"Today you can buy a book at Barnes & Noble and you can buy a book at Walmart and you don't have to keep them in separate rooms in your house. You buy a book from Apple and Amazon and you have got to keep it tied up with your Apple universe or your Kindle universe."--Michael Serbinis, CEO of Kobo, speaking with Reuters (via Wired).

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"I already have a personal library. But most of the books I've ever read have come from lending libraries. Barnes & Noble has released an e-reader that allows short-term borrowing of some books. The entire impulse behind Amazon's Kindle and Apple's iBooks assumes that you cannot read a book unless you own it first--and only you can read it unless you want to pass on your device.

"That goes against the social value of reading, the collective knowledge and collaborative discourse that comes from access to shared libraries. That is not a good thing for readers, authors, publishers or our culture."--Verlyn Klinkenborg in "Further Thoughts of a Novice E-Book Reader" in the New York Times.

Shorter by a day, able to squeeze into the top level of the Javits Center with room to spare and deemed by some to be on its last legs (yet again), BookExpo America 2010 nonetheless was a success for the vast majority of attendees. In fact, most non-exhibitors lamented that the show ended too quickly and they didn't have the usual third day to catch up and accomplish what they had missed earlier. (BEA management responded by planning a return to the three-day trade show format next year.)

The day of panels and seminars on Tuesday attracted large crowds, benefiting from having the ABA's and BEA's sessions held in the same location--the Javits Center. From a variety of angles, the programs addressed the major issues of the industry, particularly the growth of e-books, the future of the printed book and the companies and structures built around it, the effect of the Internet on book publishing and bookselling and what a profitable business model will look like in five years or 10 years--or next month. Even more groups met in connection with BEA, including the Do It Yourself Conference and Marketplace for self-publishers on Monday and the Book Bloggers Convention on Friday.

The new midweek timing seemed to work--the shuttle buses to and from our convention hotels ran well. The floor was crowded. One observer noted with resignation that the aisles could have been wider, "but we all know the busy effect is better like this." The Javits Center has few fans, but at least the air conditioning held up during the humid, sunny weather.

The party scene turned out to be more, um, robust than many had feared. And Jon Stewart is perhaps even more beloved by book people after emceeing Thursday's breakfast.

The old rationale for attending BEA--publishers selling the list to booksellers--hasn't applied for a long time. But again this year there were plenty of other reasons to be at BEA: there was buzz about books that couldn't be created in any other setting. Companies forged new business relationships. People talked about the issues of the day and made all kinds of connections, which reminded many that being the major gathering of the book business is a major quality of BEA. As one bookseller said, "We all have to see each other at least once a year, whatever the event. And this is the best one for it."

BEA was summed up for us in part at breakfast on Friday, when we got into a conversation with a fellow diner in Midtown who was reading on a Kindle. (She was not attending BEA.) Asked about it and her reading habits, she said that she was in town from Illinois and loved to travel and read but didn't like taking books on her many trips because of their weight. She had owned the e-reader for a year and a half ("I thought I'd never buy something like it!"). At the same time, she said she prefers to read old-fashioned books at home. In fact, the novel she was reading on the Kindle she had begun reading at home in book form and expected to finish in book form. There is hope.--John Mutter

At BEA, a group of Pacific Northwest booksellers took matters--and an author--into their own hands. Supporting Jonathan Evison, who lives in Bainbridge Island, Wash., and is the author of All About Lulu and whose West of Here will be published by Algonquin in February, are (from l.): Chuck Robinson of Village Books, Bellingham, Wash., Mary Gleysteen of Eagle Harbor Books, Bainbridge Island, Luanne Kretzer and Lori Cardiff of St. Helens Book Shop, St. Helens, Ore., Morley Horder of Eagle Harbor Books and Suzanne Droppert of Liberty Bay Books, Poulsbo, Wash.

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Red Velvet cupcakes spiked with Southern Comfort enticed attendees to the Running Press booth to meet Lucy Baker, author of The Boozy Baker: 75 Recipes for Spirited Sweets, which will be served up June 8. Running Press is ramping up its cookbook program, with six to 10 books planned per season. The effort is inspired in part, said publisher Christopher Navratil, by the "thriving foodie community in Philadelphia," where the company is based.

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And speaking of food, Boston-area food writer Clara Silverstein had on hand samples of Michele Obama's Shortbread Cookies (studded with cranberries), one of the recipes in A White House Garden Cookbook: Healthy Ideas from the First Family for Your Family (Red Rock Press, June 16, 2010). Also included are recipes from past White House kitchens and from community gardens across the country.

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Adam Richman's "love of cultural anthropology" led to his book America the Edible: Why We Eat, What We Eat, Where We Eat (Rodale, November 2010), a coast-to-coast exploration of the country's most iconic foods. Food has "a life beyond the plate," he said during the tasty event "American Flavor" on the Downtown Stage. Host of the Travel Channel series Man v. Food, Richman shared the spotlight with Rowan Jacobson, author of American Terroir: Savoring the Flavors of Our Woods, Waters, and Fields (Bloomsbury, August 2010), and Melissa Clark, author of In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite: 150 Recipes and Stories About the Food You Love (Hyperion, September 2010).

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Celebrity journalist Glenn Plaskin brought along a companion, 11-week-old cocker spaniel Lucy, to help promote his memoir, Katie Up and Down the Hall: The True Story of How One Dog Turned Five Neighbors into a Family (Center Street, September 2010). Humans were treated to bone-shaped chocolates. 

 

 

Two million iPads have been sold since the device's launch April 3, according to Apple, which also announced that developers have created more than 5,000 new apps for the iPad in addition to the more than 200,000 apps available for the iPhone or iPod touch.

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"The timing couldn't have been better," PC World suggested. "Apple apparently waited until the publishers of the world were tied up with Book Expo America in New York to announce its new Sell Your Books initiative, which lets authors get their books into the new iBooks store without having to deal with publishers."

Mac/Life reported that Apple e-mailed them "details on how someone could sign up to sell their own books in the iBookstore."

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The iPad's international debut last Friday was greeted with the same long lines and excitement that it generated in the U.S. two months ago, but the Bookseller.com reported that "those queuing to buy an iPad this morning had mixed responses to the question of whether they would use it to read e-books, with one person admitting he did not know the device even had such a function."

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The New York Times featured a photo tour of the international launch. 

 

Amazon plans to introduce the next version of its Kindle e-book reader in August, according to Bloomberg, which reported that a pair of unnamed sources said the "device will be thinner and have a more responsive screen with a sharper picture, the people said, who didn't want to be identified because the plans aren't public. The new Kindle won't include a touch screen or color, they said."

"It's probably likely that Amazon already had this one in mind, more out of a response to Sony than out of any response to Apple," said James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research.

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Aaron's Books, Lititz, Pa., has begun selling e-books on its website via ebooks.com and eHarlequin's eBook Store, and audiobooks through Audible.com. As the store happily announced, "Digital Shopping Now Available through our Website! (Each link will take you to a 3rd party site, for which we have a contract, using these links ensures that your purchase dollars stay in the local community!)"

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Anderson's Bookstore, Naperville, Ill., won first place in both the outstanding retail category and overall honors as small business of the year at the annual Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce's annual Small Business Awards dinner.

"We're a sixth-generation family in town," said Becky Anderson in her acceptance speech. "We're your bookstore... this is our hometown and that made the difference."

The Naperville Sun reported that Anderson, v-p of the American Booksellers Association, "credited the success of the bookstore to an ongoing effort to build and maintain a relationship with the community as it grew from a typical suburb into a small city."

"We're being recognized tonight because we build these bridges and relationships," she noted, citing the partnerships forged with schools, other businesses and area nonprofits.

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Henning Mankell, the Swedish author of the Kurt Wallander mystery series and other titles, was aboard one of the ships of the "solidarity flotilla" that tried to break the blockade of Gaza and was attacked by Israeli forces yesterday. According to Boersenblatt, he has cancelled planned events in Zurich, Switzerland, last night and today in Constance, Germany, and may not make events in Berlin, Duesseldorf and Braunschweig scheduled the rest of this week.

AFP reported that along with eight other Swedes, Mankell is being held in Israel, which is giving him the option of being deported or arrested.

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NPR's Morning Edition offered "Sizzling Summer Picks From Indie Booksellers," featuring Rona Brinlee of the BookMark, Atlantic Beach, Fla.; Daniel Goldin of Boswell Book Co., Milwaukee, Wis.; and Lucia Silva of Portrait of a Bookstore, Studio City, Calif.

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He can see Sarah's house from there. Bestselling author Joe McGinniss has moved into a house in Wasilla, Alaska, that is next door to former governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who also happens to be the subject of his book Sarah Palin’s Year of Living Dangerously, due to be released in the fall of 2011.

The New York Times reported that Palin "suggested" publisher Random House might be paying the author's rent, and if that was the case, she called it "a very classless thing that Random House is doing. And if I find out that Random House is the one actually renting this place for their author to be able to sit here over our shoulder for the next five or six months, that will be pretty disturbing, too."

The Palins plan to erect a 14-foot fence, but McGinness proclaimed his motives were innocent: "I am writing a book about Sarah Palin. Why not live right next to the story? Unless I do something that is an active violation of their privacy, where is the harm?"

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Boing Boing showcased an entertaining Lady Gaga remix by students and faculty at the University of Washington's Information School to promote the library's "Catalog."

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At BEA, Lanora Hurley, owner of the Next Chapter Bookshop, Mequon, Wis., had an amusing footnote to the controversy created by the store's hosting of Karl Rove May 23 to sign copies of his book Courage and Consequence (Shelf Awareness, May 9, 2010).

As it turned out, there was only one protest at the event. A woman asked Rove to sign a copy of the book to her grandmother, which he dutifully did. Then she pulled out a pair of handcuffs and announced that she was making a citizen's arrest of the former George W. Bush adviser. Rove remarked that the handcuffs were plastic as security people began to escort the woman out the door. Partway to ejection, the woman protested that she had left the book behind and wanted it for her grandmother. The security people obliged, and Hurley happily noted, "In the end, it was all about the book!"

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Amid the flurry of graduation activities this past weekend, here's one that caught our eyes: Jeff Bezos spoke to the graduating class at Princeton (his alma mater; class of '86) about his decision to leave a great job to found Amazon and how, "In the end, we are our choices."

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Book trailer of the day: Where's My Wand?: One Boy's Magical Triumph over Alienation and Shag Carpeting by Eric Poole (Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam).

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Ron Hogan, who joined Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's trade and reference division last December as director of e-marketing strategy, has been let go after his position was discontinued. He had been a senior editor at GalleyCat and earlier was a staff editor at Amazon.com and launched Beatrice.com in 1995.

Hogan may reached at ronhogan@gmail.com.

 

This morning on Good Morning America: Belinda Carlisle, author of Lips Unsealed: A Memoir (Crown, $26, 9780307463494/0307463494). The former Go-Go is also on the View tomorrow.

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This morning on the Today Show: Chuck Barris, author of Della: A Memoir of My Daughter (Simon & Schuster, $25, 9781439167991/1439167990).

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Today on NPR's On Point: Jonathan Alter, author of The Promise: President Obama, Year One (Simon & Schuster, $28, 9781439101193/1439101191).

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Today on the O'Reilly Factor: Rita Cosby, author of Quiet Hero: Secrets from My Father's Past (Threshold, $26, 9781439165508/1439165505). She also appears on Fox & Friends tomorrow.

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Today on Ellen: Chelsea Handler, author of Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang (Grand Central, $25.99, 9780446552448/0446552445).

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Today on NPR's Marketplace: Alan C. Greenberg, author with Mark Singer of The Rise and Fall of Bear Stearns (Simon & Schuster, $26, 9781416562887/1416562885).

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Today on 20/20: Daniel Tammet, author of Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind (Free Press, $15, 9781416576181/1416576185).

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Tonight on the Daily Show: Arthur Brooks, author of The Battle: How the Fight Between Free Enterprise and Big Government Will Shape America's Future (Basic Books, $23.95, 9780465019380/0465019382).

Also on the Daily Show: correspondent Samantha Bee, author of I Know I Am, but What Are You? (Gallery, $25, 9781439142738/1439142734). Bee is on the Today Show and Fresh Air today, too.

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Tonight on the Colbert Report: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, author of Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations (Free Press, $27, 9781439157312/1439157316). She is also on the Joy Behar Show today.

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Tomorrow night on the Colbert Report: Lisa Miller, author of Heaven: Our Enduring Fascination with the Afterlife (Harper, $25.99, 9780060554750/0060554754).

 

Guillermo Del Toro has resigned as director of the film version of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, citing "delays in the project and financial questions surrounding MGM," according to the New York Daily News.  

"In light of ongoing delays in the setting of a start date for filming The Hobbit, I am faced with the hardest decision of my life," Del Toro wrote on theonering.net. "After nearly two years of living, breathing and designing a world as rich as Tolkien's Middle Earth, I must, with great regret, take leave from helming these wonderful pictures."

Producer Peter Jackson said he will not step in as director, and that despite the change, The Hobbit is still set to be released as two movies in 2012 and 2013. 

 

From last week's Indie bestseller lists, available at IndieBound.org, here are the recommended titles, which are also Indie Next Great Reads:

Hardcover

Elegy for April: A Novel by Benjamin Black (Holt, $25, 9780805090918/0805090916). "The estimable John Banville returns for a third time writing as Benjamin Black. The intrepid and flawed Dr. Quirke is back, this time searching for his daughter Phoebe's lost friend April Latimer. A gripping mystery that builds suspense page by page as only Banville/Black can build it."--Kevin Keyser, Books & Books, Miami Beach, Fla.

Life Would Be Perfect if I Lived in That House by Meghan Daum (Knopf, $24, 9780307270665/0307270661). "Daum, a columnist with the Los Angeles Times, has written a hilarious and honest account of her peripatetic life in search of the 'perfect' house. We learn of her obsession with dwellings and their contents, from a pre-war apartment in New York City, through an ill-considered relocation to Lincoln, Nebraska, and on to L.A. where she makes the ultimate commitment: buying at the peak of the housing market!"--Ellen Burns, Books on the Common, Ridgefield, Conn.

Paperback

Agaat: A Novel by Marlene Van Nierkerk (Tin House, $19.95, 9780982503096/0982503091). "A compelling story of South Africa in the era of apartheid, Agaat focuses on an Afrikaner woman suffering from ALS, and an African woman who has been part daughter, part maid, and is now the older woman's sole caretaker. As their past, present, and future unfold, so the history of South Africa also changes."--Karin Harris, Bunch of Grapes Bookstore, Vineyard Haven, Mass.

For Ages 9 to 12

The Pickle King by Rebecca Promitzer (The Chicken House, $17.99. 9780545170871/0545170877). "The Pickle King is an interestingly dark and very, very wet story--featuring ghosts and very creepy bad guys--in which unlikely friendships are formed, mysteries are solved and relationships bloom!"--Cinda Meister, Booksmart, Morgan Hill, Calif.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

"Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?" T.S. Eliot's plaintive questions might have served as a fitting epigraph for Nicholas Carr's unsettling exploration of the Internet's role in creating "a new kind of mind that wants and needs to take in and dole out information in short, disjointed, often overlapping bursts--the faster the better."

No conspiracy theorist or Luddite, Carr's thesis is that the Internet, like virtually every intellectual technology since the invention of writing, is working a subtle but profound transformation of the fragile architecture of our highly malleable brains. Marshaling an impressive collection of scientific studies, Carr urges that the benefits we reap from instant access to a torrent of information be weighed against its byproducts: truncated attention spans and an impaired ability to engage in the extended, deep reading that nourishes analytical thinking and creative problem-solving.

Carr acknowledges his significant intellectual debt to the work of cultural critic Marshall McLuhan, who revealed how "the medium's content matters less than the medium itself in influencing how we think and act." By Carr's reckoning, hyperlinks and search engines aren't value-free purveyors of content; instead, they force us to engage them in clearly defined ways that shape our perceptions more fundamentally than the treasures they're capable of delivering. Contrast the way the typical web surfer (an uncomfortably apt term) glides from one page to another, scanning and skimming for scraps of information, with a traditional reader's engagement with dense, printed text. Even the online New York Times, once journalism's "Gray Lady," now shoves new links in our face, unbidden, as we buzz like bees through the lush electronic garden.

According to Carr, the organization most responsible for molding our "plastic" brains into new, easily distractible machines is the Mountain View, Calif., behemoth, Google. Indeed, the book grew out of his provocatively titled Atlantic Monthly article, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" Whether it's Google Book Search, the company's massive project to digitize all printed matter, or the constant refinement of its powerful ad machine, Carr describes how Google's ethic shapes everything from the conduct of professional research to our perception of the importance of memory.

For all its keen insights into the sources of our electronic angst, Carr's book is short on prescriptions for reversing, or even tempering, it. But by inviting us to confront the slick, seductive power of our new media and in so doing reflect on how we might become their masters rather than their information-sated slaves, he's at least laid a foundation of raised consciousness on which others no doubt will build.--Harvey Freedenberg

Shelf Talker: Journalist Nicholas Carr paints a disturbing portrait of the altered, and, in his view, less desirable, human consciousness fashioned by our electronic technologies.