News Around the Net

September 26 to October 3rd marks Banned Books Week and the ALA have released an interactive map showing book bans and challenges across the country. Here's to Nevada, Utah, and South Dakota for staying strong! Or empty. Either way, good work! This Instant Book Machine could bring an end to the costly shipping of books from publishers to bookstores. I think I want one. I like to read and it would fit well next to my toaster. It looks like a microwave/cabinet. What happens when good writers make talk-y noises with their mouths. Why we shouldn't expect good writers to be good conversationalists. In Dan Brown news, ebook sales of The Lost Symbol failed to break 5% of the novel's total sales, tallying a mere 100,000 copies sold as ebooks.

This disappointed enthusiasts of the technology and possibly confirmed my opinion that ebooks are stupid and hurt my eyes as a widely held truism. And yes, there actually is a blog called Kindle Nation Daily. Keep on with the good fight against papers cuts and books with pages and such.

With the release of Robert Harris's 2nd part of his planned Roman historical trilogy, the Guardian wonders why the literary saga has fallen out of style. And I do too. And for the record, I like Robert Harris. Read Fatherland or Enigma and you will too.

Should posthumous work be published if the editor doesn't know the author's intentions? It's a sticky situation all around.