The Problem with Bookstores
Latest Posts , Opinion / December 17, 2011

Image from http://zerotoinfinity.tumblr.com/post/718216792 A whole lot of hoopla has been raised the past two weeks with Amazon’s strong arm tactics giving $5 off any product you scan with your smart phone in a brick and mortar store, the Slate article which justified it and a whole bunch of others which didn’t. While I agree with some things in the article, I don’t agree with the spirit of it, but that’s another issue. I have been an Amazon customer for many years, to be honest I don’t have much to complain about. I get my orders in a reasonable amount of time, the price is good and the selection is unbelievable. What can I say, I love the ability to buy any book that was ever published at a reasonable price. I am also all for supporting your local businesses I, selfishly, also like to eat and have a roof over my head as well as give my children the holiday present they’ve been craving. Yes, Daddy will turn on the heat. But just for one day! Happy Holidays!! Enjoy!!! That being said, I cannot possible pay twice the price for a hammer at Mr. Cunningham’s Hardware Store than I would…

Dumb is Cool, It Starts Early – A Venting Post
Latest Posts , Opinion / December 14, 2011

I am very proud of my son (4.5) and daughter (7). They are both wonderful children. This year my daughter started first grade and she took on reading like a hurricane, she even participated in an Author Q&A segment on her old man’s blog. In four short months she went from reading books with three words on a page to reading chapter books. Both my wife and I are amazed and are thankful for her wonderful teacher as well as content in seeing our labor (we take homework very seriously in our house) bearing fruits. This has been a tough year and the way our daughter is loving her school, teacher and classmates as well as being popular is one of the brightest spots in our lives currently. Yesterday my wife picked up our daughter and her friend from school. Our daughter proudly opened up a book and her friend made a nasty comment. Of course my wife intervened immediately but that has gotten me thinking (a dangerous past time…). Something really has to be done to make “smart” cool. I remember in my high-school when someone readily admitted to getting a “D” but the “A” students were embarrassed to…

Fun Facts Friday Special Thursday Edition: Thanksgiving
Latest Posts , Opinion / November 24, 2011

This is a post I wrote a few years back for NJ.com titled ” Thanksgiving Myth vs. Fact“. I thought it would be fun to re-post it today with pictures from a trip my family and I took to Plymouth MA a few years back.. Hope you enjoy it even though it isn’t a “bookish” post. ====================== Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday for many reasons. It’s none secular (which means everybody celebrates it), it’s not commercialized, the food is good and the idea behind the holiday is fantastic. We all learned about this holiday at school, and if we didn’t I’m sure after a year or two in America you learned all you think you should. A few weeks ago I took my family to Plymouth, MA for a long weekend, a great trip if you’ve never been. I bought my 4 year old daughter a book about the Mayflower so she’ll know what she’ll be looking at (and hopefully get her a bit excited) and learned a few things myself. Myth: The first Thanksgiving was a religious based occasion Fact: The first Thanksgiving was a three day festival which included drinking, gambling and sports. If it was a religious…

Free eReaders or an eReader War?
Latest Posts , Opinion / October 5, 2011

In 2009 there were rumors abound that at this time (November 2011) the Amazon Kindle eReader might be free. The steady and drop in price (about $50 every few months) led many to believe that this will be the case. Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, didn’t confirm or deny those rumors. Picture from The Technium Now we are here and the Kindle isn’t free – but it’s $79 which is a huge markdown from its original price. Will this be the beginning of eReader wars? Will giving out free eReaders will be a way to combat the iPad2? Now we know that Bezos had under his Amazonians sleeves the Kindle Fire – which to be honest the more I see the more I like. But there is one thing we have to keep in mind: the goal is not to sell devices, but to sell content. Much like video games, believe it or not. The video game systems are sold at cost (which is why they never go on sale), the companies make their money selling games (content). I don’t know how much it costs to make a Kindle, nook or any other eReader but I’m sure the markup on it…

Banning Books – A Good Idea
Latest Posts , Opinion / September 26, 2011

This week is “Banned Books Week” and I’ve seen a lot of posts against the practice of banning books. As a long time reader I often scoffed at those trying to ban books, however, now that my beloved daughter entered first grade I see things differently. 1 ) Books can give you paper cuts. 2 ) Books can make you angry and sad 3 ) Romance books gives a young, impressionable lady unrealistic view of life 4 ) Mysteries hurt the brain too much 5 ) Paranormal is just … freaky and G-d knows I need my sleep and wake up enough times without being woken up more times than I should. 6 ) Biographies are scary 7 ) History books are boring and really, who needs to know about the past when the future is so bright? 8 ) Stopping to read books will free up some time for her to help around the house (wishful thinking), watch wholesome TV shows and practice her hand/eye coordination with video games. 9 ) Reading can give her the unrealistic idea that life is “fair” and that the good guys actually win. Of course banning books has many other benefits:…

BBAW Day 1: Community
Latest Posts , Opinion / September 12, 2011

I’m going to tell you right off the bat that I’m going to cheat. This weeks marks the 2011 Book Blogger Appreciation Week. Yes, I have my favorite book bloggers and they know who they are. There are several which I follow religiously but mostly I simply enjoy looking at my RSS feed knowing that there are many other bookish people out there who like to share their experience reading. I’m a firm believer that reading was, and could be again, a social activity. In days of yore people use to sit around the fireplace taking turns reading passages out loud and discussing them. Those days were gone but they’re coming back. Instead of a glowing fire (sounds romantic but imagine the dirt, cinder and smoke) we have glowing computer screens and we don’t read out loud anymore but we certainly discuss the books. The beauty of it is that we can get opinions of people across the ocean and, based on our own depiction of reality, discuss how a certain book affected us in different ways. Book blogging also takes a huge amount of time, several hours a day to maintain a consistent blog (lots of reading and writing)….

Authors on Facebook
Latest Posts , Opinion / August 23, 2011

A few days ago I stumbled on a fascinating tweet-chat using the hashtag #bookmarket. While I’m not an active participant of that chat (I work at that time) I happen to hop on and join the conversation.

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