Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out.

�� Arthur C. Clarke, "The Nine Billion Names of God" ��






My chapbook, The Language of Exile, is available from Main Street Rag. I like to trade chapbooks. I want yours. I want it now ....

ME ME ME
who the heck
write me now, ok

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2010-08-19, 1:51 p.m.:
Shouldn't Martini Appreciation Month be coming up sometime soon? I suppose my birthday will have to do!

"I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day."
--Dean Martin

Alkohol ist dein Sanitäter in der Not
Alkohol ist dein Fallschirm und dein Rettungsboot
Alkohol ist das Drahtseil, auf dem du stehst
Alkohol, Alkohol ...
--Herbert Grünemeyer

0 comments

2010-08-18, 1:56 p.m.:
"CLEARANCE SALE: Barnes & Noble Didn't Evolve Enough" (Wall Street Journal)

"... the old-fashioned world of physical books and stores"
...

"I can't say I miss physical books."

KILL ME NOW. As Barnes & Noble is put on the market so as to avoid going belly-up, I find it ironic that I'm now mourning what was once hailed as the "end of the book as we know it" and all that.

Now, in the light of the Internet, mass electronica and a population fast approaching illiteracy, the formerly menacing corporate behemoth - once scourge of independent booksellers nationwide - represents that "old-fashioned" world so beloved of people like me.

As a die-hard Amazon customer, however, I have to say that B&N did little to keep me happy. I order nearly everything online because we live 30 minutes or so from civilization (=Apple Store, Target, Vietnamese food, bookshops) in a state with sales tax topping 8%. I've had Amazon Prime (for 'free' shipping all year for one lump-sum price) since the first year it was offered. I have a wish list that dates back to 1999. I am an Amazon seller. I buy groceries and other household items from Amazon (as long as the shipping is Prime). I am about to get my 2nd Kindle (which I LOVE and which in no way do I consider a replacement for physical books, but rather a complement). And I even have my own book for sale on Amazon - through my seller account.

In short, I'm a loyal Amazon customer and have been from the beginning. I also buy tons of used and rare books from individuals and small booksellers all over the world. I frequent - buying and selling - the bookstores of Boulder. When that happens to mean a new bookstore, it's always B&N (which I like better than Borders, for layout and design purposes, despite the fact that Borders offers a far superior poetry section). But that's not too often. Why drive down the hill AND pay sales tax when I can browse online, read reviews and order with 1 click, even paying in the equivalent of cash (from my bank account)? Then get the book in question within 2 days (1 day for $3.99)?

I'll be sorry to see B&N go. But you won't hear me sounding the death knell on books ('physical books' - as if that weren't the default) and the book trade just yet. The same response came when that super-ginormo-megastore - Miles of Books or something? - closed up shop in the nineties. Well, we readers kept reading. Amazon flourished in its wake. B&N reacted too slowly. The Nook, anyone? Talk about a day late and a dollar short. The Kindle is now the K3: third generation. Even without wind of B&N's woes, who would buy that device over the tried-and-tested?

(N.B. The Kindle's print is not "indistinct"; its design deliberately eschews backlighting so as to better approximate the look of the printed page. Indeed, reading it is more like reading the paper pages of a book than anything else I have seen. Not indistinct at all. Backlighting is what gives me a headache. And I say this not as an Apple-hater but rather as a over-adopter who owns no fewer than four working Apple computers! At least two of these are for sale, in case you're interested. Any Cube enthusiasts out there, btw?)

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2010-08-17, 9:37 a.m.:
"READICIDE."

Just the title of this book sends chills through my body.

http://www.stenhouse.com/shop/pc/viewprd.asp?idProduct=9158&r=&REFERER=

0 comments

2010-08-17, 8:39 a.m.:
"This book is a quick read with just 1345 locations."

Sample praise from the pages of Amazon's self-published Kindle writers ...

"My only complaint is that is was too short. I kept pressing my 'Next' button hoping for more."

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