Electronic Reading vs Print Reading

The National Endowment for the Arts has concluded a three year study on reading trends in the US. The study, entitled To Read or Not to Read was released earlier this month.

The reports concludes that

• voluntary reading rates are dropping
• reading skills are "worsening" among teens
• adults are becoming less proficient readers

Pretty grim news for people like me who's life is all about books and reading.

It was with some trepidation that I downloaded the 98 very dry, dull pages and began to read them. Just as I was beginning to nod off I came across this little gem:

Opinions aside, there is a shortage of scientific research on the effects of screen reading—not only on long-term patterns of news consumption, but more importantly, on the development of young minds and young readers. (A good research question is whether the hyperlinks, pop-up windows, and other extra-textual features of screen reading can sharpen a child’s ability to perform sustained reading, or whether they impose unhelpful distractions.) (To Read or Not to Read p53)

That woke me up. I decided I didn't need to torture myself anymore and deleted the report from my machine.

There is an assumption here that I violently disagree with -- the only reading worth studying or reporting on is a printed page in a book.

So not true!

My email, RSS feeds and blogs provide me with more reading material in one day than I used to get in an entire month.

I could tell that this is all work related and not in any sense voluntary. I would be lying.

Everyday, I follow links that take me to very strange places. Who hasn't had the experience of becoming intrigued with some weird factoid and going off on a reading tangent totally unrelated to anything! In my particular case if someone sends me a Facebook link it is very possible that an hour later I am making new friends - after reading all about them. I don't even want to discuss YouTube!

Are they unhelpful distractions? Who knows for sure. What we do know (from experience) is that those distractions very often keep us doing sustained reading. AND we are in fact reading things we probably never would have had access to or read any other way. Say what you will, it is still reading. And it is not exactly unpopular.

Look around any Starbucks and count the number of people typing on laptops, PDAs and cellphones. Count those reading newspapers. If they are not reading, what exactly are they doing?

The NEA is alarmed and gloomy about reading in America. I am not. Call me a crazy optimist; but the evidence of my own eyes suggests that reading is alive and well and maybe even on the upstroke.

Technorati Tags: ebooks,electronic books,electronic reading,PDA,laptop reading. National Endowment for the Arts,NEA,To Read or Not to Read

Discounted eBooks from eBooks About - November 28, 2007

Fantasy and Romance top the list of this weeks picks -- could it be an attempt to escape the holidays? Speaking of holidays -- How about a gift certificate for the eBook readers in your life? Contact Gigi for details This week coupon code is CW49V. Use it at checkout to get discounts on these books!

Redeemed in Darkness eBook edition Morgan, Alexis Alexis Morgan's sizzling paranormal Paladin series continues with a courageous female warrior who can't resist the man of her dreams -- even if he is her sworn enemy.... A fiercely beautiful female leader from the Other world, Lusahn q'Arc can't forget the Paladin warrior she met in battle -- his chiseled body and piercing, thoughtful eyes still haunt her dreams. While investigating the smuggling of the mysterious blue stones used to light her shadowy world . . More Info List Price : $i5.99 Your price $5.12 (Using your 10% discount and $ .27 in eBook Reward points)

Quiet Leadership eBook edition by: Rock, David Improving the performance of your employees involves one of the hardest challenges in the known universe: changing the way they think. In constant demand as a coach, speaker, and consultant to companies around the world, David Rock has proven that the secret to leading people (and living and working with them) is found in the space between their ears. "If people are being paid to think," he writes, "isn't it time the business world found out what the thing doing the work, the brain, is all about?" More Info List Price : $10.22 Your price $ .54 (Using your 10% discount and $points3 in eBook Reward points)

A Week from Sunday eBook Edition by: Garlock, Dorothy Adrianna Moore has just had a double shock: the death of her father and the discovery that he has left his entire estate to his lawyer. The lawyer, a repulsive social climber, tells her that to regain her inheritance, she must marry him A WEEK FROM SUNDAY. Adrianna takes off, driving desperately to a new life. Caught in a violent rainstorm, she collides with an oncoming truck. Quinn Baxter. . . More Info List Price : $9.99 Your price $8.54 (Using your 10% discount and $ .45 iin eBook Reward points)

OVERCOMING OUR RACISM eBook edition by: Sue, Derald Wing This extraordinary book written by Derald Wing Sue a highly-regarded, academic and author helps readers understand and combat racism in themselves. It defines racism not only as extreme acts of hatred we often read about from others, but as "any attitude, action or institutional structure or social policy that subordinates a person or group because of their color." This landmark work offers an antidote to this pervasive social problem. More Info List Price : $22.95 Your price $19.62 (Using your 10% discount and $1.03 in eBook Reward points)

Snakehead eBook edition by: Horowitz, Anthony What goes up must come down, and when we last saw Alex Rider, he was as up as can be in outer space. When he crash lands off the coast of Australia, the Australian Secret Service recruits him to infiltrate one of the ruthless gangs operating across South East Asia. Known as snakeheads, the gangs smuggle drugs, weapons, and worst of all, people More Info List Price : $17.99 Your price $15.38 (Using your 10% discount and $ .81 in eBook Reward points)

Our guarantee: If you have bought one of these titles from eBooks About Eveyrthing in the last 15 days we will gladly rebate the difference; just contact us

G1G1 - The Enlightened Gift

It started simply as a good idea and a catchy phrase.

Nicholas Negroponte had the good idea: a cheap laptop for the poor children of the world that was loaded with software and connected to the Internet.

His catchy phrase: "the $100 laptop."

In 2005 Negorponte with a little help from his friends created the The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization. The goal: to give every primary school aged child in the world a rugged, Internet connected, low-power consuming laptop.

It took three years and some pretty complicated twists to achieve the goal. But it is a reality and called the XO laptop.

Admittedly, it isn't exactly a hundred dollar laptop (it's closer to $200) but it is rugged, Internet connected and doesn't require electricity.

If you are me, you probably think that the $100 laptop is a great idea but why stop there? Why confine the idea to children? Why not include teens and adults?

What about a OLFE (One Laptop For Everyone) organization?

This is perhaps and example of a good idea that lacks a catchy phrase because to date no such organization has developed.

Fortunately, good ideas tend to be contagious. Earlier this year Intel and ASUS (a computer manufacturer) announced a commercial version of the $100 laptop, the ASUS Eee PC. Four versions are currently being sold at prices ranging from $191.52 to $639.36.

Both of these machines use some interesting technology; if you are interested visit the OLPC or ASUS sites.

As much as I love technology, I am much more intrigued by good ideas. And the OLPC organization has a terrific one for the holiday: G1G1.

Get 1, Give 1 is a gift idea with real punch: get a computer for your kid(s) and give one to a child in a developing nation (Rwanda, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Haiti and Mongolia). This is not your classic "two-fer" deal since both machines cost you $399, but it is still a great deal -- a charitable contribution and a Christmas present you won't have to wrap.

To participate click on this link: One learning child. One connected child. One laptop at a time.

Since November 12th, OLPC has been offering a limited-time Give One Get One program in the United States and Canada. During Give One Get One, you can donate the revolutionary XO laptop to a child in a developing nation, and also receive one for the child in your life in recognition of your contribution.

Of the $399, you get credit for a $200 charitable contribution. Next April you can deduct that from your taxable income. If your tax rate is, say, 20%, that's a savings of $40, which brings the actual price of the XO laptop you receive down to $183.95. You even get a nice email from Nicholas Negroponte, founder of OLPC, thanking you for your contribution.

This is the one gift guaranteed to enrich at least two kids -- how cool is that!

Technorati Tags: OLPC,One Laptop Per Child,G1G1,Get 1 Give 1,Negroponte,Intel,ASUS

All Through the Night eBook edition

 

For those of us who have followed the series, All Through the Night is like putting on your favorite old flannel shirt and settling in by a roaring fire --warm and comfortable.

If you are steeped in the Troubleshooter mythology, this is a feel good fix until the next Troubleshooters installment. 

If you are not steeped in the mythology, do yourself a favor skip the rest of this piece and go buy  The Unsung Hero.   I'm betting you will read the next ten volumes as quickly as you can.

Troubleshooter fans, however, will want to head to this wedding along with the always entertaining Sam and Alyssa.

Before it is over you will catch up with all your favorite characters.  Other interesting developments:  Adam Wyndam returns; Dolphina finds a beau; and you will find out who's pregnant now.  You will also catch a glimpse of the next generation.

Brockmann writes great romantic suspense.  Her dialog is always fresh, quick and funny.  Her plots riveting.  Over the last few years, her characters have become so multi-dimensional that I have a hard time remembering that they are not "real" people.

This is definitely not one of her best efforts. It is really nothing more than a cheap shot aimed directly at Brockmann fans.  It is pretty obvious that her publishers had her "throw a little something together for the holidays". 

The wedding is an obvious and thinly veiled excuse for an FBI, SEAL Team Sixteen, and Troubleshooters, Incorporated reunion that will (hopefully) sell a lot of books. And they are probably right.  After all, I shelled out the dough.

In case you are wondering it was worth buying just to find out that Jules and Robin have a new love song (finally)! Come on, admit it, "Hooked on a Feeling" needed to be replaced!

 

It’s Christmastime in Boston, and this year the silver bells will be wedding bells as FBI agent Jules Cassidy ties the knot with the man of his dreams, Hollywood heartthrob Robin Chadwick.

The pair plan a quiet, intimate ceremony, to be witnessed by family and close friends from the FBI, SEAL Team Sixteen, and Troubleshooters, Incorporated, including Sam Starrett and Alyssa Locke. But the holiday season brings more to the happy couple than they expect.

A waterfall coming through their kitchen ceiling, a bat colony in the attic, old family tensions . . . even an international incident can’t dampen their spirits. But add to that a parade of unexpected guests, including a reporter looking for a scoop, an ex-lover hell-bent on causing trouble, and a dangerous stalker, and suddenly the wedding is poised to unravel in chaos.

But nothing will stop Jules and Robin from getting their happy ending. . . 

Technorati Tags: ebook,e-books,ebook reveiw,e-book review,Brockmann,All Through the Night

Discounted eBooks at eBooks About Everything - November 15, 2007

This is one of my favorite weekly tasks -- finding out what you want to read. This week has a wondeful mix of fiction, truth that may be stranger than fiction and a little self improvement. Use coupon code A9JG4 at checkout to receive these special discounted prices.

Boom!: Voices of the Sixties Personal Reflections on the '60s and Today eBook edition by Brokaw, Tom One of America’s premier journalists gives us an epic portrait of another defining era in America as he brings to life the tumultuous Sixties, a fault line in American history. The voices and stories of both famous people and ordinary citizens come together as Brokaw takes us on a memorable journey through a remarkable time, exploring how individual lives and the national mindset were affected by a controversial era and showing how the aftershocks of the Sixties continue to resound in our lives today. More Info List Price : $17.95 Your price $15.35 (Using your 10% discount and $ .81 in eBook Reward points)

Men Made In America Mega-Bundle 2 eBook Edition by:Campbelll, Bethany The Men Made in America series continues with more heroes from all fifty states, including a Montana sheriff, a journalist-turned-rancher in Arizona, a photographer from Michigan, and much more! More Info List Price : $39.60 Your price $33.86 (Using your 10% discount and $1.78 iin eBook Reward points)

Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's eBook edition by: Robison, John Elder This book is a wild rollercoaster ride through John Robison’s life--from troubled teenage prankster to successful employment in electronics, music, and classic cars. A kindly professor introduced him to electrical engineering, which led to jobs where he found techie soulmates that were like him More Info List Price : $17.95 Your price $15.35 (Using your 10% discount and $ .81 in eBook Reward points)

Elves of Cintra eBook edition by: Brooks, Terry Across the ruined landscape that is America–hopelessly poisoned, plague-ridden, burned, and besieged by demon armies bent on exterminating all mortal life–two pilgrims have been summoned to serve the embattled cause of good. . . More Info List Price : $17.95 Your price $15.35 (Using your 10% discount and $ .81 in eBook Reward points)

Self Mastery eBook edition by: Coue, Emile One of the best self improvement books ever written. For the ambitious beginner and experienced individual, become the person you inspire to be with the help of this book. Easily navigate between individual chapters with the embedded bookmarks for hassle free reading. Works perfectly with mobipocket reader & mobile reading devices. More Info List Price : $19.99 Your price $17.09 (Using your 10% discount and $ .90 in eBook Reward points)

Our guarantee: If you have bought one of these titles from eBooks About Eveyrthing in the last 15 days we will gladly rebate the difference; just contact us

Eat, Drink and Be Merry

Like many Americans  I am on vacation for the next five days as we observe Thanksgiving.

Our family (all 25 or so of us) gathers in Palm Springs for five days of food, card games, political debate, shopping, reading by the pool, going to the movies and just hangin' out on the patio.

The weather forecast is sunny and in the mid-70s. 

Of all the things I am personally thankful for, the weather is up there near the top of the list.

Which brings me to the real point of this particular holiday -- being thankful. 

I feel inordinately lucky and very blessed.  I have a wealth of love as represented by family and friends.  We are all healthy.  My work is fun for me and very satisfying.  There is a roof over my head, food on the table and a little cash in my pocket.  I am thankful for all of these things!

For those of you who observe this holiday - be safe and enjoy. 

I'll 'see you' on Monday.

The Amazon Kindle has arrived

Yesterday at 9:51 EST (with much fanfare) Amazon unveiled it's own version of an e-Ink based eBook device -- the Kindle.  Obviously, I haven't seen it but my mailbox has been filled with news and opinions. 

There is wide agreement that the Kindle has some very cool features.  Particularly noted is that it is WiFi equipped.  You can download a book or the latest RSS feed on the go --  anytime, anywhere.  You are untied from your computer and free to roam.  The other popular feature is the built in thumb keyboard which makes searching easier.

Yesterday at 11:24 PST I signed on to Amazon and with "One Click" ordered my very own Kindle.

As the discussion on blogs and newsgroups heated up I saw some critical items as well.  Like, "it is ugly."  I have to agree. There were also complaints about using a rather clumsy scroll wheel to get around -- no touch screen.

The first criticism that really made an impression, however, was a small item about formats.

Evidently, If you have documents you own and want to read on the device, you have to email those documents to Amazon who will convert them so that you can add them to your Kindle.  Amazon is glad to do this 'for a small fee.

Huh?  That sounds to me like entering an entirely closed universe.  Been there; done that; don't want to do it again.

I knew that the Kindle uses Mobipocket eBook files.  This was the main reason that I found the device so attractive;  I have a store full of great books in Mobi format.  But that particular item about document conversion sent up a big red warning flag.  I needed to find out more.

One of the most obvious places to go is MobileRead. and once there, I found Bob Russell's excellent piece about the Kindle which I read with great interest.

Here is the paragraph that stopped me cold . . .

"You won't even be able to read your purchase of a DRM'd e-book from Mobipocket sellers. That seems to be an innocent statement at first - you can only read non-DRM'd Mobipocket format on the Kindle. But think about it. It's a power play. So like I said earlier, even though Amazon owns Mobipocket, Amazon has gone out of their way to make sure that every book you buy for the Kindle stays there, and that you can't buy anywhere else. If you buy the more common Mobipocket formatted (DRM'd) e-book, you can't read it on the Kindle."

Wait a minute!  I can't even buy Mobipocket formatted eBooks from my own store and read them on the Kindle?

OK -- Enough said. 

Yesterday at 4:43 PST I canceled the order.

 

Technorati Tags: ebook,e-books,kindle,mobipocket,sony eBook reader

One Drop of Blood (eBook edition)

In One Drop of Blood Bliss Broyard  meets long lost relatives and graphically discovers that racial prejudice is a two way street.

Just before he died, Bliss and her brother were told that their father was not French as they had always believed but in fact a "passing" black.

Race, as experienced in the United States is a fascinating subject. One with personal meaning for me. You see, growing up I had the experience (more than once) of being a member of the only white family within a hundred mile radius.

Our family was a like the preverbal sore thumb -- we stuck out!  My Father's blue eyes were a special kind of oddity that evoked hundreds of comments and some very odd rumors.

As an adult I have come to understand that racial stereotyping is the end result of millions of comments and thousands of odd rumors.  T

This riveting book is part memoir, part genealogy and part history.  The chapters chronicle her personal experiences and feelings as she traces her "roots" and meets her extended family.

Broyard does a masterful job of recreating the history of New Orleans and the Creole people. This is a thought provoking and sad tale of race, bigotry and greed.  The story of her family is told within the context of American history from the Slave Rebellions through the Civil War, into Reconstruction and the Northern migration.

Anatole Broyard’s own words eloquently describe how I felt about this book:  "The more I like a book, the more reluctant I am to turn the page. Lovers, even book lovers, tend to cling. No one-night stands or "reads" for them."

The publisher says:

Two months before he died of cancer, renowned literary critic Anatole Broyard called his grown son and daughter to his side, intending to reveal a secret he had kept all their lives and most of his own: he was black. But even as he lay dying, the truth was too difficult for him to share, and it was his wife who told Bliss that her WASPy, privileged Connecticut childhood had come at a price.

Ever since his own parents, New Orleans Creoles, had moved to Brooklyn and began to "pass" in order to get work, Anatole had learned to conceal his racial identity. As he grew older and entered the ranks of the New York literary elite, he maintained the facade.

Now his daughter Bliss tries to make sense of his choices and the impact of this revelation on her own life. She searches out the family she never knew in New York and New Orleans, and considers the profound consequences of racial identity.

With unsparing candor and nuanced insight, Broyard chronicles her evolution from sheltered WASP to a woman of mixed race ancestry.

Technorati Tags: ebook,e-book,eBook reveiw,book review,One Drop of Blood,Broyard

National Book Awards eBooks

Congratulations to the National Book Award Winners

Young People's Literature Sherman Alexie The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Little, Brown & Company The story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author's own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings that reflect the character's art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live

Poetry Robert Hass Time and Materials (Ecco/HarperCollins) The poems in Robert Hass's new collection—his first to appear in a decade—are grounded in the beauty and energy of the physical world, and in the bafflement of the present moment in American culture. This work is breathtakingly immediate, stylistically varied, redemptive, and wise. His familiar landscapes are here—San Francisco, the Northern California coast, the Sierra high country—in addition to some of his oft-explored themes: art; the natural world; the nature of desire; the violence of history; the power and limits of language; and, as in his other books, domestic life and the conversation between men and women. New themes emerge as well, perhaps: the essence of memory and of time.

Nonfiction Tim Weiner Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA (Doubleday) For the last sixty years, the CIA has managed to maintain a formidable reputation in spite of its terrible record, burying its blunders in top-secret archives. Its mission was to know the world. When it did not succeed, it set out to change the world. Its failures have handed us, in the words of President Eisenhower, “a legacy of ashes.” Now Pulitzer Prize–winning author Tim Weiner offers the first definitive history of the CIA—and everything is on the record. LEGACY OF ASHES is based on more than 50,000 documents, primarily from the archives of the CIA itself, and hundreds of interviews with CIA veterans, including ten Directors of Central Intelligence. It takes the CIA from its creation after World War II, through its battles in the cold war and the war on terror, to its near-collapse after 9/ll.

Fiction Denis Johnson Tree of Smoke (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) This is the story of Skip Sands—spy-in-training, engaged in Psychological Operations against the Vietcong—and the disasters that befall him thanks to his famous uncle, a war hero known in intelligence circles simply as the Colonel. This is also the story of the Houston brothers, Bill and James, young men who drift out of the Arizona desert into a war in which the line between disinformation and delusion has blurred away. In its vision of human folly, and its gritty, sympathetic portraits of men and women desperate for an end to their loneliness, whether in sex or death or by the grace of God, this is a story like nothing in our literature. This is the only title not available in eBook format. FS&G has only published one title in 2007 as an eBook. . . Remember (if you decide to actually buy paper) to support your local bookseller

eBooks About Everything and RSS feeds

Since we added the Subscribe to RSS Feeds tab in the eBooks About Everything store, my friends and family keep asking to explain RSS to them. Here are a few of the questions with my answers.

Q: What does RSS mean? A: RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary.

Q: What does that mean and what does it do? A: The basic function of an RSS feed is to bring you news headlines. Instead doing a check of your favorite new sites or blogs you can anonymously "subscribe" so that as new information is added the headline is sent out as news.

Q: Why should I care, what's in it for me? A: They save you lots of energy and time. Instead of hunting down sites and looking at pages of information; the RSS feed gives you “just the facts” in headline form. For example, I read many newspapers and blogs everyday – the New York Times, Salon, the Wall Street Journal, the XML report and Publishers Weekly. I used to have to remember to go check them; now I sit back and wait for the news comes to me.

Q: How do I see the RSS feed? A: Use either a reader or an email service. Popular free readers include The Google Reader, Bloglines and SharpReader. A great service is NewsGator and 29.95 or you can use a free services like SendMeRss .

Q: What do you use? A: I have traditionally used Google products – the Google Reader and Feedburner. I prefer email delivery; I want the news to come to my inbox so I am currently testing both NewsGator and SendMeRss. For a real live test of how Feedburner works go to the right side of the blog that says Subscribe via email; enter your email address and give it a road test.

Q: What news does eBooks About Everything put into their RSS feeds? A: Our 57 feeds are updated each morning (at 1:00am) with information about the newest titles added to the store overnight. If you are interested in a special topic like math, education, fiction etc. just subscribe to the appropriate RSS feed to see what eBooks came in while you slept.

For novices who want more info Youtube has a great video on RSS: