The Story Is The Lettuce

Which makes the apps the tomato, or croutons in the salad, I'm thinking. Those words came from a very interesting article about a panel on e-books for kids at CES (Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas).

The point was that the story has to be good first, and then you collaborate (as publisher or author) to make it work on the e-platform.

 Much more to be learned from the article, so go over to The Digital Shift to read the whole thing.

Monday Music: I Can't Make You Love Me

Last night, I watched the Grammy Awards--the whole three-plus hours of it. It was interesting, particularly as a creative person, to watch this year's batch of musicians. It seemed to me like 2011 was the year of extremes: you were either a dude/dudette with a guitar and a microphone, or Mr. Techno with a lightshow.

Personally, I always love the simpler approach, with all respect to the laser crew.

One stand-out (aside from Adele's lovely honest moment, snot and all) was Bon Iver's acceptance speech. It ran too long, he used it as a soapbox for the indie musician, and he didn't even thank God like you're supposed to. I enjoyed watching this faux pas winner.

Here's a Bon Iver cover of a pretty song, and the same song by Grammy goddess Adele. Each pretty awesome in their own right.

That F.T., She's Going Places

I'm following An Idiot Abroad on the Science Channel, and was a little horrified to recognize myself in Karl. A lot.

Just in case you haven't seen it: Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant send Karl Pilkington around the world to live out other people's bucket list wishes--with a twist. Instead of swimming with dolphins, Karl gets to be with sharks. You get the idea.

But you can tell that Karl doesn't really want to do any of those things. He'd rather stay home, watch some telly or whatever.

I'm that way. I'd rather hang at home, wearing stretchy pants (let's not call them sweatpants, okay?), watching something entertaining. Preferably while consuming food someone else cooked, and involves cheese and/or bacon.

But you have to leave your comfort zone, even if you're something of a Karl, like me. And especially if you have a book coming out that everyone must know about. So I signed up for various conferences. Like Springmingle this month, Thrillerfest in July, and Bouchercon in October--and that's just the beginning. I'll be the idiot abroad now. And I promise I'll wear pants that don't qualify as stretchy.

Are you pushing your comfort zone this 2012? I want to know I'm not alone...

Getting Lost, Or The Book Hangover

Along with the rest of America, it seems, I got the latest Stephen King novel for Christmas. I asked for it, honestly--my bleary-eyed librarian recommended it, claiming she was going to bed at seven just so she could get back to the story. Since I take librarian recommendations most seriously, I put 11/22/63 on the Santa list.

Confession time: I'm not such a fan of Stephen King's novel-length work. Love the short stories he pens, but found that when it came to those novels, I was skimming the blah blah. No offense, Mr. King.

So when I saw that this book had 849 pages, I groaned internally. That's, like, three-to-four novels in kid lit. This had better be good.

And it was. I was proven wrong, and found myself bleary-eyed, disappearing with my fat book for hours, avoiding chores (not that I needed help there), pushing my bedtime.

I finished the book. It was good, not that it needs my endorsement. But now I have the dreaded book hangover--that feeling where you don't quite know what to do with yourself now that the story is over.

How 'bout you, YA Sleutheri? Ever have a book hangover? What was the book, and what did you do to get over it?

The Best of Both Worlds

No worries--I won't be subjecting you to that Hannah Montana song of the same title.

There's this article over at Publishers Weekly about bundling print and e-editions of a book for customers, which I thought was very interesting. I don't care so much as a writer, but as a reader, I like the idea. I have a new e-reader, but still catch myself hesitating over ordering the e-edition over print.

Take book XYZ: the print edition is $14, roughly; Kindle sets you back $10. And I still find myself preferring print. Not sure why. Maybe because I'm old-school, maybe because I've lost my share of MP3 files and wish I'd bought the CD.

I for one would love this type of book bundle. The article talks lots about the business angle of it all, but I don't really care about that--from my reader perspective.

What do you think? Would you buy the bundle for a few bucks more?

Book Shopping In Style

Check out this feature of the 20 most beautiful bookstores in the world (Flavorwire). 

The photos to the left are of Selexyz bookstore in Maastricht, in my native Holland. Now there's some book shopping in style...

The More Things Change (Un-Scientific E-Book Thoughts)

With my debut coming out (hurrah!) later this year, I find myself getting a bit more serious about studying The Marketplace. I want kids, parents, teachers, librarians and random passers-by with an inclination to read to know how great DOUBLE VISION is, and where to buy it.

So I follow the talk on e-books, Kindles (with and without Fire), Nooks and apps--I mean, there are lots of serious people doing brilliant research on this stuff. All I have to do is listen, one would think. Who's reading what, and in what format?

This article tells me teens are reading more e-books! (Publishers Weekly, reporting on Digital Book World panels)

But then this one says: actually, not so much. (paidContent.org; ironically, reporting on the same convention, I believe).

So I'm still not that much wiser. I remember reading the same books as my friends, and then talking about them at recess. I know, four score and seven years ago...

Are kids really going to be doing all their reading on a phone, or a tablet device? Those things make my eyes hurt--that can't be very different for a kid, right? Will they read on a reading device instead?

I still have no idea, and I have a sneaking suspicion that nobody else really does either. But here's a cool un-scientific study of my eleven year-old. She was texting excessively the other day, so I asked her what the deal was, in my grumpy-mom-monitoring-technology-use voice.

"Emma and I are reading the same books, Mom. We're talking about them."

Maybe print vs. e-book doesn't matter. Maybe it's all about how we communicate our love for books--now isn't that a great kumbaya thought for a Wednesday?