite) to sex and food, the challenge of the erotic novel remains. “I really would like to write erotic novels. Unfortunately, I was raised as a Catholic, and my mother is still alive, so it’s difficult. However, I feel that there is a part of me as a person that is extremely sensuous and sexual.”
And now for something completely different. A friend pointed me towards these awesome puzzles. I’m particularly fascinated by the Rombix – the one I played with was irresistible because of the bright colors and smooth pieces that felt lovely in my hand, but the enormous, expensive ones are also horribly tempting, and make me wish I had a house with a library, where I would display them on lovely polished tables where guests could play with them.