In essence, computer systems needed to do only one of two things: make money or save money.
Daniel Suarez
Daemon
Archives For Books
In essence, computer systems needed to do only one of two things: make money or save money.
Daniel Suarez
Daemon
Link: Books Without Borders
A bookseller recounts “My Life at the World’s Dumbest Bookstore Chain” – discovered by @Andrlik. In my youth I worked as a bookseller – at a large chain, then an indie. This story, told from the perspective of a former employee, tells the sad tale of one chain’s demise.
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It’s embarrassing now, but on the day that I was hired to work at Boston’s flagship Borders store in 1996, I was so happy that I danced around my apartment. After dropping out of college, I had worked a succession of crappy jobs: mall Easter Bunny, stock boy at Sears and Kmart and Walmart, a brief and nearly fatal stint as a landscaper. A job at Borders seemed to be a step, at long last, toward my ultimate goal of writing for a living. At least I would be working with books. And the scruffy Borders employees, in their jeans and band T-shirts, felt a lot closer to my ideal urban intellectuals than the stuffy Barnes & Noble employees with their oppressive dress code and lame vests.
The fact that Borders offered me a full-time job, which allowed me to quit two part-time jobs (at a Staples and a Stop & Shop) and offered health insurance (that promised to help pay for my impending wisdom tooth extraction), was a pretty big deal, too…
This post was originally created for @abcnewsradio and can be found here.
Max Brallier, author and marketing representative for St. Martin’s Press, discusses the future of digital publishing with ABC’s Dan Patterson. Brallier, author of Can YOU Survive the Zombie Apocalypse and the new Kindle-only Vatican Assassin Warlock, describes historic publishing models of marketing and distribution, then contrasts tradational methods with non-traditional digital publishing. While the mechanics of publishing have changed dramatically in the past decade, Brallier asserts that the creative process remains remarkably similar.
Max Brallier, author and marketing representative for St. Martin’s Pressdiscusses the future of digital publishing with ABC’s Dan Patterson. Brallier, author of Can YOU Survive the Zombie Apocalypse and the new Kindle-only Vatican Assassin Warlock, describes historic publishing models of marketing and distribution, then contrasts tradational methods with non-traditional digital publishing. While the mechanics of publishing have changed dramatically in the past decade, Brallier asserts that the creative process remains remarkably similar.
From EW: Huge ‘Game of Thrones‘ news: ‘Dance With Dragons’ publication date revealed! — EXCLUSIVE (via Shelf Life)
This is wonderful news!
While one could draw strong parallels between the ‘A Dance with Dragons‘ series and the legendary Duke Nukem Forever video game series, author George R.R. Martin‘s long-promised-never-delivered work is about to drop.
As an adult, I rarely read fiction; I tend to gravitate towards books about contemporary politics and technology. Whenever I crack the page of a novel a mild anxiety manifests itself in the form of imaginary opportunity cost about the ‘real life’ things I could be learning.
This, of course, is silly. In addition to providing much-needed escapism, fiction creates metaphors that help us understand and solve real-world problems.
‘A Song of Ice and Fire‘ is nothing if not a great metaphor for politics and human desire.
If you – like me – primarily read non-fiction I cannot more strongly recommend George R.R. Martin’s brilliant fantasy series. Start with ‘A Game of Thrones‘ – you’ll be hooked, I guarantee it.
- DHP
via Shelf Life
I’m currently reading two great books about Wikileaks.
I strongly believe that the importance of Wikileaks – and more specifically its function – will long outlive the surrounding hyperbole.
And yet from the impact of the leaked diplomatic cables, to Egypt, to the cult of personality surrounding Julian Assange & Wikileaks is undeniably controversial.
To that end I am interested in learning more about the organization, its processes, and its people.
If you’re interested in digesting the breadth and scale of the Wikileaks as an organization as well as a news story, I strongly recommend Open Secrets. Authored by the New York Times, ‘Open Secrets’ is a compilation of each article about Wikileaks published in the Times. The articles offer a diverse cross-section of fact and opinion and serve as a reliable narrative.
Inside Wikileaks is an inside account of the organization as told by Assange’s former right-hand-man Daniel Domscheit-Berg. While the copy itself could use a few edits, the tone is even and lack the expected self-hype. Domscheit-Berg’s accounts are almost impossible to verify but entirely riveting.
If you have some free time this rainy weekend, have a few bucks to spend, and are curious about facts behind Wikileaks I strongly suggest reading both ‘Open Secrets’ and ‘Inside Secrets’ in tandem.
