What is BookYap you ask? It’s a site that is designed to help you find books.

You can search by categories like Thrill Seeker, Foodie, English Major, and Creative Cat. From there you can filter out the books by adjusting the length of the book, the amount of hype it has, and its publication date. It’s pretty nifty. It does have a couple of issues that I feel it needs to address. The very first thing I tried to search for was Paper Towns by John Green. No results. For shame! I loved that book. Luckily, I’m told it’s still in its beta so there is still time to work out the kinks and make it fantastic.

They are also holding a contest to give away a Kindle. Who doesn’t want one of those?!

UPDATED: I got an e-mail back from Tin House. They were wanting to make sure that they weren’t undercutting any of the independant booksellers which is why the prices were set at the same price as an actual book. However it was decided that e-book prices will match what you would pay on Amazon or iBooks. So now if you have to choose, you can go with Tin House and pay the same price while cutting out that annoying middle man.

Tin House was nice enough to send me an e-mail this morning announcing the redesign of their site. There wasn’t anything particularly wrong with their site in the first place but redesigns are always fun/scary.

What caught my eye was a line in the e-mail about buying Tin House’s books from their new site:
“You can buy them separately, or in combination with a print edition for a discounted price.”

What a fantastic idea! I’ve been eyeing a Kindle for a while now, but i’m reluctant to give up actual print. If books were to be bundled with a ebook version as well, I think that would be enough to force me to jump on the e-book bandwagon. So at this point i’m pretty excited about Tin House doing something that mainstream publishers have yet to embrace. I quickly clicked over to the site and started playing around on it.

When I got to the section where you can buy books, I decided to play around and see just how good of a discount Tin House gives for buying both the physical book and the e-book.

Let’s do some math.

Tin House’s Site
Call It What You Want by Keith Lee Morris
Tin House Book Price (20% off list price): 12.00
Tin House E-Book Prince: 12.00

When you buy both of these you get 50% off the E-Book. You will end up paying 18.00 for the book and a digital copy. This didn’t feel like that much of a deal to me, so I decided to compare it to what I could pay if I bought the same book through Amazon.

Amazon
Call It What You Want by Keith Lee Morris
Amazon Book Price (22% off list price): 11.66
Amazon E-Book Price: 9.99

If you were to buy both the total would be 21.65. So it would be cheap to buy them together through Tin House. What strikes me as odd is that Amazon offers a lower price on both the physical and digital copy of the book. I can understand how Tin House can offer 20% off when buying physical books. But what escapes me is why they charge 20% more with their e-books. This question bugged me so much that I e-mailed Tin House and asked for some insight on the matter.

Oh, and as for the Open Bars mentioned in the title, it’s the name of their blog. Check it out.

I came across Kate Kae Myers web site a few days ago and read up a little on her. Having been raised in Boise I noticed that she was from there and decided to check out some of her writing.

In the book section of her blog, I came across a chapter from one of her novels entitled, The Third Freak. I liked the title, so I read the summary.

The idea sounds great. The basic plot seems to revolve around a young woman who while dealing with the death of her twin brother, receives what she believes to be an envelope from him with an coded return address and a newspaper clipping inside. Believing him to be alive she decides to track him down. This leads her back to Canada and the foster home the two of them shared when they were children. Apparently, this was a place she swore never to return to because of strange events that occurred there. Along the way, she seeks out Noah, the third in the friends group of self-dubbed “freaks,” a young man she cared for when she was little. She needs his help, but he is not the same person she remembers.

I decided to read the chapter that the author posted below her synopsis and I’m very glad I did.

The chapter seems to not be the first chapter in the book, although if it is, it would make for a great narrative hook, putting you right in the middle of the story and then demanding that some things be explained. I hesitate to explain or tell you what happens in this chapter because really, I would much rather you go to her site, click on the link and read it yourself.

Here, I’ll make it easy for you.

I got the same feeling reading this short chapter, that I had when reading Dean Koontz’s Intensity. There is an urgency that comes through with the main character, a desperation and determination that is wonderful to have when reading a novel. It kept me going and had me more than interested in what would happen to Jocelyn.

I can’t wait to read the whole book. Also, there is a fun book trailer on the site as well.

Check it out.

I came across this post that highlights some of the stranger things that you can stumble across while searching for Waldo in Martin Handford’s Where’s Waldo/Wally? books.

9 Strange Things Found While Searching for Waldo

Speaking of things that are hard to find, Karen over at the blog Munrovian won the Murder By The Book contest. However, she has completely neglected her duties of responding to the e-mail I sent her asking where I can send the present. Shame on you Karen! No, but seriously. E-mail me? :-)

I like reliving my childhood by buy old Choose Your Own Adventures books whenever I visit Powells. I came across this rather in depth analysis of how the books are organized (complete with pictures). If you like CYOA books, you should probably check this out.

Anybody use Shelfari and want to be my friend?

http://www.shelfari.com/thebookpirate

James Frey.

I’m just saying. I don’t -hate- people that often. But it seems that in between stroking his own ego and being obnoxiously cocky that he got away with lying in a “memoir”, he has managed to secure a four book deal with Harper.

And now, for some links:
daydalus blog – Why I hate James Frey
Flavorwire – James Frey Is Addicted to Controversy
Bookpublishing – Because what’s funnier than deriding James Frey?
words for my enjoyment – Today’s Imaginary Conversation With James Frey
Gawker – James Frey Answers Your Gawker Intern Questions (with sass I might add)

Happy Monday!

I came across these two links which I found interesting/humorous and I wanted to share them with you.

- First is a blog post from John Green who wrote a Really Long & Boring Post about Book Advances and Publishing. Sadly, the post fails to live up to its title because I found it more interesting than boring.

- Secondly, do you live in the UK? Do you like books and are seeking someone to read over your shoulder for the rest of your life? If yes, then Borders Bookstore has FINALLY opened up an online dating portion of their site. Called Happily Ever After, you can now search for true love in the comfort of your own home instead of cruising the aisles of your local bookstore.