The Nimble Books Blog

Frey’s Agent Goes on the Record with ‘PW’ - 1/31/2006 - Publishers Weekly
SN: WHEN DID YOU FIRST LEARN ABOUT THE ‘SMOKING GUN’S’ FINDINGS?

EK: James called me a few days before the piece ran to say he had learned they were doing a negative story on him, but I didn’t learn of the specifics until I read it on ‘TSG’ Web site along with everyone else.

SN: ARE YOU CONTINUING TO REP HIM?

EK: No, I am not. In the last week, it became impossible for me to maintain a relationship once the trust had been broken. He eventually did apologize, but I felt for many reasons I had to let him go as a client.

Tags: Books I Won't Be Reading, What's New for Book-Lovers by admin
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BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland | Flock of Houdini birds hits city
An aggressive parrot, known as the Houdini of the captive bird world, has caused concern after a flock was reported flying over Edinburgh.

Several sightings of a group, as well as individual ring-necked parakeets, are worrying experts who fear they will push out the city’s native birds.

The Indian Himalayan species, which has been escaping from city aviaries, can easily survive freezing temperatures.

The foot-long bird, which lives in tree holes, could displace a native owl.

This seems like it may be a lead-in to the events of Harry Potter Book Seven.

Tags: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J. K. Rowling by admin
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‘Heidi Chronicles’ Playwright Wendy Wasserstein
Wendy Wasserstein, 55, a Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning playwright who chronicled the triumphs and travails of modern American women, died Jan. 30 at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

This is sad. Wendy Wasserstein was an oft-quoted voice for literacy and humanity.

Tags: What's New for Book-Lovers by admin
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Right on!

My grandfather Lamar worked for an oil company in New Orleans for most of his adult life. I want to see the city come back.

Tags: U.S. & Local Politics by admin
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2006 Michigan Notable Books
The 2006 Michigan Notable Books highlights the Library of Michigan’s annual selection of up to 20 recommended books reflecting Michigan’s rich cultural heritage, featuring high-quality titles with wide public appeal that are either written by a Michigan resident or about a Michigan-related topic.

Somehow they left Nimble Books off the list! But there are a couple of nice ones mentioned here. I particularly like the sound of:

Legends of Light: A Michigan Lighthouse Portfolio, photographs by Ed Wargin. Ann Arbor Media Group. Michigan’s Great Lakes maritime heritage is vividly reflected in this spectacular photographic collection of selected lighthouses and their beautiful landscapes. Striking examples include lighthouses at Au Sable Point, Grand Haven, Granite Island and Point Iroquois.

Mighty Fitz: The Sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, by Michael Schumacher. Bloomsbury. Still one of the great unsolved mysteries of the Great Lakes, the Edmund Fitzgerald and its 29-man crew perished in Lake Superior during a November storm in 1975. The tragic story of the ship and crew are recounted here, as well as the search and rescue efforts, the official investigation and the controversial struggle over the recent recovery of the ship’s bell.

Tags: Ann Arbor For Better Or Worse, What's New for Book-Lovers by admin
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The Amazon.com catalog entry for Vernor Vinge’s much-anticipated novel, RAINBOW’S END, reads “RAINBOW’S END (Zones of Thought)”.

That would suggest a link between RAINBOW’S END and Vinge’s classics, A FIRE UPON THE DEEP and A DEEPNESS IN THE SKY.

Cataloging error, or humongous spoiler?

Tags: Intergalactic Roll of Honor, What's New for Book-Lovers by admin
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The new cover of this Tor reissue is more restrained than

this old Baen cover:

I have an even more egregious paperback somewhere, but can’t find a scanned image online.

Tags: Intergalactic Roll of Honor, What's New for Book-Lovers by admin
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Digitization 101: How is Google’s digitization quality?

How is Google’s digitization quality?
When Google announced its project nearly a year ago, I was anxious to hear how they were going to digitize the materials. I soon realized that confidentiality agreements and the air of secrecy was going to keep me (and you) from learning from this project. I know that we’ll learn more about copyright because of Google’s work, but would it be wonderful to learn more about how they are going about this effort? Even just some tidbits?

We can learn a bit from looking at the books that Google has digitized. And what we learn is that their quality isn’t all good. If you search through the materials, you’ll find items were the images are very crisp and clear, and others that are blurry and (perhaps) sloppily done.

For example, if you flip through this book (from 1908 and in the public domain), you’ll see a fingernail, book clamps, obscured pages, pages missing (p. 61), and pages that are crocked. And nearly every page is hard to read. Is this an anomaly? No. Look at this book (from 1916 and in the public domain) and you’ll see brown pages (p. 22). What’s up with that?!

Without signing in, you can only see a few pages of the newer books. Even without signing in, one quickly senses that the pages are clearer and much easier to read. (Look at this example from 2004.) Is Google doing something different with these so that they are scanned better?

Not necessarily. The cover of my newly scanned book has visible scan lines. Irritating because they are working from my PDF!

Tags: About Nimble Books, What's New for Book-Lovers by admin
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WSJ.com - The ‘Da Vinci’ Cash Cow
For book publishers, the most provocative question raised by the upcoming movie version of “The Da Vinci Code” is: Can a three-year-old best seller that has already been endlessly milked for profits yield one more windfall for the industry?
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With the film opening in May, the publishing industry is placing one of its biggest bets ever on the staying power of a blockbuster book. Publishers are using the movie’s release to anchor numerous “Da Vinci”-related titles and tie-ins, including the novel’s first U.S. paperback run. And all of them are trying to harness the selling power of the most successful novel in recent memory, with an estimated 40 million copies in print world-wide.

The pile-on is a common model in the book world, but “Da Vinci” is having an unusually long run of tie-ins. “The publishing industry sees something that’s working and keeps doing it until it keels over,” says Robert Miller, president of Walt Disney’s Hyperion book-publishing unit. “When angels were hot, the first 40 books about them succeeded. Then not. The first 20 O.J. Simpson books worked. Then not.

Tags: Dan Brown, The Solomon Key and Beyond, What's New for Book-Lovers by admin
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0596101619.jpg (JPEG Image, 432×648 pixels)

Must reading for Google Maps fans.

Tags: What's New for Book-Lovers by admin
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This is an exciting development for everyone interested in user experience design.

Rosenfeld Media - Publisher of user experience design books
Founded in late 2005, Rosenfeld Media is a publishing house dedicated to developing short, practical, and useful books on user experience design. Our books will explain the design and research methods that web professionals need to make informed design decisions.

Unlike traditional publishers, we won’t operate as a one-way pipeline. We’d love for you to read our books, but we also invite you to improve them and suggest ideas for future ones. Here’s how.
Where are the books?

They’re coming! Our first book—on search analytics—is due out in mid-2006. But the rest of the catalog remains to be determined; you can help us determine which books we should publish.

Tags: What's New for Book-Lovers by admin
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THE SOLOMON KEY AND BEYOND: UNAUTHORIZED DAN BROWN UPDATE (Nimble Books) is now live on Google Book Search.

Tags: What's New for Book-Lovers by wfzimmerman
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