Last night, while “flutzing” around I discovered a link to the free audio download of “Go the F—k to Sleep” by Adam Mansbach (website | book website) narrated by Samuel L. Jackson. This is a short book, much like the good night books you read your kids and the audio lasts about six minutes. Buy & Save on “Go the F–k to Sleep” through the ManOfLa­Book affil­i­ate account on: Ama­zon |Book Depos­i­tory US | Book Depos­i­tory UK My wife and I were laughing the whole way through. If it were up to us Mr. Jackson would receive an Grammy for his reading. In “Go the F—k to Sleep”. Adam Mansbach basically writes down what every parent thinks but never said (“Bullshit, I know you’re not thirsty”). While I love reading books to my kids before bed, I despise the whole night time routine. It seems that we move from one fight to the next until they are finally in bed. Correction, until at least the youngest (4) is finally in bed. G-d forbid that his older sister, six going on sixteen and wise beyond her years, will go to bed until she has a 30 minute buffer – tired or…

I also noticed that children like to read about someone which is the same sex and same age, actually a year or two older is usually preferable

All DRM did is give honest consumers a hard time and waste the company’s money by fighting DRM pirates who are always one step ahead (at least).

In the news last week it was announced that certain publishers decided that eBooks which have been sold to libraries will have a license to allow a book to be loaned 26 times before the embedded DRM (Digital Rights Management system) kicks in so the library will have to buy a new copy.

Amanda Hocking (blog | Amazon Page) is from Minnesota, she is 26, self published and … sold 900,000 copies of her books (and no, she doesn’t have a reality TV show). While I usually don’t read the paranormal genre I have to admire what Ms. Hocking has achieved and, what I believe to be, a big trend which I hope will continue. That trend is that us, book consumers, will decide who will be the next best seller, not some marketing guru sitting in an ivory tower high above Times Square negotiation for shelf space in a book store. Is traditional publishing dead? Not by a long shot but the way business is done certainly has to be looked at (hint: pricing eBooks the same as print books is not the way to go). Ms. Hocking’s books sell anywhere from $0.99 to $3 and her fans happily buy more and more. She isn’t trying to compete with the big guys who can alienate more readers, quite the opposite – Ms. Hocking sells the products her customers want to buy. Innovative? Maybe for those executives who want customers to buy what they sell them. While Ms. Hocking’s story certainly is the…

None of us are surprised when common sense loses to political correctness – we encounter that almost on a daily base, after all that is what “procedures” and “policies” are for. It has recently been announced that Alabama-based publisher is planning new versions of “Huckleberry Finn” and “Tom Sawyer” that will replace the “n” word with “slave” and will remove “Injun” as well – just for good measure. Professor Alan Gribben of Auburn University of Montgomery has came right out and stated that his hope is to make the books more palatable for teachers and as not to offend school children in particular. I understand the Professor’s good intentions, but committing an act which can is the equivalent of literary graffiti in order to impose political correctness upon one of the most politically incorrect authors in American history has already backfired. As far as I know, Huck Finn is read in high-school. Newsflash Professor Gribben – people in high-school are no longer “children”, they are young adults in the US and full fledged adults in most other parts of the world. The last thing these young adults need is a sugar coated past. The past is non-negotiable and Twain’s use…

My father died yesterday morning. After 27 years of fighting cancer, the last two years very aggressively, he succumbed; but not without a fierce fight. It took his heart 12.5 hours to stop beating after the tubes were taken out, his blood pressure was steady the whole time and he gobbled up 4 bags of morphine (“enough for a big elephant and a small elephant” as the nurse said). He died as he wished – in a dignified manner, peacefully and unaware. He was my hero and my role model. He taught me how to work (“it’s not done until you clean up“), how to drive and how fix everything from drywall to a water heater. This was a man who while weak as a child still got on his knees to play with the grandchildren in, what would turn out to be, the last weeks of his life. I will miss his special affection for conspiracy theories; “I know the government is tapping our line” – which many have been proven true after 9-11. I will especially miss his sense of humor and sensibility. On my marriage day he told me not to worry “only the first 35 years…

On Tuesday my family and I went to New York City for a showing of the “Radio City Christmas Spectacular”. We had some time to kill before the show, being that it was also the lighting of the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center the streets were blocked and we simply walked around our favorite city. We passed the New York City Public Library on 5th Ave. and decided to take a break (it also seem to start raining). The main branch of the library is a magnificent building which is by itself worth a visit. A gallery of marble, carved wood and unbelievable paintings greet the patrons. I wanted to see the Gutenberg bible which is usually on display. I’ve had several reasons: 1) I never saw it 2) It’s an important book 3) I wanted my wife and kids to see it and talk about its importance …so I dragged them along. However, the bible was featured as part of an exhibit which was called “The Three Faiths” featuring 200 rare books created over the past 1,500 years of Judaism, Christianity and the Muslim faiths. Any book lover who is in NYC must go see this beautiful exhibit. The…

After all we were all sold an eReader based on the premise that books which carry no overhead of printer ink, paper, trucks, drivers, fuel etc. will be cheaper

Recently I’ve had some very interesting conversation via email with author Irene Ziegler (Rules of the Lake, Ashes to Water, ). I’ve left a comment on her blog and she contacted me by email asking for an expansion on my thoughts which, as an opinionated person, I was happy to oblige. The conversation, which is nothing more than some preliminary thoughts and a bit of venting about cost of eBooks, was very interesting and engaging. Irene has decided to post some of our correspondence on her blog at http://www.ireneziegler.com and has received some very enlightening comments which further the discussion. Please check out Ms. Ziegler’s post and let her know if you agree, disagree or have a different point of view all together.