Monthly Archive for August, 2011

Latest Book Journal Papers

Published on August 31, 2011 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

The latest issue of The International Journal of the Book includes:

2011 Book Conference – Evening Tour of Toronto Now Available

Published on August 30, 2011 in Conference. 0 Comments

We invite you to join us on a guided evening bus tour of Toronto. The tour will visit highlights of Toronto including Casa Loma, The Art Gallery of Ontario, The Royal Ontario Museum, China Town and many others. The tour bus will leave from The Sutton Place Hotel at 6:30pm.

For more information please visit the 2011 Book Conference Web-Site.

Company Scans Your Books For a Dollar – Ship ‘Em In, Get a PDF via Email

Published on August 22, 2011 in News. 0 Comments

From Aaron Saenz at Singularity Hub…

Someday my grandchildren will ask me what a printed book looks like. Hell, at the rate we’re going, my children will probably ask the same question. The physical to digital conversion of books just got a lot cheaper with the launch of 1DollarScan.com, based in San Jose, California. An offshoot of the immensely successful BookScan in Japan, 1DollarScan does exactly what its name implies: it scans your documents for a dollar. 100 pages of a book, 10 pages of a business document, 10 business card, etc – you just mail the text in and 1DollarScan will email you back a PDF. While the transition away from print media has been proceeding a pace for a while now, a cheap book scanning service in the US means that thousands of personal libraries will be converted to ones and zeroes, pushing us ever closer to a world where all printed books (Gutenberg to Gladwell) belong in a museum.

Yusuke Ohki started BookScan after he laboriously converted his personal library of 2000+ volumes into digital documents. Now the company has 200+ employees who do nothing but that, and reportedly the service is so popular in Japan there’s an extensive waiting list. 1DollarScan promises to bring the same dependable, quick, and hopefully popular service to the US with its freshly debuted Silicon Valley headquarters.

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Book Journal, Volume 8, Number 3 now available

Published on August 17, 2011 in Journal. 0 Comments

book_frontThe third issue of Volume 8 of The International Journal of the Book is now available.

Volume 8, Number 3 contains:

Continue reading ‘Book Journal, Volume 8, Number 3 now available’

George Elliott Clarke to Speak at the 2011 Book Conference

Published on August 15, 2011 in Conference and Headline. 0 Comments

George Elliott Clarke, inaugural E.J. Pratt Professor of Canadian Literature at the University of Toronto, was born near the Black Loyalist community of Windsor Plains, Nova Scotia, and raised in Halifax. The son of William and Geraldine Clarke, Clarke holds an Honours B.A. in English from the University of Waterloo, an M.A. in English from Dalhousie University and a Ph.D. in English from Queen’s University. He practices poetry, politics and journalism.

George’s poetry is written in a lyrical style, frequently alluding to religious, Black Loyalist heritage. While he has studied the Black literature of many countries, he gives special attention to Nova Scotia. The editor of a two-volume anthology of local Africadian writing, Fire on the Water (Pottersfield Press, 1991), George has written lyrics for the folk-gospel quartet Four the Moment. His poetic Whylah Falls was part of the 1996 CBC Radio Drama series and an acclaimed stage play in 1997 and 2000. It was also staged, in Italian, in Venice, Italy in 2002.

In 1998, he was the first recipient of the prestigious Portia White Prize, an annual award from the Nova Scotia Arts Council. Named after one of Nova Scotia’s pre-eminent musical pioneers, the Prize recognizes cultural and artistic excellence. In commenting on the prize winner, the Honourable Russell MacLellan, Premier of Nova Scotia, said, “Dr. Clarke was selected because he represents one of our best. As such, he is honoured with the most prestigious award that can be presented in Nova Scotia to a Nova Scotian artist.”

In 2001, Clarke won the Governor General’s Award for Poetry for his collection Execution Poems , published by the Gaspereau Press. The Canada Council for the Arts poetry jury commented the “Execution Poems is raging, gristly, public – and unflinchingly beautiful. Clarke plays with rhyme, theatre and the shape of the book showing us justice as official speech perpetrates it and as ordinary speech registers it. He harnesses the pain in the history of racism and pours it into explosive, original language.”

His books have been translated into Chinese, Romanian, and Braille.

For more information please visit the 2011 Book Confernece Web-Site.

2011 Book Conference – Accommodation Now Available

Published on August 9, 2011 in Conference and Headline. 0 Comments

The Sutton Place Hotel
955 Bay Street
Toronto, ON M5S 2A2
416-324-5621

Conference Rate: CAD $174.00 + 13% HST

Rooms in Toronto – At The Sutton Place Hotel, style and tradition go hand-in-hand. Our 311 guestrooms and suites include spacious single accommodations, luxury suites and our spectacular penthouse suites on the 32nd floor.

Each spacious guest room and suite is decorated with Old World flair, combined with modern-day technology to keep you up-to-date, such as voice-mail, computer and fax capabilities and special personal amenities like plush bathrobes, hairdryer and in-room entertainment.

Reservations may be made by calling the hotel at 416-324-5621 or 1-866-378-8866 or by visiting www.toronto.suttonplace.com. Please reference Block Code: Publishing2011 to receive the conference rate. This rate is available until Monday, 12 September.

Open Book: This is Not the End of the Book

Published on August 3, 2011 in News. 0 Comments

Italian writer, thinker and critic Umberto Eco has no fear the written word, including the book, is going to disappear: “The Internet has returned us to the alphabet … From now on, everyone has to read. In order to read, you need a medium. This medium cannot simply be a computer screen.”

From Phillip Marchand, TheAfterword

Fear not, bookworms and library rats. Two fellow bibliophiles, novelist (The Name of the Rose) and critic Umberto Eco, and playwright and screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere, have collaborated on a volume whose title says it all: This is Not the End of the Book: A Conversation Curated by Jean-Philippe de Tonnac. Eco lays out his argument very early in this “conversation.” (Don’t ask me what “curated” means.) “There is actually very little to say on the subject,” Eco states. “The Internet has returned us to the alphabet … From now on, everyone has to read. In order to read, you need a medium. This medium cannot simply be a computer screen.” The implication of Eco’s logic is clear. E-books have their place in the world of letters, but not necessarily one of total dominance. “One of two things will happen,” Eco continues in his march of logic. “Either the book will continue to be the medium for reading, or its replacement will resemble what the book has always been, even before the invention of the printing press. Alterations to the book-as-object have modified neither its function nor its grammar for more than 500 years. The book is like the spoon, scissors, the hammer, the wheel. Once invented, it cannot be improved.”

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Paperback Publishers Quicken Their Pace

Published on August 1, 2011 in News. 0 Comments

From Julie Bosman, The New York Times

It used to be like clockwork in the book business: first the hardcover edition was released, then, about one year later, the paperback.

But in an industry that has been upended by the growth of e-books, publishers are moving against convention by pushing paperbacks into publication earlier than usual, sometimes less than six months after they appeared in hardcover.

This week included the trade paperback release of “Swamplandia!,” a debut novel by Karen Russell, five months after it was first published in hardcover in February.

“The Tiger’s Wife,” the much-praised literary novel by Téa Obreht, which came out in hardcover to rave reviews in March, will be followed by the paperback in October, seven months later.

Nonfiction releases have been accelerated as well. “Those Guys Have All the Fun,” an inside account of ESPN by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales, has barely been in bookstores two months, having arrived on May 24. Its paperback edition is already scheduled for Dec. 1.

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