This is was the first thing I read about when I woke up today. Seth Grahame-Smith is at it again. Depending on how you feel about Jane Austen, he is either improve her works or destroy classic literature. His new book, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, will feature 40% of Seth’s work and 60% of Jane’s which is more than he contributed to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

While I am still not a fan of this genre, this follow book trailer does make me want to read the book.

What are your thoughts?

A few weeks ago Tin House sent me a copy of Jim Krusoe’s latest book Erased. I have not read Jim Krusoe’s other book, Girl Factory, but I have heard good things about it. Currently, Erased is sitting in my pile waiting to be read and it will probably be a week or two till I get around to picking it up. In the mean time, PDX Writer Daily interviewed the author. So if you are interested, check it out. If that doesn’t tide you over (until, you know, whatever you’re waiting for), Tin House has an excerpt on their web site.

Aardman Animations, the people behind such films as Chicken Run and every Wallace & Gromit feature, have announced that they are making a stop-motion adaptation of Gideon Defoe’s pirate themed novel The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists. The Aardman Animation website says that the film will be based on two books from the series (the first two?) and that the screenplay was written by Defoe himself. It will be directed be Peter Lord who directed Chicken Run. Above is some early concept art for the film.

Earlier this month (or late last month, I don’t remember) Defoe finally released the fourth book in the series, The Pirates! In an Adventure with Napoleon, in the US (after having been released in the UK last year). Currently that book is sitting comfortably in my To Read pile.

All I can say is YAY!

Coming in at a staggering 4,032 pages, the complete works of Agatha Christie finally come bundled in one convenient package. Convenient of course if you don’t mind the spine which is over a foot long and probably weighs enough to come with a warning to not let children play on or around.

I imagine sitting in on the bus and pulling the tome out of my Mary Poppins-esq bottomless bag. For more information on purchasing this brick book, check out the official Agatha Christie web site.

After coming under attack from the US Authors Guild, Amazon has decided to give authors and publishers the option to disable the “Read-To-Me” feature on the Kindle 2. With “Read-To-Me” the Kindle will read the books on your Kindle aloud thus freeing your hands for other things such as knitting or, I dunno, reading another book. The guild argued that this feature will impact the billion-dollar audiobook industry. By giving authors and publishers the option to disable it, Amazon feels that they will feel more in control and will quit complaining.

Marc Acito briefly mentioned this feature when I saw him a few weeks ago and how it isn’t doing any favors to the author who gets paid for the audiobook rights.

As a reader, I can not possibly imagine this feature being useful. Sure we can make it talk, but the reading wont be able to do the slightly different voices for each character, provide tone or dramatic pauses. In my mind it would probably sound like a robot reading to you.

I found this Youtube video which demonstrates this technology. Unfortunately, it’s in a book open room with lots of cameras clicking and is hard to really make out the quality of the reading.

Anybody with a Kindle 2, what are your thoughts on the Read-To-Me feature?

Source:
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/afp/usitinternetkindleamazoncopyright

Amazon today announce the Kindle 2. Set for release on Feb 24th for the economically friendly price of $359. The sequel contains many features that were available in the original Kindle such as being able to read books.

It is at this point that I would like to announce that my birthday is Feb 27th and a Kindle 2 would make that perfect gift for any book pirate.

I would also like to point out this bit of news regarding the Kindle 2 and Stephen King. (Copy and pasted from Publishers Weekly):

“The presentation included an appearance by Stephen King, a self-described fan of the Kindle and who was persuaded by Amazon to writer a short story to be offered exclusively on the device. In the novella Ur, King includes a scene which is a long product placement for Amazon and the Kindle, and noted that in the piece the main character’s Kindle gives him super powers. “

Really Stephen King? A Kindle that gives the character super powers? *cough*sellout*cough* :-)

John Updike died today of lung cancer.

I came across this article on You Thought We Wouldn’t Notice last and thought it was interesting enough to post about.

Do you remember the children’s book Nate the Great? Me neither. But it was a book published back in 1972 about a boy detective who solves murders petty crimes. In the book series this is this girl who goes by Rosamond who can only be described as “strange”.

See? They call her strange. Anyway, if you’ve been in Hot Topic recently (you can admit it, I wont think less of you), you may have noticed this girl.

Her name is Emily and she is “strange” as well. Emily was the poster child for skateboards in the early 90′s and have since become a pop culture icon with her very own book series.

Notice anything different? Me neither aside from a few words. YTWWN has more detailed information about this possible copyright infringement.