Monday Morning Staff Meeting – Overrated Wonks


Wonks gone wrong.

Through the eyes of the ‘other.’

Still dead, I guess.

Better dead than red.

Weekend Reading – Take That, Hitchcock!


The Thirty-Nine Steps as you’ve never encountered it before.

Night writing.

Amazon – good or bad for publishers?

What they mean to say is, we’re going to build our own darn Goodreads, gosh darn it!

How should or should not we think on Wagner?

Sunday Paper – Buying Banned Books In China


They’re not banned in Hong Kong.

Starting Tuesday, you can read your Ray Bradbury on e-readers.

Theology is silence.

Thursday Morning Staff Meeting – A Long Time Coming


The decline in book reviewing is older than you thought.

You tell ‘me, Noam!

“When it comes to book recommendations, [online] retailers have the literary sensibilities of a spreadsheet — they’ll just recommend the most popular books to me, or books that other people also bought, but they know nothing of the soul and sparkle of a great book.”

Goodreads Account – Cancelled


I cancelled it. I considered just letting it lie fallow. Or else inserting random stuff to try and do my small part to de-calibrate Amazon’s algorithms. But, really, I just didn’t want to be involved if Amazon was going to be running the show. Sigh. So I cancelled the account. The coffee philosopher will not longer exist on Goodreads.

Count Me As One Of Those Folks Who Think It Sucks


I am, of course, referring to Amazon’s purchase of Goodreads.

I enjoyed Goodreads. It had an excellent recommendation engine that suggested some excellent stuff for me. But now, it’s part of the evil empire.

I can only assume that where it now directs you to a number of different venues for buying recommended books, with brick and mortar based Barnes and Noble featured prominently, it will soon only take you to Amazon… or else hide other options so that finding anything but Amazon is counterintuitive.

Ugh.

Book Vending Machines Through The Years


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Weekend Reading – Reading Is Dead


Do you read more or fewer books than you did ten years ago? Fifteen years ago?

The uneasy relationship between poetry and e-readers.

What makes it a magazine?

Monday Morning Staff Meeting – They’re Hungrier Than You Think


Pamphlets_1-4_1_300_456Do great white sharks require more energy than we thought?

Whither publishers?

Literature is business.

Was Howard Zinn a lazy historian?

Poetry broadsides are back!

Weekend Reading – Bookstores Are Back


Are indie bookshops winning?

Great place to find your classic science fiction pulps!

Is Montpelier, Vermont the bookstore capital of America?

Yes, Virginia, there are still books.

Shakespeare and Wordsworth are good for the brain.