Blog: Book Illustrations

22 March 2012 by particularkev

The link below is to a Blog about illustrations in books – it’s a great site and highly recommended.

For more visit:
http://scrap.oldbookillustrations.com/

Blog: Terrible Books

22 March 2012 by particularkev

The link below is to a Blog about awful books. Of course what is a bad or good book all boils down to personal perception, however I’m sure some of the books here described will also enter your list of terrible books.

For more visit:
http://awfullibrarybooks.net/

Free Book: Search for pdf Books

22 March 2012 by particularkev

Search for Books Based on a Description

The link below is to a site where you are able to search for pdf books based on a description of the type of book you would like to read.

To visit:
http://www.pdfgeni.com/

Book Review: Currently Reading – Print is Dead, by Jeff Gomez

22 March 2012 by particularkev

I have been reading ‘Print is Dead – Books in our Digital Age,’ by Jeff Gomez. Having just read chapter two, ‘Us and Them,’ I must say that his point in that chapter is well made. The demise in traditional book sales has not been because ebooks have taken the world by storm – at least not at this stage – but because other areas of the digital world have. Generations of younger people have turned away from books in all their forms and have sought entertainment in other things, such as the Internet and video games, to name just a couple. It is reading itself that is being passed by, so the advent of the ebook is not that which is killing off the traditional book and by extension the bookseller/bookshop, but rather ‘dumber’ forms of entertainment.

Books will always be around in one form or another (at least I believe that), whether they remain as prolific as they now are is quite another thing, it is the habit of reading that may fall away dramatically and cause books to be cast aside – at least in the wider community. I think there will always be a group or community of diehard book readers, who eventually will have ebooks as their primary source of books and reading material. There are those who will not be lost entirely to less intellectual forms of entertainment, though perhaps some of these other forms of entertainment may play a role in the ‘reading’ of the future in the digital world (linked to videos, etc). Reading is a great skill that is being lost and the medium for ideas through the ages faces its greatest threat from a lack of it.

The next chapter, ‘newspapers are no longer news,’ deals with newspapers as a source of news and book reviews, or rather, how they are rapidly loosing their ascendency to online applications and tools. In a world that is rapidly changing and access to news as it happens online, newspapers are becoming a too infrequently updated source of news and information. Online access to news and events as they happen are so readily accessible, that the traditional source of news is fading away. As for book reviews, the avenues of discussion about books on the web via social networking, Blogs and the like, opens the opportunity for all to join the discussion. Book reviews in newspapers, like movie reviews, are opportunities for the reviewers to pontificate and/or push their own views onto a public unable to respond – online however the avenues of discussion are legion and varied. All may be involved – or not at all. The decision as to how one may be involved is left to the individual, which also translates to news stories in a similar manner. Interaction with the news and books has never been so simple and as rich an experience.

Article: Books for Men

21 March 2012 by particularkev

The link below is to an article that lists what the author regards as the 100 must read books for men. What do you think?

For more visit:
http://artofmanliness.com/2008/05/14/100-must-read-books-the-essential-mans-library/4/

Not My Review: ‘The Richer Sex – How the New Majority of Female Breadwinners is Transforming Sex, Love, and Family,’ by Liza Mundy

21 March 2012 by particularkev

The link below is to a book review that I didn’t write. The book being reviewed is ‘The Richer Sex,’ which delves into a future world where women rise above the generally accepted position of the ‘second sex.’ A review worth reading as a gate way to the actual book.

For more visit:
http://www.npr.org/2012/03/20/148688643/rich-mom-poor-dad-women-become-breadwinners

Book Review: Currently Reading – Print is Dead, by Jeff Gomez

21 March 2012 by particularkev

I have just started reading ‘Print is Dead – Books in our Digital Age,’ by Jeff Gomez. This book explores the future of books, with Gomez being an advocate of ebooks. I think it is fair to say that Gomez sees a future where the traditional book is little more than a relic of the past. This is certainly a view I would agree with for a number of reasons, though I do believe the traditional book will hold on for some time to come (how long I cannot say). I believe Gomez would hold to the same view from what I have read thus far (to the end of chapter 1).

In the first chapter, ‘byte flight,’ Gomez accurately sums up the situation in the traditional book vs ebook debate. There are certainly plenty of people (I was once one) who cannot see the ebook winning the battle (if we can call it a battle) and who hold a romantic attachment of sorts to the traditional book. I think this will continue to be the case among older generations for some time yet, with many older people reluctant to ‘move with the times (such a my mother and her husband).’ There are a number of reasons for this and Gomez describes some of these reluctant views in the first chapter. Overall, opposition to the dominance of the ebook is termed as ‘byte flight,’ and is probably as good a term as any to use.

Gomez believes that the younger generations will lead the way for the dominance of the ebook and in this I think he is largely correct. The digital generations are more likely to read digital books and use digital gadgets and as this grows more and more the norm, ebooks will become more and more dominant at the expense of traditional books.