Publisher Random House says, “This wide-ranging collection of never-before-published essays offers the very latest insights into the daunting scientific questions of our time. Its contributors—some of the most brilliant young scientists working today—provide not only an introduction to their cutting-edge research, but discuss the social, ethical, and philosophical ramifications of their work. With essays covering fields as diverse as astrophysics, paleoanthropology, climatology, and neuroscience, What’s Next? is a lucid and informed guide to the new frontiers of science.”

Baby's got a gun

Tor.com, purveyor of sci-fi and fantasy lit, gives away a fair amount of its properties no doubt in hopes of luring dollars from grateful readers.

This can present some risk. What if readers don’t like it? Or worse: What if they just go on reading the freebies, sponging all these books and short stories without ever spending a dime?

Well, it must work on some level, because Tor keeps doing it. A recent endeavor is a whacky short story by Terry Bisson, TVA Baby.

TVA Baby starts out in the skies over the Tennessee Valley, or the Mississippi River, depending on who’s right, and things (literally) take a rapid descent from there. It’s a bumpy ride, narrated with a unique point of view. Some comments by readers that followed found the occasional lapses in logic and continuity annoying, which might  miss the point. See for yourself.

Or if you prefer, hear for yourself.

And if you’d like to get a virtually limitless stream of free stuff from Tor, sign up here.

Media portrayals (Oh, wait – we’re media too) of the wounded parties as primarily gay-rights activists seemed to only annoy critics even more.

The Seattle Times reports that Amazon is chagrined: ” ‘This is an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error for a company that prides itself on offering complete selection,’ said Drew Herdener, Amazon’s communications director.

” ‘It has been misreported that the issue was limited to Gay & Lesbian themed titles — in fact, it impacted 57,310 books in a number of broad categories such as Health, Mind & Body, Reproductive & Sexual Medicine, and Erotica. This problem impacted  books not just in the United States but globally. It affected not just sales rank but also had the effect of removing books from Amazon’s main product search.’

“Amazon previously blamed a ‘glitch,’ which seemed to intensify anger among some gay and lesbian activists who suspected homophobic censorship.”

Could this become yet another Seattle-based company that has become so large and ubiquitous that it has become the Seattle behemoth we all love to hate?

Well, Amazon is the nation’s largest online retailer by far (with nearly three times the Internet sales revenue of runner-up Staples, according to Wikipedia). A quick Google of “I hate Amazon” yields “about” 4,500 matches, and Yahoo finds a robust 13,800 “I hate Amazon” matches. Lotta hatin’ goin’ on.

Microsoft and Starbucks are two other Seattle bigs that have legions of haters. Perhaps Amazon’s success has made this status of  “most-hated”  inevitable. Perhaps Amazon will view it as a badge of honor. You hate us – you really hate us! Oh, joy!

There have been no reports of mass Kindle burnings or “Seattle Tea Parties” or other pointless gestures of futility at this juncture..

(Editorial aside – the editor here really dislikes the use of impact as a verb, as in “it impacted 57,310 books” as quoted above – we thought you should know this.)

Dave Wilson’s Our Daily Red is seldom daily and rarely red, but it is full-bodied, piquant and tannic. It does not necessarily represent the views of DelMio.com, its sponsors or its editor’s mother – and, in fact, his mom probably has not given a whit of thought to Amazon.com’s handling of sales rankings.

McGrath obliged, but professed to being a tad intimidated at being asked to vocalize the words written by a writer who was himself a well-known “superb” public reader.

Wrote McGrath: “My only qualifications, if you can call them that, are that I knew Updike and that I used to read a lot to my kids. From years of fidgeting and nodding off during poetry readings, though, I know just how hard it is to read verse well. Moreover, Updike wrote many of the poems in Endpoint while literally on his deathbed. They’re heartbreakingly sad, and I wasn’t sure I could get through them without blubbing.”

But oblige he did, and The Times posted the results for the world to hear.

Your humble editor considers Updike one of the great writers of his time. Some critics accused him of being sexist or this or that – I say he was a product of his time who learned and grew enlightened, but remained informed by those formative years, much like his characters.

Rabbit comes first to mind.

But that character kept re-emerging, slightly different, but still (perhaps in my mind) harboring Rabbit’s voice, whether the checkout clerk in the grocery store enchanted by the slightly chubby girl in the swimsuit, or the Tyrannosaurus or Iguanadon at the cocktail party During the Jurassic.

Our Daily Red is rarely daily and seldom red, but it is written by DelMio editor Dave Wilson.

In fact, Orman is very much a by-the-bootstraps success story who long ago confessed that she did not know how to write, even as bids were piling in for her second book. Lucky for her, her message was more important than her literary talent.

Portfolio.com tells the tale:
“The bidding was going up and up and up,” says Orman, “I said, ‘Stop the bidding, Binky (Urban, her agent). I can’t take it anymore. Somebody’s going to pay me $800,000 to write a book. I can’t write. I’m a finance person.’” She continues: “I told Chip Gibson [then the head of Crown Publishing], ‘Sir, before I sign this contract I have two things to tell you. No. 1: I don’t know how to write. So I don’t want you giving me $800,000 to write. And No. 2: Are you aware that I’m a lesbian?’

“As it happens, neither turned out to be roadblocks. For one, Orman was a personal finance expert, not a movie star. And for another, Gibson says, ‘We weren’t hiring Suze to win the Nobel Prize in literature.’

“Urban seconds that.  ‘I just thought, ‘Great. Finally an author who knows she can’t write.’

“Orman’s book was called The Nine Steps to Financial Freedom; it drew heavily on her New Age sensibility and sold over 3 million copies. From there, shows like Today and Oprah came calling and money began to pour in.”

When Barack Obama’s Dreams From My Father was published in 1995, the book didn’t sell enough copies to pay back his $30,000 advance, says the New York Times. At least not right away.

Along comes the 2004 Democratic National Convention, and this kid from Chicago makes a splash (a more positive impact than a certain former president-to-be made in a similar setting in 1988). Sales skyrocket, Obama follows with The Audacity of Hope and now he’s a millionaire. So he packs up his things … and you know how it goes from there.

Now the president has an agreement to publish a slimmed-down version of Dreams From My Father for young readers. He apparently has a deal to produce a third nonfiction work, to be published after he leaves office because, well, he’s kind of busy right now.

On another presidential front, George W. Bush has inked a book deal worth $7 million, according to Lynn Sherr, a former ABC News correspondent. Tentatively title Decision Points, the book will focus on important life decisions, Bush told The Associated Press.

Still more to read on the subject HERE.

The Dr. is no longer with us, but fans of Ted Geisel – aka Dr. Seuss – are celebrating his birthday today.

If you were out and about over the weekend you might have spotted tall red-and-white-striped hats bobbing about in libraries or stores in an homage to the good doctor.

Theodore Seuss Geisel was born March 2, 1904. He died in 1991.

http://www.seussville.com/

http://www.catinthehat.org/

http://www.drseussart.com/

As usual, colleges and universities are at the forefront of adapting digital technologies. Music downloads, texting and other media uses are a ubiquitous part of campus life.

And now Northwest Missouri State is looking to go totally digital with textbooks.

Junior Kevin Green tells NPR, “I find it easy to just go through it as [the instructor] discusses it in class and highlight things as he brings them up,” using his school-issued laptop to access the textbook. He is one of 500 students in a test group going all-digital.

Digital textbooks haven’t exactly swept the country yet, finding pockets of acceptance and pockets of resistance.

The digital textbook of the future will go way beyond simply reformatting text for e-reader — it’s likely to include video and all form of interactivity, adapting available Web technology. Modern students expect no less.

Cost is a big factor in the move: One book can cost upward of $200. E-book versions cost about half that, says NPR – which still seems ridiculously high.

Seems an enterprising professor and a few media-savvy undergrads (is that redundant?) could put together a nice e-book with a few bells and whistles for one-quarter the going rate and still make a killing. Viva la revolucion!

See the NPR story here.

LISTEN

Our Daily Red isn’t often daily and is seldom red, but it is written by DelMio Editorial Director Dave Wilson.

Gary Condit disappeared from headlines after his brush with infamy in 2001, but a recent breakthrough in finding a suspect in Chandra Levy’s death has returned the former congressman to the spotlight.

Condit, who had a “relationship” with the 23-year-old Levy and was questioned about her disappearance but not ever charged with a crime, nonetheless saw his political career come to an end. After years of silence, he is reportedly shopping for a publisher to tell his story.

Publishers Marketplace reported that Condit’s agent says the book will address his long silence and also “the media and the public’s power to destroy a public figure and keep on punishing them without end, regardless of guilt or innocence.”

Condit told an Arizona television station, “I had always hoped to have the opportunity to tell my side of this story, but too many were not prepared to listen. Now I plan to do so, but I will have no further comments on this story at this time.”

Levy’s family cannot be overjoyed to have to relive the slow torture of her disappearance months before her body was found in a park, or the lurid circumstances surrounding the whole thing.

The suspect, a Salvadoran immigrant in prison for attacks on two other women in the same park, was a known entity for some time. Apparently sloppy police work hasn’t helped matters there.

Now, Condit’s plans to write a book seem to be just adding insult to injury.

Gary, let it go already.

Our Daily Red is not quite daily and seldom red, but it is written by DelMio Editorial Director Dave Wilson.

http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/lunch/archives/005087.php

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090222/ap_on_re_us/chandra_levy

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0209/597553.html

Thomas Friedman on economic stimulus plans: “When it comes to helping companies, precious public money should focus on start-ups, not bailouts.”

Instead of pouring billions and billions of dollars into GM and Chrysler, take just some of that money and put it toward startups that have bright ideas and no megamillion-dollar CEOs to subsidize. Amen, and verily.

Read the column here.

Our Daily Red is written by Delmio Editorial Director Dave Wilson.