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.

Yesterday I asked bookbloggers on Twitter (#bookbloggers) how long do they spend writing book reviews

Winners of the Dirty Little Angels eBook giveaway have been chosen. Congratulations to all: banta.lucy@ mizztuts@ CarolNWong@ mishamary@ javadog70@

As we all probably already figured out, the publishing business model is in trouble. With the rising popularity of eBooks as eReaders drop in price what profit is there in retail book selling? Learning their lesson well from the faux pas of the music industry, the publishing world does not want to force consumers to buy the products they want to sell. Rather they would like to supply the products consumers want to buy. By no means will printed books go away anytime soon, but the industry has to look into the future and, frankly, face the inevitable. Book sales have steadily decreased for about a decade while production costs have risen steadily, since for many books both a physical and a digital edition must be produced (even though I don’t understand why, at this age every book is digital first). As the music industry found out that at $0.99 song is less profitable than forcing you to buy a $20 CD, book publishers are also learning that a $9.99 eBook is less profitable than their $25 hardcover sibling. Personally, I have no issue with them making less, no-one is entitled to my money. Yes, Virginia – advertisements in books…

The dog-days of summer are almost gone and the Man of la Book website has been up and running for almost two months. I’ve greatly enjoyed the interaction with other readers and bloggers, as well as the superb interaction within the book blogging / reading community. That being said, I have some questions which I’d like to ask, please feel free to respond to any or all… 1) How do you like the new layout (fonts, background, colors, etc)? 2) How would you improve the book reviews format (cover art, synopsis, opinion)? 3) What else would you like to see, if anything, on the blog? 4) Any improvement on the style of wrting? 5) If you are a Twitter follower (@manoflabook) how do you like my tweets? Be critical but please be constructive. Thank you….

In an effort to help out our small community why not do something selfless once a day. Pick a book review you liked, which is NOT YOURS, and tweet it to your followers under the hashmark #helpotherbookblogs Don’t forget to leave a comment to that person about how much you like their blog, and that they were your “selfless pick” of the day. Just once a day, or even less – but do it. It won’t hurt you, I promise. Imagine the joy you’ll feel when you get picked as someone else’s daily tweet. Imagine the joy you’ll get others to feel. My first selfless tweet was yesterday – http://twitter.com/ManOfLaBook/status/22111913176 What do you think? Are you up for it?

I’ll Never Forget the Day I Read a Book! reviews Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith“What do you do as an encore after writing a best seller and trend setter like Pride and Prejudice and Zonbies? Seth Graham-Smith has turned from Jane Austen to Abraham Lincoln.” Primo Reads reviews The Ask by Sam Lipsyte “”The Ask” by Sam Lipsyte is a quick and enjoyable read. This novel is clearly “contemporary fiction” – Lipsyte drops in amusing pop culture icons throughout this novel.” Learn This reviews Be Bodacious by Steven D. Wood “Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book. I have a few minor points against it but all in all, this is definitely worth your read.” Spine Uncracked reviews The Best American Noir of the Century by Ellroy Penzler “This book is pretty badass. A good 700 or so pages of enjoyable noir short stories, and an introduction by James Ellroy in which he says things like, “The short stories in this volume are a groove. Exercise your skeevy curiosity and read every one.”” Digital Book Readers: e-readers guide and review reviews Breath by Tim Winton ““Breathless” might be a more appropriate title for this…

In a fascinating and insightful article, “A Novelist Re-Imagines Shakespeare’s Juliet — and Challenges Literary Snobbery” in the Wall St. Journal, author Anne Fortier talks about her visit to her homeland of Denmark and the change of perspective about art. Ms. Fortier was having lunch with friends when words like “ambitious” and “commercial” starting to fly around…but not in a good way.This was two days before Fortier’s new novel; “Juliet” – about a young lady who thinks she might be related to the teenage Shakespeare made famous – was coming out. When the book came it was hailed as…. ambitious and commercial – oh boy. Even though critics did admit that the book was descent (according to Ms. Fortier) they went out of their way criticize the idea of the book, rather than the book itself. . To their credit, the Danes voted with their money and “Juliet” sold well. Some critics are quick who damn literature which is not written to please the intellect of those sitting on the high throne of prize committees. However, they forgot that some the books hailed today as classics were either ostracized when they came out (“The Grapes of Wrath“, “Moby Dick” which are among…