The best free cultural & educational media on the web
The best free cultural & educational media on the web
≡ Category: Books, Literature | ≅ Leave a Comment
Here’s a little nugget for you. The great inventor Thomas Edison visited the home of Mark Twain in 1909, and captured footage of “the father of American literature” (says Faulkner) walking around his estate and playing cards with his daughters, Clara and Jean. The film is silent and deteriorated. But it’s apparently the only known [...]
≡ Category: Books | ≅ 8 Comments
A couple of days ago, we featured a video posted on Penguin’s YouTube Channel that used a smart video technique to restore faith in the future of book publishing. A couple of our readers were quick to point out that the video’s creative element was highly similar to an award-winning video called “Lost Generation”. (See [...]
≡ Category: Books | ≅ 3 Comments
Smart and hopeful. But you need to stick with it for a couple of minutes. A job well done…
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≡ Category: Books, Literature | ≅ 1 Comment
A quick heads up for book lovers: Goodreads is a large social network for readers, with over 3,000,000 members who review, recommend and swap books. The site also features “book-give-aways” for its members. This month you can enter to win a free copy of If You Follow Me, a novel by Malena Watrous, a talented colleague [...]
≡ Category: Books, Literature | ≅ 2 Comments
A good soul has pulled together a series of audio recordings by David Foster Wallace, the author of Infinite Jest, the sprawling 1100 page novel that now sits on TIME Magazine’s list of the best 100 novels ever. The audio collection (find here) is broken down into the following categories:
Interviews & Profiles
Readings
Eulogies & Remembrances
‘Brief Interviews’ Staged Readings
via [...]
≡ Category: Books, Film, Literature | ≅ Leave a Comment
(NOTE: some strong language here…)
Back in 1975, filmmaker Tom Schiller (only 20 years old at the time) made a short documentary on the novelist Henry Miller (Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn). In the scene above, Miller, then 81 years old, reminisces about his difficult early life in New York, and it all takes place on the [...]
≡ Category: Audio Books, Books, Literature | ≅ Leave a Comment
Note: You should be able to download Safran Foer’s new book for free (in audio format) through Audible.com’s no strings attached offer. Details here.
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≡ Category: Amazon Kindle, Books, Language Lessons | ≅ 3 Comments
From the TIMES ONLINE:
More than 65,000 19th-century works of fiction from the British Library’s collection are to be made available for free downloads by the public from this spring.
Owners of the Amazon Kindle, an ebook reader device, will be able to view well known works by writers such as Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and Thomas [...]
≡ Category: Amazon Kindle, Apple, Books, Web/Tech, e-books | ≅ 13 Comments
Caveat: If you missed it, yesterday’s post was 10 Reasons iPad Will Not Kill Kindle. So take everything here with appropriate grains of salt.
10.) Books with graphics. Many books contain photos, graphics and diagrams that the Kindle does not handle well, if at all. When people realize that the iPad will do this flawlessly, they’ll [...]
≡ Category: Amazon Kindle, Apple, Books, e-books | ≅ 5 Comments
Caveat: before half of you get your shorts in a bunch, tomorrow’s post will be: Top 10 Reasons Why iPad Means Kindle Is Dead. With that said, have at it!
10.) Taking reading from a simple printed page to an e-book environment such as the Kindle is a great step forward. Its ease of use, portability [...]
≡ Category: Amazon Kindle, Apple, Books, e-books | ≅ 7 Comments
Today we have a guest post by William Rankin, director of educational innovation, associate professor of medieval literature, and Apple Distinguished Educator, Abilene Christian University. ACU was the first university in the world to announce a comprehensive one-to-one initiative based on iPhones and iPod touches designed to explore the impact of mobility in education. For [...]
≡ Category: Books, Life, Literature | ≅ 1 Comment
More sad news. J.D. Salinger, who brought us The Catcher in the Rye, has died at 91. Here’s the initial news release.
Boy, when you’re dead, they really fix you up. I hope to hell when I do die somebody has sense enough to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in [...]
≡ Category: Amazon Kindle, Books, Business, e-books | ≅ 4 Comments
Click here to listen to this post as audio. (Right-click to download.)
As some of you already know, back on December 27th, I released a sample of my first short story collection A Long Way from Disney on Amazon’s Kindle store and used social media strategies to market it. I did this for various reasons, but [...]
≡ Category: Books, Literature | ≅ Leave a Comment
This almost slipped by me. As 2009 drew to a close, The New York Times posted two annual lists. First, its list of 100 Notable Books and then its 10 Best Books of 2009. 5 Fiction. 5 Nonfiction. It’s a pretty good distillation of the better works published last year. But enough about ‘09. What’s coming [...]
≡ Category: Amazon Kindle, Audio Books, Books, Literature | ≅ 4 Comments
Today’s free story: When They Were Calling You in for Dinner (listen here) or read it in the Charles River Review [To download the story and listen on your MP3 player, just right-click and "save file as..."]
Dear OC readers,
About a week ago, I posted here about my Publishing Experiment Take 1. I spoke of the need [...]
≡ Category: Amazon Kindle, Books, Literature, e-books | ≅ 7 Comments
Those who read this blog regularly may remember my past posts (here, here and here) about the Amazon Kindle and recall that I have mixed feelings about it. You’ll also know that I’ve been interested in what authors such as J.A. Konrath have accomplished by releasing books on the Kindle itself. (Heck, some of you even [...]
≡ Category: Books, Literature, e-books | ≅ Leave a Comment
This holiday season, I’m happy to have teamed up with eleven fabulous authors in offering a holiday sampler just for book lovers! Here you’ll find excerpts of a dozen new novels and nonfiction books by these New York Times bestselling authors, successful entrepreneurs, and talented storytellers. The excerpts can all be found in this nice PDF. [...]
≡ Category: Amazon Kindle, Books, e-books | ≅ 3 Comments
With six published novels under his belt, you might think J.A. Konrath has it made. But, if you know much about the current publishing market, you could certainly question that. Made or not, JA made a very interesting discovery recently when he sat down and compared his Hyperion ebook royalty statements with the proceeds he’s [...]
≡ Category: Books, Literature | ≅ Leave a Comment
Vladimir Nabokov wanted his last unfinished novel destroyed (learn more about it here). But, 32 years after his death, the book is being published. You can buy The Original of Laura starting Tuesday. Meanwhile, you can also read through a few excerpts thanks to the Times Online.
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≡ Category: Books, Literature | ≅ 1 Comment
Jonathan Lethem, the writer behind Motherless Brooklyn (one of my faves) and Fortress of Solitude, has a new book out, Chronic City. Above, he talks about the surreal quality of his work, the future of digital books, and the personal guidelines that determine what he writes, and won’t write. Within this last point, you will [...]
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