Vodafone UK Launches Mobile Books

Vodafone UK is launching a program to provide books on cellphones starting today in association with GoSpoken.com. run by Toby Lynch and author Andy McNab.

The company says they have over 2,500 books available for download. Originally designed to play as audiobooks, the site says that they are adding the ability to read titles via the phone screen as well. Charges go directly to the user's cellphone bill with a "one-click" purchase model.

Titles are expected to cost between 5 pounds and 15 pounds each. A story in the Times says GoSpoken has "signed up every leading publisher in Britain, including Penguin, Random House and HarperCollins, and are in the process of signing the big European names."

Report from Publishers Lunch.

Taschen London Store Opens

Taschen opened its new London store yesterday, Monday, 6 October 2008.

Located on Duke of York Square, just off the Kings Road, next to the new Saatchi Gallery, stock will cover the entire Taschen list with books covering art, photography, film, architecture, travel, lifestyle, pop culture and sex.

The London store follows the huge success of TASCHEN's five stores around the world, in Paris, Cologne, New York, Beverly Hills and Hollywood. Like these other hugely successful TASCHEN stores, this new store has been designed by noted French designer Philippe Starck, with a ground floor at street level and a gallery space in the basement.

TASCHEN Store London

12 Duke of York Square

London SW3 4LY

Tel: +44 (207) 8810795

store-london@taschen.com

Opening hours:

Monday 10 am – 18 pm

Tuesday 10 am – 18 pm

Wednesday 10 am – 19 pm

Thursday 10 am – 18 pm

Friday 10 am – 18 pm

Saturday 10 am – 19 pm

Sunday 11 am – 17 pm

Gadgets We Love

IPhone Steals Lead Over Kindle

Andy Greenberg and James Erik Abels writing in Forbes 10.02.08

It's official:

The iPhone is more popular than Amazon.com's Kindle.

And not just in the obvious categories like listening to music, browsing the Web or the other applications where Kindle barely competes. Now, the iPhone is also muscling into Amazon's home turf: reading books.

Stanza, a book reading application offered in Apple's (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) iPhone App Store since July, has been downloaded more than 395,000 times and continues to be installed at an average rate of about 5,000 copies a day, according to Portland, Ore.-based Lexcycle, the three-person start-up that created the reading software.

By comparison, Citigroup estimates Amazon will sell around 380,000 Kindles in 2008. Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey expects Sony's (nyse: SNE - news - people ) Reader will sell only a fraction of that number. In other words, Apple may have inadvertently sold more e-readers than any other company in the nascent digital book market.

For the full Forbes piece link here.

The Speedy collection - local private library reveals its treasure after 35 years

Read this interesting story at McGovern Online.

Fresh flavours

Restaurant chain Leon has won a string of awards for its tasty, healthy fast food since it opened in 2004.

All this week, we have exclusive recipes from its first cookbook. Today, founder and G2 chef Allegra McEvedy explains how to make some of the dishes that became instant favourites. Introduction by Jay Rayner

From The Guardian, Monday October 6 2008

Allegra McEvedy is the sort of person who has always been famous; doubtless, at nursery other kids used to trail after her, hoping for crumbs of attention. I'm sure she dispensed them. She's a generous soul, Allegra.

Guardian readers who follow her weekly columns, and those who have taken part in her regular cookery workshops on our Word of Mouth food blog, will already have a sense of her: encouraging, jolly, noisy and, above all, enthusiastic. In person, she is all these things, and tactile to boot. At a party she will always be at the head of her own little herd, identified by the gales of rude throaty laughter.

In short, McEvedy won't bloody shut up, and nor, thank God, will her food. When she cooks, it's always big-fisted stuff. It's the enemy of prissiness, friend to flavour. Sure, she's done her time at the pass in fancy restaurants; she once led the kitchens at Robert De Niro's Tribeca Grill in New York. She has done stints at the Groucho club - from which she was sacked for being found in the shower with a friend and a bottle - and the famed River Cafe. But it is the role she has now, as the food queen for the nine-strong, quality, seasonal fast-food chain Leon, that suits her best. Its slogan - "food which tastes good and does you good" - speaks to the woman's instinctive need to nurture.

The recipes brought together in the new Leon cookbook, which we begin serialising today, make it obvious that this is a whole lot more than bald, corporate sloganeering. Allegra and her team at Leon mean it.

There really is no arguing with her recipes for butterbean and chorizo stew or her butternut and bacon chowder, her chilli con carne made with braised hunks of chuck steak rather than crumbly mince, or her Moroccan chicken tagine, which has been a Leon bestseller for years. And for good reason. It's fantastic, gutsy, Technicolor stuff.

Sure, none of her dishes is exactly elegant. Allegra doesn't do elegant, or at least not in the classical sense. (No one who has seen her in her trademark tweed trilby would argue.) But most of the time that's not what we want from dinner. We just need sustenance, stuff that tastes great and makes us feel good about both ourselves, and the fields that supplied the ingredients that fed us. All of that is what McEvedy does best. Enjoy.

To read the rest of the story and get the first of her recipes link to the Guardian online.

Ingredients and Recipes, by Allegra McEvedy,

published by Conran Octopus on October 13, price £20

Call for submissions - stories for NZ children
Editor: Barbara Else Publisher: Random House NZ

A new anthology in the series that includes Weird and Wonderful, Claws and Jaws, Mischief and Mayhem, Hideous and Hilarious, Dare & Double-dare & Showtime!

Friends! (working title)
Stories for the 7 - 10 age group, from 400 to 1200 words.
(No poems, plays or non-fiction.)

The new anthology will focus on stories about friendship: old or new friends, best friends, worst friends, unusual or unexpected friends, animal, vegetable, or mineral friends ...
Whether the main characters are human, animal or imaginary, they’ll be involved in something that illustrates the significance of friendship to this age group.
I expect the final collection to include realistic tales but there are also exciting possibilities for fantasy stories and experimentation. I’ll be looking for humorous lively pieces as well as darker ones. I would like a mix of new and already published stories, but the bias will be towards new writing.

NB: Writers from all ethnic groups are encouraged to send in stories.

Submission requirements: (these are industry standards, and for very good reasons.)

· Hard copy only, one side of A4 paper, size 12 font (minimum), 1.5 or double-spaced, in a serif font (e.g. Times New Roman). No email submissions.
· Title page should include author’s name, postal address, email address, word count of the story, whether the story has been published before and where (name of the publication, date, etc).
· Number each page and include the author’s surname and a key word from the title in a header or footer.
· No staples: paper clips only.
· Brief cover letter with your writing history.
· Include a stamped self-addressed envelope for return of the story if it can’t be used in the collection or for contact by the editor once decisions have been made.
· Receipt of stories can be acknowledged only if there is an email address or a second stamped self-addressed envelope.
· Stories with no s.a.e. cannot be returned.
· If a story is accepted, I will ask the writer for a digital copy at that stage.

All stories to be sent to Barbara Else, PO Box 46-031 Park Avenue Lower Hutt 5044 by 31 January 2009. Authors will be contacted when decisions have been finalised which will probably not be before 31 March 2009.

(To see the kind of story that works for this series, please look at the previous anthologies.)

ENTER TO WIN

For writers and artists, ages 30 and under

Narrative Below 30-below-story-contest

First Prize is $1,500, Second Prize is $750, and Third Prize is $300.

Ten finalists will be named, and all entries will be considered for publication.

Open to writers, visual artists, photographers, performers, and filmmakers aged 18-30 years. We are interested in narrative in the many forms it takes: the word and the image, the traditional and the innovative, the true and the imaginary.

Entry deadline: October 27. No fee to enter.

Please Distribute to All Interested Writers and Artists

Link here for details, and/or to submit.

My thanks to Jules Older in california for bringing this to my notice.

THE BOOKMAN'S ABSENCE

Friday afternoon we headed off for the weekend, without laptop, to Waiheke Island which is 16 km north east of Auckland and is reached by a passenger ferry in 35 minutes or a vehicular ferry in an hour.

Here are some facts about the island from the October issue of CITYMIX magazine.

· Discovered and settled by Maori approx. 1000 years ago,

Waiheke translates into “cascading waters”.

· Of the Hauraki islands, it is the second largest (after Great Barrier Is),

the most populated and the most accessible by regular ferry and air services.

· Waiheke is the third most populated island in NZ after the North & South Islands.

· Waiheke Island has a permanent population of around 8000 residents.

· Around 1000 people commute daily to Auckland for work.

The island, although close to Auckland has a warmer, drier climate than the city and is especially suitable for growing Bordeaux variety grapes. There are a number of wineries on the island several making highly acclaimed wines. Among them are Goldwater, Cable Bay, Mudbrick, Stonyridge, Te Motu and Te Whau but there are many others also.

Waiheke Island is technically part of Auckland City but it is harder to imagine a place less Auckland. It was of course, back in the 70's, NZ's equivalent of Byron Bay, the hippie and dope-smoking capital of New Zealand. Today there are still a few aging hippies about, and still a disproportionate number of VW combies in varying stages of decay, but around the best sites, on the ridges high above the numerous bays, spectacular weekend homes have been built, largely but not only by rich Aucklaners, so gradually the nature of the island is changing,

One thing that remains largely unchanged though is the Ostend Market held every Saturday. This is a cross betwenn a craft market, a farmers market, and a giant school fair and there are loads of second hand book stalls.

At one of these I found, in very good condition, a hardback copy of PD.James' 1994 novel Original Sin, which surprisingly I had missed at the time of publication. At $5 I had to buy it especially as this murder mystery is set inside a long-established London publishing house.

Pic left shows The Bookman browsing at the book prior to purchase.

After we left the market we went to Oneroa which is the island's largest shopping centre. I guess there are 40 or so businesses there, mainly cafes, wine shops, gift and junk shops and shops selling surf gear. The bookshop that had been there for many years has gone but tucked away below the main street on the ocean side of the town I found a small, very interesting and unusual business called Tivoli. Outside on the sign it read Tivoli - Books/Exhibits/Internet so I was of course lured in.

There was a small, fascinating and eclectic selection of books comprising mainly graphic novels, books on politics (of every kind), old Penguins, contemporary fiction, new media, books on the gulf islands, art, and books from NZ private presses. Beyond that was a small exhibition space and I noticed works by Richard Killeen and James Ross, all most appealing.

In 2005 Penguin Books celebrated their 70th birthday at which time they published quite a number of special books to observe the occasion. I was pleased to find quite a number of these titles at Tivoli and in fact bought a copy of a title I had meant to buy back in 2005, Lady Chatterly's Trial.

In 1960, thirty tears after D.H.Lawrence's death Penguin published his previoulsy unpublished novel , Lady Chatterly's Lover, which lead to the famous trial where the Crown charged penguiin with publishing "an obscene article". This slight Pocket penguin from their 70 Years publishing programme provides abridged extracts from the trial which give a flavour of the proceedings rather than pursue all the complexities of the trial which of course eventually resulted in a not guilty verdict. For me, and I suspect for most readers, these extracts provide just the right amount of detail. I read and enjoyed it coming home on the ferry last evening.

Noelle McCarthy picks her top three NZ books for NZ Book Month

Noelle McCarthy is a broadcaster and writer who lives in Auckland. She began her radio career as news and editorial director at independent radio station 95bFM where she made a name for herself as an astute political interviewer in the lead up to the last election. She is a columnists at the New Zealand Herald, writing a weekly column for the Weekend paper. Her TV work this year included a regular commentary slot on TVNZ arts show Frontseat. In her spare time she enjoys reading ghost stories and listening to country and western music.
A native of Cork City, Ireland, she has made New Zealand her home and has no intention of leaving while life here remains so interesting.

Electric by Chad Taylor.
Chad Taylor's books were my introduction to the Auckland I can't help wishing I lived in. It's a secretive, shifty sort of city, not without glamour, but haunted in its own way by the lonely people who live there, and all of their risky gambles and regrets. "Electric" is inspired by a real life episode in the history of the city; the power cuts that put out the lights all over Auckland in the summer of 1998.
Taylor's writing has been touted as "hip" and "noir-ish" since it was first published, and I suppose that is true, but he that isn't the full secret of his appeal. Rather it is his skill as a compassionate,perceptive observer of broken people, and the lovely precision of his prose that makes this novel such a pleasure to read.

Holmes: The Autobiography by Paul Holmes.
I bought this in an op-shop for $2, hardback. I'd willingly have paid triple that for such a fascinating and frank insight into the singular life and mind of Mr Holmes. Paul Holmes is a broadcaster who is enraptured by language, intoxicated by the grandeur and flow of words.
Reading this book, like listening to him on the radio, leaves one with the sense of an untrammelled energy, a real thirst for knowledge, and above all, a great vigour and appetite for life. Who cares if the quasi-Proustian tone of sober rememberance sometimes drifts into the realms of self-parody? Paul had a front row seat for 4 decades of NZ history, which makes this a handy (if highly subjective) reference tool as well. I knew this book was special when I forced my friends to listen to me read the chapter about the infamous Denis Conner interview aloud in the middle of a party once. I may or may not have had a drink taken at the time.

The Scarecrow by R.H. Morrieson.
Justly celebrated for having one of the most arresting opening lines in NZ literature, this book is a dark delight. It scared the hell out of me when I read it last year, Morieson's evocation of evil is all the more affecting for its portrayal in the resolutely quotidian surrounds of small town New Zealand. The central theme of the vulnerability of innocence is explored through a simple story of a community invaded, and then defiled by a dangerous predator. The young people in this novel are captured pefectly as they drift on the boundaries of social and sexual maturity, their changing minds and bodies making them the focus of the worst kind of adult attention.The scene where Prudence is almost caught by Hubert Salter on her walk home is not one I re-read often late at night. The thought of that monster lying in wait for the beautiful, straight-talking Prudence is truly terrifying.
"Proo-oo-dence, Proo-oo-dence" Even typing it makes me shudder.

JK Rowling earns six times more than nearest rival
Alison Flood writing in guardian.co.uk,

The $300m JK Rowling pulled in over the last year will make sickening reading for the majority of authors who are struggling to earn a living.
Rowling made $571 a minute between June 1 2007 and June 1 2008, according to Forbes's ranking of the world's best paid authors, thanks to last July's publication of the final novel detailing the adventures of her boy wizard, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The book has sold around 44m copies since publication, including 15m in its first 24 hours on sale, said Forbes.

Labour party supporter Rowling made a whopping six times more than second best paid author James Patterson, whose not-so-paltry $50m was drummed up through a combination of thrillers, romance and children's books. Patterson is now publishing up to eight books a year thanks to an army of "writing partners", and is also developing a computer game of his Women's Murder Club series.

British thriller writer Ken Follett barrelled into the top 10 after his 1989 novel The Pillars of the Earth was picked for Oprah Winfrey's book club, which helped him to earnings of $20m over the year. Follett, whose latest novel World Without End is a sequel to The Pillars of the Earth, has recently signed a new three-book deal, which Forbes valued at $50m.

The top 10 shows the public's appetite for fictional thrills, with Patterson and Follett joined by Tom Clancy, Stephen King, John Grisham and the prolific Dean Koontz, who has authored "at least" 95 books, according to Forbes.

Grande dame of romantic fiction Danielle Steel comes in fifth place - Steel's 71st book, Amazing Grace, was published last October - while Stephanie Plum series author Janet Evanovich and romantic novelist Nicholas Sparks round out the chart with respective earnings of $17m and $16m.

Forbes's top 10 authors earned a combined $563m over the year to June 2008, which the magazine attributed to "hefty advances, impressive sales and silver screen adaptations".
A survey last year by an authors' organisation found that the average UK author earns £16,531 a year. The Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society's survey of 25,000 authors found that the top 10% of authors earn more than 50% of total income, and that 60% of professional writers need another job to survive.

Forbes' list of the best paid authors:

1 JK Rowling, $300m

2 James Patterson, $50m

3 Stephen King, $45m

4 Tom Clancy, $35m

5 Danielle Steel, $30m

6 (Tie) John Grisham, $25m 6 (Tie) Dean Koontz, $25m

8 Ken Follett, $20m

9 Janet Evanovich, $17m

10 Nicholas Sparks, $16m

The Ambition of the Short Story

By STEVEN MILLHAUSER writing in the New York Times
Published: October 3, 2008

The short story — how modest in bearing! How unassuming in manner! It sits there quietly, eyes lowered, almost as if trying not to be noticed. And if it should somehow attract your attention, it says quickly, in a brave little self-deprecating voice alive to all the possibilities of disappointment: “I’m not a novel, you know. Not even a short one. If that’s what you’re looking for, you don’t want me.” Rarely has one form so dominated another. And we understand, we nod our heads knowingly: here in America, size is power. The novel is the Wal-Mart, the Incredible Hulk, the jumbo jet of literature. The novel is insatiable — it wants to devour the world. What’s left for the poor short story to do? It can cultivate its garden, practice meditation, water the geraniums in the window box. It can take a course in creative nonfiction. It can do whatever it likes, so long as it doesn’t forget its place — so long as it keeps quiet and stays out of the way. “Hoo ha!” cries the novel. “Here ah come!” The short story is always ducking for cover. The novel buys up the land, cuts down the trees, puts up the condos. The short story scampers across a lawn, squeezes under a fence.
Read the rest of the essay here.

MY CUP RUNNETH OVER

Sitting on my desk are three most gorgeous books. They are superb examples of fine publishing with the highest design and production values having been applied.
They are exquisite coffee table books, but they are also three great reads.
The three titles are:

MY AMALFI COAST – Amanda Tabberer - $80 – Lantern

IN SEARCH OF PARADISE - Graeme Lay - $90 – Godwit

SAFFRON – Pete Gawron - $90 - Godwit

Let’s look at them individually:

MY AMALFI COAST
Lantern is a Penguin Books Australia imprint that specializes in beautiful books, usually, but not only on the subject of cooking, gardening or travel. They have had some huge best-selling titles in their short publishing history, (established 2004), including The Cook’s Companion by Stephanie Alexander, Maggie’s Harvest by Maggie Beer, Carla Coulson’s Italian Joy, and last year’s international blockbuster, My French Life by Vicky Archer.
Other chefs on their list include Tobie Puttock, Matt Moran, and Kylie Kwong.

Four years ago we spent a wonderful week on the Amalfi Coast but oh how I wished My Amalfi Coast had been available then.

The author lived on the Amalfi Coast with her Italian partner for 10 years. She now lives back home in Australia with her son Sergio but pays regular return visits and this sumptuous book is the result of her latest stay there. It is a huge, handsome hardback, with a compelling text, lavishly illustrated by hundreds of gorgeous photographs by Carla Coulson. Check out some of her stunning pics at the author’s website – www.amandatabberer.com/
I want to go back to Amalfi!

IN SEARCH OF PARADISE
Artists & Writers in the Colonial South Pacific

Another absolute gem, this time home-grown from Random House New Zealand’s fabled Godwit imprint.
There is no question that Random House now set the pace on the local publishing scene. In terms of quality, quantity and variety they are streets ahead of anyone else. The enormous care they have lavished on every aspect of this book is testament to their design and production values.
And the publishers note that this title was produced for them by Linda Cassells of Calico Publishing with whom they have enjoyed a strong partnership.

In his new book Graeme Lay uses his own huge travel and writing experience of the South Pacific to bring us an engaging literary and visual feast.
He presents the lives of twenty-three of the finest artists and writers to have been inspired by the South Pacific, and a rich selection of their works. They include:
* The candid chronicles of Joseph Banks
* Louis-Antoine de Bougainville’s discovery of Tahitian free love
* Herman Melville’s very first fiction
* Robert Louis Stevenson’s life and death in Samoa
* The radiant paintings of Paul Gauguin
* Gottfried Lindauer’s depiction of a presumed-dying Maori race
* The love affair of Rupert Brooke’s life
* The inspiration for Somerset Maugham’s best-known short story

Handsomely packaged (great understatement) in large-format hardback, In Search of Paradise is divided into three sections. The first is Chroniclers, early explorers including de Bougainville, James Cook, Joseph Banks and Charles Darwin. The second, Artists, ranges from Sydney Parkinson, botanical artist on the first Cook voyage to Paul Gauguin. The personalities in the third, Writers, are an eclectic collection – from Robert Louis Stephenson to Herman Melville, Rupert Brooke and Somerset Maugham.

Graeme Lay is exceptionally well qualified to write this history. He first visited the Pacific Islands in the 1980s, and since then has travelled to, and written about, many of the islands of French Polynesia, Tonga, Samoa, the Cook Islands, Fiji and Vanuatu. Inspired by the physical and cultural richness of these islands, as were the artists and writers he features in In Search of Paradise, Graeme has published several works of fiction and non-fiction which are set in the tropical South Pacific.
These books include his three collections of travel stories, Passages, The Miss Tutti Frutti Contest and Inside the Cannibal Pot, the young adult novel trilogy Leaving One Foot Island, Return to One Foot Island and The Pearl of One Foot Island, the adult novel Temptation Island and a non-fiction work, The Cook Islands. Two of his short story collections, Motu Tapu and The Town on the Edge of the World, also include several stories set in the South Pacific islands.

SAFFRON
Food from the Central Otago heartland

Straight off I am going to say that this magnificent book is my pick to win the BPANZ Design Awards next year, along with the Lifestyle & Culture category of the Montana NZ Book Awards. It is many a day since I have held such an utterly beautiful piece of publishing as this. It would stand out in any international competition.
And I can tell you this too that I am sorely tempted to jump on the first plane to Queenstown in order to go and eat at Arrowtown’s famed SAFFRON restaurant, to drink fine Pinot Noir, and to feel again the magic of Central Otago. Such is the power and allure of the place as presented in this simply sumptuous book.
There are several stars here – first off chef Pete Gawron and his wife Mel, who first came to the area in the early 1990’s and subsequently set up their superb, now much acclaimed restaurant; then there is Aaron McLean, master photographer, whose gorgeous photographs are a real feature; Grahame Sydney for a number of photographs, and his essay, and also the rich endpapers; Sam Neill for his essay; and finally publisher Nicola Legat and her team at Random House NZ. Together you have combined to produce a truly fine book of which you should all feel enormously proud.

Sumptuously illustrated with both marvelous photographs of classic Central scenes and outstanding food photography by Aaron McLean, and featuring a section on the history of Arrowtown, this is not just a book for cooks. It goes much further as it celebrates the food, wine, producers, seasons, landscape and spirit which make this region so very special.

The book is for anyone who wants to have a little bit of Central at home with them – whether they live in Queenstown, Wellington, Gisborne, Napier, Auckland, Melbourne, Sydney, Paris, London, Toronto, New York or anywhere else.

Two outstanding guest essays round out the gorgeous package. Sam Neill writes of the establishment of Central’s flourishing and internationally acclaimed wine industry and, in addition to a selection of beautiful photographs, Grahame Sydney warmly reminisces about family holidays in Arrowtown as a young boy.
My fantasy now is to meet up with these guys at Saffron and talk about this book and about life in their beloved Central.

Saffron: Food from the Central Otago heartland is a marvelous evocation of this most special part of New Zealand. It is both a tribute to a great restaurant and perhaps New Zealand’s first true regional cookbook, the most mouth-watering book you are likely to view this year.
A selection of pics follows to further whet your appetite including Pete with a goose, a couple of the dishes for which Saffron is noted, and a Central winter scene.

FOOTNOTE
For my New Zealand readers, Pete Gawron is on with Kim Hill on Radio NZ National tomorrow (Saturday) morning at 11.05am.

HERBERT - The Brave Sea Dog
Robyn Belton – Craig Potton Publishing - $29.99

Dunedin-based Robyn Belton has previously won the Russell Clark Award, NZ Post Children’s Book of the Year, Art Council Toi Aotearoa Award and the Margaret Mahy Award for her children’s books and you can safely put your bottom dollar on her new book picking up a slew of further awards next year.

Belton is one of our finest children’s book illustrators, I put her up there with Gavin Bishop, Elizabeth Fuller, Chris Gaskin and Martin Baynton.
In her new book, a true, heartwarming story, she is at the very top of her game with her quite exquisite art beautifully complementing her text.

Herbert was a small dog who lived on the coast in Nelson. Everybody loved him, but the person who loved him the most was his owner, Tim. One fine day an excited Herbert set off on a boat with Tim’s father, heading for the Marlborough Sounds. However what no one knew was that the weather would soon turn rough and Herbert would be thrown into the biggest adventure of his life.
This is the first children’s book to come from Craig Potton Publishing and my what a start it represents. A beautifully bound hardback picture book with wonderful endpapers enclosing a very special story.

Congratulations to the author/illustrator and her publisher. HERBERT is my pick for picture book of the year in the NZ Post Book Awards next year..

Map, left, is part of the front endpapers.

Photo left by Colin Smith for the Nelson Mail shows the author with Roger Sonneland and Tim Snadden who both feature in the book.

Postscript - As at 10 December '08 HERBERT has sold over 7000 copies and the publishers have just ordered a second reprint. The Bookman is not at all surprised.

FAMOUS BOOKSTORE CHANGES HANDS

Wellesley couple buy Harvard Book Store
By David Mehegan
Globe Staff / October 2, 2008

Harvard Book Store, which had been for sale since last spring, was sold yesterday to a married couple from Wellesley who say they intend to change very little about the place.

Frank Kramer, whose family owned the store for 76 years, sold the Harvard Square landmark to Jeff Mayersohn and Linda Seamonson. The price was not disclosed. Kramer, 66, put the store up for sale last May, saying that after 46 years in the business he wanted to move on to other things and put more effort into Cambridge Local First, an initiative he founded to encourage support for local stores.

Kramer called Mayersohn and Seamonson "the perfect buyers" for the popular local institution. "Jeff loves books, he's studied the business, and knows the store well," Kramer said, adding that he will act as a consultant to the new owners for a while.

Mayersohn, 57, who will take the title of president, said the staff will remain in place, including general manager Carole Horne, who joined the store in 1974. Seamonson will be involved in the store, but Mayersohn said details haven't been worked out. "The store has been my dream," he said, "but she is very excited, too."

Full story in the Boston Globe.

Novitz Wins Top Writing Prize

Julian Novitz has confirmed his place as one of the nation’s most talented emerging writers by winning the country’s top short fiction award.
The Christchurch-born and raised writer took the BNZ Katherine Mansfield premier prize of $10,000 for his story, Three Couples, at an awards ceremony held in Te Papa, Wellington tonight.
He joins New Zealand literary heavyweights CK Stead, Frank Sargeson, Vincent O’Sullivan and Keri Hulme and more recently, such critically acclaimed writers as Charlotte Grimshaw and Carl Nixon on the list of award winners.

Wellington creative writing student, Joseph Ryan (pic left) won the novice category for his story Stranger Than Beautiful.

Clare Tanton, a year 13 student at Taikura Rudolf Steiner School in Hastings, won the young writer’s prize for her story, The Hole in the Fence ahead of more than 360 entries from secondary school students around the country.

BNZ General Manager People and Corporate Relations, Bridget O’Shannessey says each of the winners demonstrate the qualities the Awards aspire to foster.
‘All three winners are committed to the discipline of creative writing and have worked hard on their stories to take first prize. It’s a huge pleasure to see writers of this calibre coming through the ranks and I warmly congratulate them.’

Peter Wells, this year’s BNZ Katherine Mansfield Writers’ Awards premier category judge says Julian Novitz’s winning story showed a high degree of observational humour.
‘It cleverly uses black humour with an underlay of sadness or irony. Three Couples has the qualities of an excellent short story - self contained, yet showing all the world 'in a grain of sand'.

Julian Novitz says previous BNZ Katherine Mansfield Award winners are among his favourite writers and considers it a huge honour to be considered alongside them.
‘I am incredibly excited and pleased to have won the award, finally, after having entered every time for the past eight years.’
Julian Novitz proved he was a writer to watch when he won the Hubert Church Award for best first book of fiction for My Real Life and Other Stories in 2005. His novel, Holocaust Tours was published the following year. He is a graduate of the Victoria University of Wellington's creative writing programme and is now in the final stages of completing a PhD in literary studies and creative writing at the University of Melbourne. He is currently working on his second novel.

The Award’s novice category judge, Elspeth Sandys says Joseph Ryan’s story, Stranger Than Beautiful is touching and beautifully crafted.
‘Stranger Than Beautiful skirts territory which, in less capable hands, could have resulted in prurience or sentimentality, the author’s grip on his highly sensitive material never falters.’
Joseph Ryan wins $1,500.

Young Writers’ category judge, Bernard Beckett says Clare Tanton’s story is a sharp piece of writing that rewards a second and third visit.
‘The Hole in the Fence stood out as much for the things it didn’t do as those it did. The control of this writer is impressive; the key details of the story are let out at just the right moment, being neither too heavily signposted nor dwelt upon.
‘This story focuses on doing what it should: letting the narrative gently unfold in a manner that is charming and intriguing.’

The win took Ms Tanton entirely by surprise.
‘I couldn’t believe I’d won. I was stunned. This is the first time I’ve entered any of my stories in a competition. It really gives me confidence to carry on trying.’
She wins $1,500 as does her school.

BNZ has sponsored the awards - which aim to foster the country’s literature - for almost five decades. They are New Zealand’s longest-running short story awards, established in 1959. Plans are underway to celebrate the Awards’ 50th anniversary in 2009.
Katherine Mansfield’s father, Sir Harold Beauchamp, was a director of Bank of New Zealand, a position he held for 38 years. He was also the chairman of the board for 17 years.

Spectator to launch Australian edition
Ben Dowell writing in the guardian.co.uk,
Wednesday October 01 2008

The Spectator is launching a special Australian edition to be commissioned in London by Oscar Humphries, the son of Dame Edna Everage creator Barry Humphries.From October 4, the magazine will be printed in Sydney and will contain 12 new pages dedicated to Australian current affairs, politics and culture.

The launch issue will see contributions from the former opinion editor of The Australian newspaper, Tom Switzer, a diary by Oscar-winning film director Bruce Beresford and a pieces from lawyer and film producer Charles Waterstreet.
The additional Australian pages will only be available in Australia and New Zealand, where the Spectator already sells an estimated 4,000 copies each week.

The full story at the Guardian online.

The Trustees of the Randell Cottage Writers Trust

Invite you to visit the Randell Cottage

Open Day

Sunday 12 October, 11am – 4pm
14 St Mary’s Street, Thorndon

Take the opportunity to wander through a part of Wellington’s history and one of the city’s
oldest restored cottages.

‘I spy with my London Eye’

Booktrust announces the launch of Children’s Book Week, to take place at the London Eye and to be hosted by Michael Rosen, Children’s Laureate.

Children’s Book Week is taking place from 6-10th October with events across the country. This year’s theme is Rhythm and Rhyme. On Monday 6th October a launch event will take place at the London Eye and the Southbank Centre.

250 local children have been invited to take a flight on the London Eye with Michael Rosen. They will be provided with writing materials when boarding the capsules. Michael will join the children for a flight in the London Eye and then to the Queen Elizabeth Hall at the Southbank Centre where he will lead the children in writing a group poem about the London Eye.

Children’s Book Week is a celebration of reading for pleasure for children of primary school age. Children’s Book Week is in its 77th year and is always held in the first full week of October. Free teachers’ packs, including Booktrust’s Best Books guides, arrived in all state primary schools, public libraries, special schools and initial teacher training institutions in England on the 16th June 2008.

National Bookstart Day takes place on the last day of Children’s Book Week, which is Friday 10th October this year. It is a celebration of the Bookstart programme which gives three packs of free books to every child in the UK, to encourage parents and carers to share books with their children from a very young age.

Michael Rosen, Children’s Laureate:

“Children's Book Week is a great opportunity for everyone who cares about children’s books to fire up children to read and talk about books. Schools can make a special place in the curriculum to discover how books can give pleasure, enlightenment and pause for thought. Libraries can focus on how best to get children through their doors to enjoy the treasure houses nearby.

This year’s launch will see us sailing up in the air on the London Eye to be inspired by the magnificent sight of our great city and to write a special Children’s Book Week poem for London. I know that seeing London laid out in front of us will spark off thoughts and memories for a poem that can be sent back into the air over the city.”

In praise of ... Gibson Square

Editorial The Guardian,
Thursday October 2 2008

Last weekend's firebomb attack on the house of an independent publisher which is about to publish a novel about the relationship between the prophet Muhammad and his first wife Aisha has rightly been condemned by leading British writers. The book, The Jewel of Medina, came to Gibson Square only after it was dropped by Random House. This mainstream publisher had sent the novel to academics for approval, and one of them, Denise Spellberg, accused the author Sherry Jones of turning a sacred history into soft-core pornography.

Whether a historian should be the person to judge the literary merits of a work of fiction is an issue in itself. Shakespeare would have suffered horribly had his work been judged by historians. But Spellberg's judgment and Random House's statement that the novel "could incite acts of violence by a small radical segment" of the Muslim community became self-fulfilling prophecies.

Before anyone had a chance to make up their own mind about how the author treated one of the greatest women in Islam, the subject had effectively been declared off-limits by Random House.

Luckily, there are publishers who are not cowed by pre-emptive censorship.
Martin Rynja, who runs Gibson Square, showed similar bravery by publishing Craig Unger's House of Bush, House of Saud, and Alexander Litvinenko's Blowing Up Russia. He may, in the minds of some readers, be damned for publishing Jones's novel, but never before has that injunction "publish and be damned" held truer.

Well put the Guardian. Thank you for defending free speech, long may you prosper.

The perfect book review: a ban

by Guardian blogger Nicholas Lezard Thursday October 2 2008

There's nothing like a ban to give a book a good reputation. The struggle between free thought and government is an endless one, but when someone bans a book, the book has won. Who did not yearn to read Lady Chatterley's Lover in order to see what the fuss was about? Who, now, knowing what the fuss is about, reads the book unless they are studying DH Lawrence? Solzhenitsyn, on being banned in the Soviet Union, achieved an almost unimaginable moral stature - certainly inconceivable in today's Russia.

My favourite book – I'm afraid it sounds both corny and pretentious to say this, but it has to be said – is Ulysses. It's my favourite book not because it was banned but because it's got everything in it. And that, I suppose, is why it was banned. Objections centred on its earthy elelements: Bloom has a poo. He masturbates at the sight of a young girl looking at fireworks. His wife reminisces lubriciously. But plenty of other things happen, too.

Read Lezard's full piece here.

Taim Bilong Melanesia Exhibition on now – in Wellington
This is a rare exhibition of some 60 Melanesian contemporary visual art works from Papua New Guinea, Fiji, New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands that was part of the recent Tok Talanoa Symposium held in Wellington.
While the symposium got over 150 people talking about improving connections between NZ and these other Pacific neighbours, it is the art that provides an enduring link for those who are interested in cutting edge works that are new to this part of the world.

Described by former Wellington lawyer Fuimaono - a collector of Pacific art for 20 years - ‘as rich, immersed in the land, with a totally different way of thinking…and frightening until you learn what the art is about’….
Ted Dowling, Art Critic introduced the work as the opening as ‘being beyond categorization and of very high quality – and well priced.’
This first ever exhibition in New Zealand of Melanesian contemporary art is sponsored by the Papua New Guinea High Commission and the Pacific Cooperation Foundation. All the works are for sale.
You are invited you to come and see for yourself. @ Websters Gallery, 3 Cruikshank St Kilbirnie, Wellington. NZ until 11 October.

Artists
Works from leading Papua New Guinean artists: Daniel Waswas,(work featured above), Larry Santana, Moses Minipa and others
Emerging Solomon’s based visual artists including Brian Afia and Auckland based Ellie Fa’amauri MVA AUT University Auckland
Fijian artists: Jeke Lagi , Mason Lee and others
New Caledonian artist Yvette Bouquet.

Further information on Taim Bilong Melanesia Exhibition
please contact;
Sue Smales – Websters Gallery 04 939 7679 or 027 726 8182
Or Marilyn Kohlhase DD 09 638 5502 or 027 2854350 Gallery 09 3799 051

University of Auckland students publish annual short story collection

A new collection of short stories by University of Auckland Fiction Writing students explores the myriad myths and realities, pains and rewards, fears and desires of life in contemporary New Zealand.

Spectrum 5 is the fifth edition of an anthology that showcases the talent of the University's burgeoning fiction writers. The first collection, published in 2004, was the brainchild of acclaimed writer and Department of English Professor Witi Ihimaera, who regularly heads up the 3rd-year Fiction Writing paper.

Associate Professor of English Lisa Samuels calls Spectrum 5 "a stellar anthology bristling with life".

Emily Perkins, an internationally respected novelist and Senior Tutor in the Department of English, concurs. She guided the Fiction Writing class in their work on Spectrum 5, overseeing the 12-student committee that spent hours vetting and editing submissions. Emily notes that the collection features stories that range from terrorism, snakes and suburbia to time travellers, arsonists and families.

"Spectrum 5 gives us a wonderful range, from inventive comedy to stories full of fear and longing. Teaching these students was stimulating and fun - they responded to the form with great enthusiasm and curiosity, and I think you can see that delight reflected in the collection. From a really strong year, the stories in this book are the cream of the crop," she says.

Karishma Kripalani, a Fiction Writing graduate and a key member of the publishing committee, says producing the anthology has offered valuable insights into the publishing industry as a whole.
"From writing and editing the stories to learning about publishing and marketing the book, the University's Fiction Writing class is an important step for anyone interested in the writing process, from first drafts to publication and distribution," she says.

Spectrum 5 comprises the short stories of 23 Fiction Writing graduates from The University of Auckland. The anthology project is managed by Penguin and is available at the University Book Shop or online at www.fishpond.co.nz. The Recommended Retail Price is $20.00.

Spectrum 5 will be launched at a special ceremony on 15 October in the Common Room, level 4, Arts 1 (10 Symonds St).

The anthology will also be celebrated fro 5:30pm-7:00pm on October 29 at Lounge 5, the English Department's Creative Reading Series, held in Old Government House (City Campus, The University of Auckland).

The Bookkeeper Bungle: Indie Publisher Recalls Errant Rejection Letters

Oh dear........ this story from Poets & Writers.

Feeling snubbed by Academy Chicago, the thirty-three-year-old independent press praised by many writers as author-friendly? Check your rejection letter—you may have received it in error.

Jordan Miller, who along with his wife, Anita, founded the press in Chicago in 1975, says their bookkeeper—who according to Jordan is always very helpful, perhaps too helpful in this instance—rejected an unknown number of submissions without the editors' knowledge during the past three months. After Jordan and Anita noticed that their "big pile of submissions" wasn't getting any bigger—despite the fact that they were receiving a slew of manuscripts from interested authors—they grew suspicious.
Then, after an envelope addressed to fiction writer Tony Ardizzone, whose work had been submitted but not read by either Jordan or Anita, was discovered in the press's outgoing mailbox, they made a startling discovery: The bookkeeper, whom Jordan says is not trained to judge the merits of manuscripts, had been rejecting submissions. "She admitted to about ten," he says. "I assume close to thirty were sent but I have absolutely no way of knowing for sure."

Jordan says Anita typically sends hand-written letters to authors whose work seems promising but is not quite right for the press. "We're always getting thank-you letters in return," he says. The press also has a form rejection letter that includes blanks for a salutation and the name of the manuscript—blanks that are typically filled in by hand by one of the editors. The bookkeeper, however, did not fill out the blanks. "Talk about a cold rejection letter," Jordan says. "We were horrified."
To read the rest link here.

BOOKS FOR A NATION
The Whitcoulls Story
Whitcoulls - $29.99

This book has been published to commemorate the 125 year Whitcoulls story. Written by Noel Waite of Dunedin, it gives an account of the company’s beginnings as Whitcombe & Tombs through various recent changes of ownership to the Whitcoulls we know today.

While I found the story most interesting it must be said that the book is only 128 pages long with about half the space taken up with illustrations so those seeking a detailed history of the company will not find it here. Nevertheless it is a volume that many who have worked in the book trade, in both bookselling and publishing, will want to read and have on their shelves as the text is informative and the illustrations superb.

However if you compare it to the excellent history of Reed Publishing, Whare Raupo – The Reed Books Story, by Gavin McLean published last year then you realize how slightly the history of Whitcoulls has been dealt with.
Perhaps the history of Whitcoulls would make a good PhD subject? Certainly Books for a Nation would be a great starting point for any such student.

It is interesting to note that Whitcombe & Tombs prospered over two generations, surviving two World Wars and the Great Depression before merging with Coulls Somerville Wilkie in 1973 to become the brand we know today.
In recent years the company has had several owners including Graeme Hart, Eric Watson and W.H.Smith & Co.
In 2004 Pacific Equity Partners became the 6th owners in 20 years. That purchase combined the two largest book retailers on each side of the Tasman to become the A&R Whitcoulls Group.
Earlier this year the Australasian chain of Borders was acquired and sadly, with recent New Zealand-based senior staff “losses” the senior management of the company is now totally concentrated in Australia.
Ownership and management of yet another famous New Zealand brand crosses the Tasman.



Sale at Dunedin store, 1935










The original Cashel Street store

Nobel judge attacks 'ignorant' US literature
Alison Flood writing in guardian.co.uk,
Wednesday October 01 2008

The Nobel prospects of Philip Roth and Joyce Carol Oates may have been dashed after the prize's top jury member described American writing as insular and ignorant.

Permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy Horace Engdahl told the Associated Press that US writers were "too sensitive to trends in their own mass culture", which he said dragged down the quality of their work. "The US is too isolated, too insular. They don't translate enough and don't really participate in the big dialogue of literature," Engdahl said. "That ignorance is restraining."
"Of course there is powerful literature in all big cultures, but you can't get away from the fact that Europe still is the centre of the literary world ... not the United States," he said, later adding that "what I said expresses a conviction resulting from more than 10 years of assiduous labour". Toni Morrison was the last American to win the prize, in 1993.

Read the rest at the Guardian online.

AUTHORS WRITE TO THE EDITOR OF THE NZ HERALD - PUBLISHED 1 OCTOBER

Dear Sir,

We were alarmed to read Dr Donald Kerr's letter in Saturday's Herald regarding the restructuring of staff at the Auckland Public Library.

How on earth could an institution publish a book like Iain Sharp's magnificent REAL GOLD;TREASURES OF THE AUCKLAND CITY LIBRARIES, then a year later start 'restructuring'--pulling the plug on--its heart, mind and soul.Qualified, specialist staff are an essential component of a library blessed with such research facilities and special collections.

They help writers, students, researchers and the general public find materials--they explain and elucidate; they nurture as well as enable scholarship. They are as much a part of the library as the books are.Specialist librarians cannot be replaced by mere bouncers at the door 'guarding the treasures'.

Unless an institution like the Auckland Public Library is seen as culturally responsible, scrupulous, conscientious and scholarly in the attention that it pays the treasures in its collection then what chance does it have of gaining bequests and gifts? When Victoria University secretly sold off Colin McCahon's painting STORM WARNING in 1999 they betrayed the trust not only of their benefactors but also of everyone in the institution.

It is doubtful they will ever completely regain that faith.New Zealand's largest city should not let its collection or the management of that collection fall beneath the standards set by the Hocken Library in Dunedin or the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington. The Auckland Public Library has that degree of respect presently--it should not place it in jeopardy.

Yours faithfully,

Gregory O'Brien and Jenny Bornholdt

London Review Bookshop Limited Editions

From A to X by John Berger

A special signed limited First Edition of From A to X, comprising 60 copies housed in a slip-case, of which fifty have been quarter-bound in Colorado tissue-lined cloth (Mackenzie) numbered 1 to 50, and ten quarter-bound in Harmatan natural grain fine leather (Blue 11) numbered i to x.

The patterned boards are from a design by Enid Marx (Judd Street Gallery 1995) and all copies have blue and white tail bands. All copies contain a suite of four images by Yves Berger, digitally reproduced in a limited edition from the original pen and ink drawings.

Copies i to x contain an extra image.

The books have been bound and slip-cased by the Fine Book Bindery, Wellingborough, Northants.

All orders must be sent either in writing to Andrew Stilwell at the bookshop or by email to astilwell@lrbshop.co.uk.

Quarter cloth edition £90 Quarter leather edition £150

Books will be sent by Special Delivery in the UK (please add £6.05 per book), and by International Signed For to Europe (add £8.70 per book) and the Rest of the World (add £13.50 per book).

Above item from Ibookcollector # 131
To Contact Ibookcollector

Ibookcollector © is published by Rivendale Press Ltd.

The Department of History presents
2008 Keith Sinclair Lecture

Professor Bruce Scates (left)
Chair of History and Australian Studies at Monash University

Gallipoli and Beyond: Returning to the Battlefields of the Great War

Every year, thousands of Australians and New Zealanders make their way to Gallipoli and walk the battlefields of the Great War. What draws them to Anzac? And do they walk in the footsteps of earlier generations of pilgrims, those who made their journey to the killing fields to lay to rest the bodies of their loved ones? This paper will explore the changing and contested memory of the Great War across four generations of Gallipoli travellers. Based on a rich historical record and powerful oral testimony it will explore the many meanings of Anzac pilgrimage.

Professor Bruce Scates is the Director of the National Centre for Australian Studies at Monash University. A former lecturer at The University of Auckland, he has published widely in the field of trans-Tasman history and his latest work, Return to Gallipoli: Walking the Battlefields of the Great War (Cambridge
2006) pioneers new fields in the history of memory and emotion.

Thursday 16 October, 6.30pm
Business School Theatre OGGB4,
The University of Auckland, Auckland, NZ
Followed by refreshments



Sir Keith Sinclair KBE (December 5, 1922—June 20, 1993, whom this lecture honours, was both a poet and noted New Zealand historian. He was knighted for services to history in 1987.

His best-selling A History of New Zealand went through many editions and for many years was the only one volume history of New Zealand available.
I knew Keith Sinclair during my Penguin Books days, he was a charming and erudite man and always great fun to be with.

FISH OF THE WEEK – Selected Columns
Steve Braunias – Awa Press - $24.95

Awa Press, bless ‘em, has collected together more than 80 of funny man Steve Braunias’ columns from The Sunday Star Times.
Although I read them all at the time of their first publication, over my first Sunday morning coffee , reading them again has been great fun, almost like reading them for the first time.
If you are ever feeling a bit blue about anything then pick up this book and read one of these delicious essays. The sun will soon shine again.
They are all three pages long, and every one a gem. Brilliant cover too.
Braunias has drawn large crowds at a number of writers’ festivals this year, read this book and you’ll understand why .

POPULAR POTATOES
100 Easy & Delicious recipes
Simon & Alison Holst
Hyndman Publishing $24.99

Who would have thought that even the humble spud would have a year of its own? Yes, 2008 is the year of the potato.

Formidable mother & son cooking/writing duo Alison & Simon Holst have done it again and come up with another winning idea for a cookbook. This must be at least a dozen they have now collaborated on (?), and then there are all their solo titles as well. Amazing really and I take my hat off to them.

I recall during my Napier bookselling days, way back in the mid- ‘70’s Alison coming up from Wellington to our shop to promote whatever her latest title was at the time. She was a TV chef back in those days and what a draw card she proved to be; Beattie & Forbes Bookshop was bulging at the seams as she cooked in an electric frypan, (the latest electrical gadget at the time), on a table that had been cleared of books. Her artist sister Clare Ferguson illustrated that particular title, (wish I could remember the name). Clare later moved to the UK and became very famous in her own right as a food designer for books, magazines and television, as well as cookery author and magazine food columnist.
I’m straying off the subject. Back to those spuds!

This new Holst title is as you would expect – well designed, easy-to-follow recipes, beautiful photographs of many of the dishes.
And my two attempts from the book have both been successful! Hot-smoked Salmon with Potato salad, and from the four potato curry recipes I chose the Thai Green Chicken & Potato Curry.
Both very simple to prepare and both went down a treat.
My thanks to the Holsts, and their publisher, for another excellent, practical addition to the kitchen bookshelf.

I should just add that included in the book are excellent illustrations of the various types of potato, and their particular uses, as well as three very useful pages on how to cook potatoes – oven baked, micowaved mashed or baked, slow-cooked, roasted etc.
This book is an excellent one to give young people as they leave the nest.
Long live the spud!

Getting remaindered is not the end of the line
Seeing your book flagged up among the bin-ends can't be much fun, but bleaker things can happen

Going down in the world .. remaindered books. Photograph: Felix Clay

Clive James' poetry has just been published in the US for the first time and this weekend the New York Times was paying particular attention to his piece of literary schadenfreude The Book of My Enemy Has Been Remaindered. The first stanza was reproduced in full:

"The book of my enemy has been remaindered

And I am pleased.

In vast quantities it has been remaindered.

Like a van-load of counterfeit that has been seized

And sits in piles in a police warehouse,

My enemy's much-praised effort sits in piles

In the kind of bookshop where remaindering occurs.

Great, square stacks of rejected books and, between them, aisles

One passes down reflecting on life's vanities,

Pausing to remember all those thoughtful reviews

Lavished to no avail upon one's enemy's book —For behold, here is that book

Among these ranks and banks of duds,

These ponderous and seemingly irreducible cairns

Of complete stiffs."

James might have missed out on the A$100,000 winning the Australian prime minister's literary award would have brought him, but this poem surely deserves a bitchiness prize.

But remaindering - when publishers sell books at massively reduced prices to bargain shops who then offer them at knockdown discounts - happens to most authors at one point or another, whether they are the duds of James's poem or not.

Read the full story on remaindering from The Guardian blog.

Death match: Sony Reader PRS-505 VS Iliad Book Edition
The complete works of Shakespeare in the palm of your hand

The intellectual debate has been raging for quite some time now, with musty, libraryloving traditionalists sharpening their poisoned pencils to attack the new breed of ebooks. Now as easy to read as the printed page and capable of holding vast swathes of scribblings, ebooks are offering a new level of convenience and portability to book lovers.

We freely admit that passing on a media file doesn't quite hold the same romanticism as exchanging a battered, much-loved paperback, but we'd like to see you try and fit 160 paperbacks in your back pocket.

For the review/result go to T3 The Gadget Website.

David Beckham is to launch a series of children's books with plots set in his football academies.
By Jessica Salter writing in the Telegraph

David Beckham with children training at the David Beckham Academy at Greenwich Peninsula Photo: MIKE KING

The stories, aimed at seven year olds, will be about what a group of young footballers get up to on the pitch and after training.
The books will also have tips, a pull-out tactics board and statistics on the game.
The first book in the series, which has not yet been given a title, is due to be released in June 2009 but publishers say the books will not be written by Beckham.
A spokesman for David Beckham said: “The David Beckham Academy is more than just David’s dream of giving children the chance to experience great football coaching, it exists to encourage all aspects of their learning and development.

Complete story at the Telegraph online.