Books
cmooney | February 3, 2007
The final book, which will be out in July, is entitled Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Nerd that I am, I already pre-ordered mine on Amazon.com. So did about a zillion other people so the book is number one over there right now. Anyway, check it out if you are one of the many hapless addicts. And feel free to use the comments to speculate on which character is going to die this time....
P.S.: Thanks also to those of you who have already pre-ordered Storm World. Alas, so far we're not quite rivaling Harry Potter sales....but among ordinary mortals of the publishing world we're doing…
clock | February 2, 2007Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is now available for pre-order at Amazon. I ordered two copies (one for me, one to send to friends in Belgrade). Regular issue, not Deluxe. It ships July 21, 2007. Can't wait!
jlynch | January 31, 2007
The more astute among you will have noticed that I have been awol more-or-less for the past week. I have a major deadline to hit on Friday and once that is done (and I have rested) I will resume my usual posting.
For the moment, check out four books that I am currently reviewing for various print journals:
clock | January 30, 2007Ha! We broke the ice and now others are following our example. The Best of Technology Writing 2007 is being planned (hat-tip: Pimm).
I think this is great! Biotech articles are welcome as well, so send in your faves for consideration. Of course, they are a little timid - non-blog articles can also be included, and they intend to work on it for something like nine months! I guess they are not nuts like me....
What is next? Medical Blogging Anthology? Who is going to spearhead that project?
pharyngula | January 29, 2007Oh, but I am dragging this morning. Have you ever done that thing where you start reading a book and you don't want to put it down, and eventually you realize it's late and you need to get some sleep, so you go to bed but you can't sleep anyway so you get up and finish the whole book? And then you get a couple hours of sleep before you have to get up again? And your whole day is like trudging through molasses afterwards? That's me.
The book is Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion, and the Battle for America's Soul(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll) by Edward Humes, and from the title I think you…
clock | January 29, 2007Now that the Anthology is arriving at people's homes, getting read and even reviewed on blogs, I hope that more people will take a minute to post reviews or ratings on the actual book webpage. In one week, it has moved from non-existent to 33rd to 27th on the Lulu.com top sellers of the week list. I am also working on having the book more widely available, e.g., on sites like amazon.com and in independent bookstores.
clock | January 28, 2007
What Kind of Reader Are You?
Your Result: Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
You're probably in the final stages of a Ph.D. or otherwise finding a way to make your living out of reading. You are one of the literati. Other people's grammatical mistakes make you insane.
Dedicated Reader
Literate Good Citizen
Book Snob
Non-Reader
Fad Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You?Create Your Own Quiz
(Hat-tip: Grrrrl)
pharyngula | January 27, 2007
I am:
James Tiptree, Jr.(Alice B. Sheldon)
In the 1970s she was perhaps the most memorable, and one of the most popular, short story writers. Her real life was as fantastic as her fiction.
Which science fiction writer are you?
clock | January 25, 2007When I was a kid, there was no such thing as "do it yourself" biology for home. Sure, you could do observational stuff, like go out in the woods with a butterfly net and a magnifi\ying glass, or plant some seeds, or look at stuff under the microscope, but it was hard to do real experiments in biology.
My favourite trio of childhood science books (recently reissued) were "Between Play and Physics", "Between Play and Chemistry" and "Between Play and Mathematics" - see, no biology there!
But the world of science has changed since then and there is much more stuff that one can do at home that is…
clock | January 24, 2007John Dupuis wrote a review of the Republican War On Science by Chris Mooney.
aardvarchaeology | January 20, 2007The Anthropology Review Database currently contains 2667 reviews and citations, almost exclusively of books/films/CDs on social anthropology. A cool feature of the site is that they offer review copies to volunteer reviewers: currently there are 162 titles available. So if you feel that you would have something intelligent to say about a book on Japanese American beauty pageants, one on political life in Cairo's New Quarters, or a film about the Karen people of Burma -- then get thee to the web site and sign up for duty.
Thanks to Howard Williams for the tip.
aardvarchaeology | January 17, 2007British author and elderblogger Michael Allen, a.k.a. the Grumpy Old Bookman, has just released Lucius the Club. It's a new 48-page crime story available as a free CC-licensed PDF and a €4 chapbook from Lulu. I haven't read it yet, but I've enjoyed his other recent fiction very much and I follow his blog on a daily basis.
Get the file and read a few pages! What have you got to lose?
Update 21 March: Read it yesterday on my handheld. Excellent work, evoking a very English world of post-war kitchen-sink noir.
[More blog entries about books, crime, creativecommons; böcker, deckare.]
scientificactivist | January 16, 2007Bora Zivkovic of A Blog Around the Clock announced this morning that the first ever anthology of science blogging, The Open Laboratory: The Best Writing on Science Blogs 2006 is now available for purchase. At the website of the publisher, Lulu, you can either purchase a paperback copy or download the entire volume. Since it spans an impressive 336 pages, however, I would suggest the former.
Bora deserves a round of applause for undertaking the monumental task of editing this anthology, and doing so in a phenomenally short amount of time. Hundreds of posts were nominated, but fifty made the…
pharyngula | January 16, 2007Coturnix has assembled the Science Blogging Anthology using a self-publishing service. It seems like a bit of a cheat: skim the cream off a bunch of blogs, stick 'em together, and presto, you've got a 336 page book. Technology is just like magic, isn't it?
aardvarchaeology | January 15, 2007Coturnix over at A Blog Around the Clock announces that the 2006 Science Blogging Anthology has now been published. The title is The Open Laboratory. Very apt! As mentioned here before, the volume contains a piece by yours truly. Get it while it's fresh!Zivkovic, Bora. 2007. The Open Laboratory. The best writing on science blogs 2006. Chapel Hill, NC: Lulu. 336 pp.[More blog entries about books, science, lulu; böcker, vetenskap.]
jlynch | January 15, 2007
Bora is pleased to announce that The Open Laboratory is now available for purchase as an e-book or dead tree. Relive the finest moments of science blogging in the comfort of your armchair. Thrill, as yours truly expounds on Darwin and Marx without the aid of a safety net (or spell-checker). 336 pages of sheer blogging delight ... batteries not included.
clock | January 15, 2007Yes! It is finally here! What you have all been waiting for, impatiently, for three weeks! The Science Blogging Anthology is now for sale. Go to Lulu.com by clicking here (or click on the picture of the book to your right) and place your order! You can choose to buy a PDF to download (but do you really want to print out 336 pages!?) or order the book with its pretty cover - it takes only a couple of days to arrive at your doorstep.
You can see here how it all got started, just three weeks ago, smack in the middle of the holidays when nobody was online and traffic was down to a third of…
clock | January 15, 2007We had a minor glitch with the cover. It is in the process of getting fixed right now. Stay tuned - the unveiling will be shortly....
clock | January 14, 2007The entire file is now finished - the last quick round of proofreading is all that's left before the Grand Unveiling right at this place (likely tomorrow morning).
Since people nominated the best science posts and those tend to be the most substantial posts which tend to be very long posts (sometimes in two or more parts), the book will be much thicker than I expected - around 330 pages! This, unfortunately, will also make it a tad little bit more expensive (still not hugely expensive - this is online, print-on-demand model of publishing after all).
I got 13 out of 50 letters of agreement/…
aardvarchaeology | January 11, 2007Spaced-out humorous occultist, conspiracy novelist and psychonaut Robert Anton Wilson has passed away.