OP’d RUM FTW
Blogged with the Flock Browser
Blogged with the Flock Browser
6 October, 2008
6 September, 2008
5 September, 2008
31 August, 2008
30 August, 2008
26 August, 2008
Amazon to aquire more innovative competitors.
Amazon.com is buying Shelfari, the social-networking site for book lovers announced in a blog post to its users Monday night. Terms of the deal were not immediately announced.
The online e-tailer, which already owns a portion of Seattle-based Shelfari, helped fund the social-networking site in 2007, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Shelfari allows users to create virtual bookshelves and share title lists among friends.The deal comes about three weeks after Amazon announced it would acquire AbeBooks.com, which specializes in out-of-print book sales. AbeBooks.com holds an equity stake in Shelfari’s main rival, LibraryThing, the newspaper pointed out.LibraryThing founder Tim Spalding has accused Shelfari of planting positive comments about the service on blogs and engaging in unethical spamming, for which Shelfari later apologized, the paper reported.Spalding said he came up with more than 50 examples, writing in a blog post that “it’s icky to…go on and on about how much you ‘love’ Shelfari without mentioning you’re paid by them,” according to the paper.It’s unclear what Amazon plans to do with the equity stake.
Amazon to acquire book networking site Blatantly copied from News - Digital Media - CNET News
Blogged with the Flock Browser
22 August, 2008
Library Diaries
An American librarian has been fired for writing a novel about the ‘interesting’ people who use libraries. Writing under the pseudonym ‘Ann Miketa’ the librarian published ‘The library diaries’. She had been working at her library for 15 years, and is appealing the decision.
The authority seems to be concerned that patrons of the fictional library are portrayed as unpleasant, rude and unattractive. Supporters of the librarian are concerned with freedom of speech.
RAG events
Two Roman Archaeology Group (RAG) events coming up:
Saturday 23rd August @ UWA - Food and Diet in the Roman World with free tastings
Thursday 4th September@ UWA - ‘Satyrs and Centaurs’ by a visiting academic (not sure about the content of the lecture yet- Greek myth or art perhaps?)
See me for more details.
Book of the Week - Thorina Rose
Every week I get to process a few box-loads of brand new books. And every week I’m going to tell you about the prettiest, most interesting or dumbest one. My pick of the new exchange. This week the chosen tome is ‘The heartbreak diet’ by Thorina Rose.
This charmingly illustrated memoir could be better described as a graphic novel, as the pictures predominate with few words. This book details the author’s marriage breakdown as a result of her husband’s infidelity. It is easy to empathise with the author as she describes this painful, sad and deeply emotional situation. Even though the events are personal and heart-wrenching, the author is able to treat the subject with enough distance to incorporate it with humour at appropriate points in the book, lending the pages much of their charm. Most enjoyable are the different comments of her friends in their ‘CHORUS’. The brief text make it a quick read and it can be easily consumed in under an hour. A beautiful and touching read, with a hopeful conclusion.