Andrew Baron originally found and shared the video above. It’s well worth the watch. It’s a pseudo demonstration of Penguin Books’ plans for the iPad.  This of course could be applied to any similar tablet device. Just watch. It’s cool.

Thank you Andrew for sharing this.

Darren Rowse, aka ProBlogger, is giving away books for a comment:

I’d like to do a bit of a giveaway today of a few of them and all you need to do is leave a comment saying which one you’d like.

This Wednesday I’ll randomly choose a winner for each book, contact you to get your mailing details and pop them in the mail for you (I’ll pay for the shipping).

Here are the 5 books:

1. Yes: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive
2. Search Engine Optimization: Your Visual Blueprint for effective Internet Marketing
3. Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success
4. Blog Blazers: 40 Top Bloggers Share their Secrets to Creating a High-Profile High-Traffic and High Profit Blog
5. Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What it’s Becoming and Why it Matters

Oh and for a little extra I’ll throw in a copy of ProBlogger the Book as a 6th Alternative.

That’s right. You comment, you have a chance at one of those six great books. I chose #2 on SEO. It’s definitely an area I can improve my skills in.

Which book will you choose?

Amazon is my book store of choice. Heck, it’s my vendor of choice on more than books. Price and selection drive that choice. Think then I never visit the local book store. You’d be wrong.

Borders is a place I spend a fair amount of time. Sure, it doesn’t compete on price. The books on hand is of course less than Amazon warehouses. So why is it my favorite local store?

Borders provides a few things that Amazon still doesn’t have.

1) Context – yes, Amazon ‘recommends’ books I might like based on what other’s have purchased that purchased the books I’ve already bought. Of course, lots of those folks could have purchased purple dinosaur books this week. NOT a big interest of mine. Amazon doesn’t have a human placing books together in sets, by similar styles, topics, or authors. The Borders’ staff is always configuring displays where I can find five great superhero novels in one place, or five books on cyberculture. Books at book stores don’t exist in isolation.

2) Browsing – Amazon lets you look at pages in books. Sometimes you’ll get the table of contents. Nothing is as good though as putting your hands on a book and really browsing it. I love reading recommendations by other Amazon users, but checking out passages and chapters myself is best.

3) People – This is a big win some days. They can be somewhat useful for locating a book, they are even more valuable to figure out what book you want based on odds and ends. How often has someone recommended a book to you but you forgot the author, the title, and more. Those fine folks behind the counter are often up on the latest and greatest, and of course each seems to be a book geek as well. If they can’t figure it out, no one can.

4) People – Wait, this isn’t a mistake. Proximity to other book centered folks can be wonderful. The advent of the café in bookstores and extra seating has given them a real community feel. I’ve had some wonderful encounters my fellow searchers as conversations strike up over being in the same section, seeing them browsing a book you’ve just finished, or just running into someone that stands out.

Compelling reasons? They are for me. I neglected to mention one other huge reason I still visit book stores – I love the feel of books; the texture of the pages, the artwork, and even the smell. In my mind, those hold an almost mystical place. Amazon will never give me that feel.

Do you still visit real world book stores? Have you gone over to strictly online shopping? If you do visit a store or two, what’s your favorite brick and mortar book store?

Bonus: local to St. Louis? Want to visit a great local bookstore? Try Subterranean Books on Delmar.

This was my first Brent Weeks novel. I’m not sure it was the best introduction to his work. It was a decent plot overall, with plenty of twists and turns. But before I go into more detail, the book was too slow.

Brent Weeks takes us to a place where life is dark, dreary, and deadly. Our main character begins his life on the streets, and the book constantly revisits them. Death abounds even upon children, innocents, royalty and the homeless. This world is one where everyone you befriend is a liability, every love a potential loss.

The darkness is not just around the characters but in them as well. Our protagonist has to make tough choices and does. Though at what cost? Can a young boy, even a tough one, take the leap from struggling in poverty to a powerful assassin and not lose part of his soul?

One thing I loved included the action scenes. The detail and flow of these was quite entertaining and drew me in fully. Sheer variety in weapons, attacks, and how each character approached the fights was worth the price of admission. Eric Lustbader eat your heart out. True ninja style stuff here.

Another strong point to this book is the depth of characterization. Weeks spared no amount of words making sure we understood each character, not just as their job or profession, but who they are inside and how they came to be there. He lets us peer into the mind of a prostitute turned leader, and a man who sold his soul for immortality.

Lastly a compliment to the author for making no one black and white. Not even characters as simple as some of the guards were entirely simple.

Though the book was long in the tooth at points, if you love tails of assassins, ninjas and the like, then this is a good read. Young adult is almost an unfair category for this as it will more likely appeal to a slightly older reader.

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• The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks (nethspace.blogspot.com)

So you I like to read. Seems like that’d be a fairly solitary hobby doesn’t it. At one time it was the most solitary pursuit. Oh, there are reading circles and such, but those are hard to keep up with and find one to fit your comfort zone. There are fan forums, but often those don’t have your friends and folks you actually know in person. Just as much you won’t see much of the author there.

Goodreads comes to the rescue. Goodreads is more than just a place to chalk up all of the books you’ve read. It’s a place to share, be shared with, and to find out what your friends are reading and recommending.

Lots of web sites have forums, and Goodreads doesn’t lack for those. The folks there brought us more than that though. Goodreads provides Groups. Groups act as more than chat rooms or a place to post your latest review. A group provides for sharing a bookshelf, planning events, and even taking polls. Of course, there is good old discussions as well.

Managing your books is another place where Goodreads does a great job. The basic categories are read, to be read, and reading. Pretty straight forward. Beyond that however, each user can create customized groupings of their own. These groupings are known as shelves. Books are easily swapped between groups at several of the screens, on the book, on the shelf or on any page where the books are listed.

Reviews are another plus here. Not only can you post your own reviews, but those are available for others interested in that book. Likewise you’ll have other readers’ reviews there for your own benefit. On the reviews page, you can let the reviewer know the post was helpful, and beyond that, provided feedback to them personally. It’s also a great way to find folks with similar interests.

Finally, the big feature for me among several other great ones is seeing what your friends are reading. Yes, your real friends. Get them to sign up and there you are.

You can leave messages about the books a friend is reading, follow the discussion about a specific book, and even tell a story about your friend for others to read.

Friends can recommend books to each other, mark a book as recommended by, or mark one you’ve read as a good recommendation to someone else.

All in all there are lots of ways to interact and share. Added benefits include real authors being members, printable lists, and Amazon searching. I’ve yet to not be able to find a book I’d like to include.

If you love to read, check out Goodreads.

Are you still reading magazines and newspapers? What are reasons for still enjoying print over pixels on occasion?
Reading print is faster than reading online.
This reason alone might be enough for some. I find that I read faster with print once I’ve established a pace. It’s also faster when all of the print is on one page.

Printed media allows you to write in the margins.
Though not something I do often, it is especially common for technical journal reading. This feature is offered in part online by browser adds-ins, though hardly standardized.

Printed resolution for pictures is often better than online.
This could be a debatable fact, but is often true. When not true, you’re often expected to jump out of the article to another site or page to view the image in it’s best resolution.

Reliability for reading is another strong point.
A page in hand is worth a thousand pages waiting to load.

Portability of media is a big plus as well.
Printed media can be taken just about anywhere with little inconvenience. Printed media doesn’t require batteries or outlets, nor a place to work from. Devices like the Kindle though are making inroads.

Printed media is standardized and requires no instructions to use.
Printed media not only requires no special tools, no specific browser, nor optimized display, it is just plain simple to use. You open and read. If you can read, you can use a paper, book or magazine. My mother can use a magazine. My granddaughters can read books.

Several other reasons might be offered as to why someone might enjoy a good magazine read over reading online. In the end though, each individual finds they have their own likes and dislikes, and in my experience, will choose a mix of both media types.

How about you? What are you reasons for still picking up a magazine or paper? What are your reasons for going totally electronic? Do share.

Koontz got your eye was a success. We have a winner! Andrea’s recommendation, Lightning, was the selected book.

Andrea has been sent an $8 gift Amazon gift certificate for her troubles. She was not only first, but suggested several good titles. To narrow the choice I read reviews of each book on Amazon. This gave me some insight on themes.

Lightning was chosen specifically at Andrea’s recommendation and that it involves a sci-fi theme. Koontz takes his spin on time travel.

Andrea, Tony Mast, Tracy Lee, Phil Baumann, and akaMonty, your support and suggestions were helpful. It took me some time to check out each one. The next in line will likely be Fear Nothing, a title recommended a couple of times.

The book is due to be shipped out on Monday. I’ll look forward to its arrival by Friday. Look for a review to follow.

Amazon is my favorite place to shop. Yes I live in St. Charles county, but Wal-mart really isn’t where I spend all the big bucks. As you might have guessed that’s where I purchase all my books.

Purchasing leads to recommendations, and recommendations pointed to Dean Koontz. So I picked up the first Odd Thomas novel. I was immediately hooked. So far I’ve read the first three.

Koontz purchases on Amazon of course led to more of his works turning up for me to buy. Oh, the titles are interesting, but they don’t really say much about the books. Let’s list a few…

	Seize the Night
	The Watchers
	Life Expectancy
	Intensity
	Phantoms

You get the drift. Short titles and cool covers. That’s what it’s all about I guess. What I’d really like though is my friends and contacts to make some recommendations about his books. Or heck, just suggest some good alternates.

Ones I’ve read already:

Odd Thomas 1st-3rd books
Frankenstein books – Prodigal Son and City of Night

That’s it. Just those. I’ve been wary of running out and spending $10 on something I might hate. Are the Odd Thomas novels a good indication of the rest of his writing? Are they exceptions?

So I’m asking you, my readers, and the rest of you out there on the net; what’s your favorite Koontz tale or alternate work of fiction.

I’ll post the results here on the blog, so keep the suggestions coming in. As an added incentive, I’ll buy you a book too if I take your suggestion. So be the first to suggest your favorite.

Yours,
Todd