Category: books

cruel and shallow money trench

On By Rick McIn Apple, books, music1 Comment

I love the Hunter S. Thompson line so often attributed to the Record Industry:

“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.”

This week Apple announced that all 10 million songs in itunes will soon be DRM (Digital Rights Management) free. A death sentence for the old model of music distribution.

Appetite for Self-Destruction is a new book by Rolling Stone magazine editor Steve Knopper.

The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age
The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age

… Should anyone care that in the process, the iPod has all but killed the music industry as we’ve known it? Maybe not, Steve Knopper writes in “Appetite for Self-Destruction,” his stark accounting of the mistakes major record labels have made since the end of the LP era and the arrival of digital music. These dinosaurs, he suggests, are largely responsible for their own demise. …

NY Times – When Labels Fought the Digital, and the Digital Won

This quotation has has achieved the status of urban legend. Here’s the original:

… The TV business is uglier than most things. It is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason. …

Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the ’80’s

Price / music track will drop steadily into the forseeable future.

Twilight – vampire craze

On By Rick McIn books, movies, music, product endorsements2 Comments

Buffy might have been a fad. But the new TV series True Blood seems to be a hit. (I saw episode #1. It was OK.)

And the staggering success of the Twilight novel series by Stephenie Meyer makes me believe this is a real “craze”. There’s almost a blood lust for these books.

Twilight is a series of four vampire-based fantasy/romance novels by the American author Stephenie Meyer. It follows the adventures of Isabella “Bella” Swan, a teenager who moves to Forks, Washington, and finds her life turned upside-down when she falls in love with a vampire named Edward Cullen. …

The Twilight series is popular among young adults, having sold 20 million copies in the United States and over 5 million further copies worldwide.

Wikipedia

Disclosure. Even I’ve read book 1. And quite enjoyed it. (These are the first and last Romance novels of my life.)

Book 1
Book 1

Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1)

The author said she based book 1 Twilight on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. That’s a bit of stretch.

She posted a musical playlist to accompany book 1. Cool. It’s somewhat similar to the movie soundtrack which has already sold over a million copies.

Click PLAY or watch the Twilight Movie trailer on YouTube.

The film scores an overall approval rating of 50% on Rotten Tomatoes. Not good.

Actually, I thought it was quite good. Well cast. But some of the changes made to the book were unnecessary. Better would have been to stay more true to the details of the original.

I’m planning to read Book 2 in the series next. Leave a comment if you have an opinion on the vampire craze.

dead tree books are dead to me

On By Rick McIn books, dead to meLeave a comment

The newspaper industry is shrinking.

Book publishers are hurting badly.

Some feel the next big thing is eBooks. (The Kindle is sold out until February.) But I don’t want a Kindle. It’s not much better than the book I have sitting unread on my bedside table.

I don’t want to “read”.

I like audible books.

Listening to books while I’m walking, biking, on the bus.

Sadly, there’s only one main distributor of audible books …

mainimage
Audible.com

And — since they were bought by Amazon last March — I’m not sure how quickly Audible is going to bring the books I want to MP3. Their selection is too limited for me.

I’m happy to pay $12 for an audio copy of a book I want … but they won’t produce an audio version of most books. No wonder publishers are failing.

death of the publishing industry

On By Rick McIn books, economics, product complaintsLeave a comment

The economic news couldn’t be worse for the book industry. Now insiders are asking how literature will survive.

The end of days is here for the publishing industry — or it sure seems like it. On Dec. 3, now known as “Black Wednesday,” several major American publishers were dramatically downsized, leaving many celebrated editors and their colleagues jobless. …

Salon – Read it and weep

It’s bad.

But I’m not all that sympathetic.

Traditional book publishers are as almost as bad as music publishers, relying on a “star” system rather than allowing fair access for new talent.

If Houghton Mifflin, Simon & Schuster, Random House and Macmillan all go bankrupt, something different — and better — will rise from the ashes. They’ve been terribly slow to innovate.

Where are the audio books? Ebooks? New technologies to encourage younguns to read?

onion_imagearticle2532
Onion – larger version

dead at 66 – Michael Crichton

On By Rick McIn books, movies, product endorsementsLeave a comment

Rest in peace.

Crichton died unexpectedly Tuesday “after a courageous and private battle against cancer,” the release said. …

Crichton, a medical doctor, was attracted to cautionary science tales.

“Jurassic Park” — perhaps his best-known work — concerned capturing the DNA of dinosaurs and bringing them to life on a modern island, where they soon run amok; “The Andromeda Strain,” his first major fiction success, involves an alien microorganism that’s studied in a special military compound after causing death in a nearby community.

Crichton also invited controversy with some of his scientific views. He was an avowed skeptic of global climate change, giving lectures warning against “consensus science.”

…

Though most of Crichton’s books were major best-sellers involving science, he could ruffle feathers when he took on social issues. “Rising Sun” (1992) came out during a time when Americans feared Japanese ascendance, particularly when it came to technology. “Disclosure” (1994) was about a sexual harassment case. ..

Crichton was married five times and had one child.

CNN

I read most of his books and admired his craft. He was a doom and gloom pessimist, though, always finding the global catastrophe in every new technology.

It’s hard to choose a favourite book or movie.

Perhaps Westworld had more effect on me than any other.

Westworld

Westworld

He did not live to see extinct animals brought back to life by cloning … as in Jurassic Park.

my 2 most spiritual photos

On By Rick McIn books, philosophy, photos, product complaints1 Comment

Shiromi Arserio used 2 of my photos in an article called the 10 Most Influential Spiritual Books Of The Past 50 Years.

Misti Volcano, Peru
Misti Volcano, Peru

10 Most Influential Spiritual Books Of The Past 50 Years – Brave New Traveler

For the record, I feel the Celestine Prophesy and The Secret (#2 and #1) are over-rated drivel.

Snow Crash – book review

On By Rick McIn books, product complaintsLeave a comment

Leo Laporte is constantly touting the 1992 novel by Neal Stephenson as one of his favourite books.

I finally downloaded it from Audible.

The book Snow Crash is heavily influenced by previous cyberpunk novels, notably those of William Gibson.

The story takes place in Los Angeles, in the area formerly known as the United States, during the early 21st century. In this hypothetical future reality the United States Federal Government has ceded most of its power to private organizations and entrepreneurs …

Snow Crash – Wikipedia

This book was cutting edge and provocative in 1992. But in 2008 I found it long and amateurish. The plot unlikely.

There are a some very cool sections, but too few.

Not recommended. Read Gibson instead.

Swords And Deviltry by Fritz Leiber

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The Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories, written over a span of 50 years starting 1939, are Fritz Leiber‘s greatest contribution to Fantasy fiction. I read only this book, explaining their origins.

Swords And Deviltry (Lankhmar)

Lankhmar Book 1: Swords And Deviltry (Lankhmar)

Superbly written, none-the-less, I can’t recommend Leiber. It’s not for me.

intense book – Ender’s Game

On By Rick McIn books, product endorsementsLeave a comment

Dave recommended this book as a classic.

Ender's Game

Ender’s Game

Luckily for me it was released in audio format for the 20th Anniversary edition.

Ender Wiggin is a very bright young boy with a powerful skill. One of a group of children bred to be military geniuses and save Earth from an inevitable attack by aliens, known here as “buggers,” Ender becomes unbeatable in war games and seems poised to lead Earth to triumph over the buggers. Meanwhile, his brother and sister plot to wrest power from Ender. Twists, surprises and interesting characters elevate this novel into status as a bona fide page turner. It captured the Nebula and Hugo Awards.

It is superb. Very original. Something like Lord of the Flies meets Starship Troopers.

The ending of Ender’s Game came as a complete shock.

Highly recommended.

His Dark Materials Trilogy – recommended

On By Rick McIn booksLeave a comment

I loved the book titled in North America The Golden Compass. And enjoyed the movie too.

Just this morning, sadly, I finished the next 2 books in the Trilogy and found them equally strong.

His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass)

His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass)

Highly recommended. Especially as audio books. The narrators on the versions from Audible.com are superb.

When will author Philip Pullman, an outspoken atheist, by the way, publish the next installment? I can hardly wait for the war between God and the fallen angels.

Pullman has written two companion pieces to the trilogy entitled, Lyra’s Oxford, and the newly released Once Upon a Time in the North. A third companion piece Pullman refers to as the “green book” will expand upon his character Will. He has plans for one more, the as-yet-unwritten The Book of Dust, which is tentatively set for release in 2009. This book is not a continuation of the trilogy but will include characters and events from His Dark Materials. …

Wikipedia