Here--from Warren Adler; yes, the Warren Adler, author of The War of the Roses. Excerpt: People have been telling me for years that authors in general are totally brain dead when it comes to business decisions. I have always denied this accusation, but it appears that the Authors Guild, which purports to represent authors, is pursuing a lawsuit against Google that confirms this general opinion... Of course, being included in the Google search engine is no guarantee that the book will ever be called up by a click of the keys. But the very fact that it might trumps all possibilities...

Time to brave the perils of I-77 again. I'm shutting down in Statesville, North Carolina, and will resurface from my usual turf in Alexandria, VA, on Friday or over the weekend. Meanwhile enjoy old posts--and perhaps new ones from other TeleBlog regulars. ...

"My father and his two brothers and his sister grew up in the 1920s with no money but with plenty of books. Almost no one in Natchez had any wealth to speak of, and therefore it was culture that delineated your place in society--culture along with intelligence, ambition, looks, manners, and family history." - Robb Forman Dew in a guest essay for Maud Newton. The TeleRead take: In terms of money, most of the Third World is like the American South of yore--in fact, more so. Will elites in India, China and elsewhere feel a little threatened if e-books allow the...

Note: You can enjoy an MP3 of the essay below from Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti, TeleRead's e-book reviewer. As a poet myself, it is only natural that I am often moved to read other poets--either for inspiration or for the sheer pleasure of simply reading without any work objective in mind. Until recently I had always taken my Tennyson and my Yeats off the top of my bookshelf, dusted off the thin, worn pages and carefully turned, reading each poem in turn. The same has been true of my Book of Nonsense with illustrations by Edward Lear and poems from diverse...

"Nokia previously mentioned that they were in talks with several channels to carry the Nokia 770. It seems like CompUSA is the first one. The Nokia 770 now appears at the CompUSA website but is still not yet available for order/pre-order. It will sell for $399.99 however, $40 more than the Nokia USA online store's price." - Reggie in Internet Table Talk, via Mike Cane. Related: MobileBurn's 770 review and, via MobileRead, PC Mag's not-so-gung-ho rewiew....

E-books offer big pluses such as convenience and searchability, and librarians see purchases continuing. But they also complain of negatives, including licensing restrictions and a Tower of eBabel among formats. Those, in essence, are the feelings of 51 librarians, mostly from academic libraries, whom the Charleston Report surveyed for the September/October 2005 issue. An excerpt from the print edition: Although eBooks have become an important part of the library's collection for many respondents, most were careful to point out that eBooks are not perfect and that there are still several disadvantages that need to be addressed. These include: --Licensing issues such...

TeleRead calls for well-stocked national digital libraries, plural. And there is a reason for the plural--to help protect national sovereignty. The U.S. Library of Congress, which has proposed a global library, will have to be sensitive to the issue of "cultural imperialism," and in if:book, Lisa Lynch has some thoughts on the topic. Also in if:book: Sober thoughts on google: privatization and privacy....

Reinder Dijkhuis comments on the online seminar about Susanna Clarke's fantasy novel Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, which is being held over at the Crooked Timber blog. While he does so, he muses about the emancipation of literary criticism; and how that is ultimately a good thing. And he promises to blog more about that in the future. Which is entirely a good thing. ...

Could the $100 MIT laptop be about to shake up the e-book hardware market? Especially if ordinary folks will be able to buy the unit for some $200, sans volume discount? The price figure is just speculation, but it seems realistic to me. This photo certainly offers hope for e-bookers. Size of the color screen, by the way, is seven inches--more or less optimal for K-12 e-book use. Could U.S. school districts end up with $100 models? At that price we're talking serious competition for p-textbooks, and the effects could be major for publishers. With prices so low, libraries will...

Principle number one: "The library is everywhere." And obviously e-books will count in this world. See Do Libraries Matter? The Rise of Library 2.0 by Paul Miller and Ken Chad. Plus, Michael Stephens in ALA TechSource. Via LibrarianInBlack....

"Samsung Electronics...has developed the world's largest transmissive TFT LCD (thin-film transistor, liquid crystal display), with high enough resolution to display digital television content." - TechNewsWorld. E-book possibilities--at least, for improved versions? Combine an appropriate flexible display with a rugged case and durable circuitry and the rest, and maybe you'll be able to drop your e-book tablet with impunity. The present flexible LCD is seven inches, with 640x480 res. Related: News release. ...

Audio interview by Larry Magid, via LISNews....