With a $10,000 research prize as well as thousands of periodicals for reading and study, I've very recently found a great resource for librarians, eReaders and classic pulp fiction fans.  With titles ranging from Collier's Weekly to classic works of pulp such as Argosy, Weird Tales, and even Yank magazine, I've been reading for hours. If this sounds interesting to you, then head on over to unz.org, a site I recently stumbled across when doing some research for my history blog.  Brought online by Ron Unz, who has been a huge fan of Wikipedia, there are thousand of resources to look...

Vanity Fair has an article on Microsoft’s corporate culture, and some ways in which that culture crippled innovation at the company. One of those ways is responsible for Microsoft—and Bill Gates in particular—rejecting a prototype for a touchscreen e-reader—in 1998. According to [writer Kurt] Eichenwald, Microsoft had a prototype e-reader ready to go in 1998, but when the technology group presented it to Bill Gates he promptly gave it a thumbs-down, saying it wasn’t right for Microsoft. “He didn’t like the user interface, because it didn’t look like Windows,” a programmer involved in the project...

Here's a snippet from and interesting article in KQED's Mind/Shift blog about how ereaders can help dyslexics: Even the font in which a text is printed may influence how readily a dyslexic is able to read. Last year, Christian Boer, a graphic designer from the Netherlands who is himself dyslexic, introduced a font he created to reduce dyslexic readers’ tendency to misconstrue letters like “d” and “b.” Boer accentuated certain features of the letters in his font, called Dyslexie, to make them harder to confuse with each other, and he inserted generous amounts of space between letters and words. Once, such innovations...

It's here!  It's here!  Time to go to your favorite nook (!) and wait for The Great Electron to bestow upon all the good girls and boys some wonderful ebooks (and maybe a reading device or two). For those who haven't been in awhile, the redesigned Read an E-Book Week website has continued to grow and improve, and new deals and freebies await your examination.  The redesign has already received many kudos and congratulations for its improved usability, and has helped to draw a few more supporters under its wing. Rita hasn't heard from anyone yet, but we're hoping a few people...

The Read an E-Book Week website for 2012 is loading up on promotions and giveaways for the March 4-10 week (and a few that will cover the entire month of March, in honor of the proclamation of Read an E-Book Month in Canada). 15 authors are offering free giveaways at the moment, and over 20 ebook publishers are also supplying promotions.  The list of participants come from Canada, the U.S., the Philippines, Argentina, Italy, Australia, Poland and Hungary.  And at present, there are contests to give away as many as five ebook reading devices. Rita Toews would like to remind everyone of...

Nate Hoffelder at The Digital Reader has been tracking signs of new ereader activity coming from Sony, and despite the company disavowing its own executive's slip-up it looks like a new device is on the way. The first clue is that a device called the PRS-T1 Digital Book Reader was found last week on the FCC website. The second clue is that several ebook models are showing up as out of stock or discontinued on the Sony Style store. Via The Digital Reader ...

Kids will lead the coming surge in ereader adoption, suggests the Boston Globe in an article this weekend: "This is a generation of kids that have learned to communicate, search and purchase on very small devices, like mobile phones," said James McQuivey, Forrester Research media analyst. "This year is a guinea pig year, next year the move will be en masse." In addition to being seen as non-threatening by kids, ereader prices are dropping while their capabilities continue to increase, and publishers are aggressively expanding their children's and YA ebook catalogs. Read the full article at Boston.com. ...

College bookseller Akademos issued a press release earlier this week announcing the launch of a digital reader "that will allow its member institutions to access electronic content from traditional publishers and from open resources, such as the Connexions Consortium, World Public Library, the Guttenberg Project, and many others." The announcement says the device displays EPUB files, will allow students to make notes, and will apparently be linked to an online store where students can purchase print copies. Unfortunately, that's about all it says—there's no other info about the device, and no links to other info pages. (Even the link to...

A new remote autograph service called Kindlegraph has been popping up around the blogosphere the past several days, and it demonstrates a way to approximate the classic book signing experience. A reader signs in and requests a signature, and the author completes the request online using a simple form hosted by digital signature company DocuSign. In theory the signed "page" would be integrated into the actual book, but at this proof of concept stage it produces a one-page document that includes an image of the book's cover, the author's message, and an image of the author's signature. In the screencast, Kindlegraph's developer...

What's the eReading device forecast look like? More gadgets than you can shake a stick at... Browsing through articles and press releases on new tablets and eReaders coming out is becoming a full-time occupation. After querying many of my business contacts, fellow writers & book reviewers only a handful knew of an off-center new tablet/eReader coming out that they were excited about, let alone knowledgeable enough about to warrant purchasing. The majority of folks replying played it safe, going for one of the big three: iPad, Kindle or Nook. Kobo's made a bit more of a name for itself in the...

Lisa Lewis' post in The New York Times' City Room blog yesterday brought up a familiar complaint about the social aspect of ereaders—namely, that there isn't much of one, unless you want to talk about the gadget itself. It wasn’t the first time I’d flirted my way into a Saturday night date with a simple phrase: “I love that book.” [...] I had one good pickup line, and e-readers ruined it. I can no longer hit on a handsome man on a long commute by asking about his book — because I can’t see it. [...] I promise there is...

Overseas attendees at this week's Tokyo International Book Fair can leave their phrase books at home since they will only need the line "atsui desu ne?", the ubiquitous Summer greeting that means "It's really hot, isn't it?". Temperatures in the high 80s will be compounded by crushing humidity that can stifle even the liveliest of debates. The eBook International Session boasts three respected executives for its speakers but these speakers may find the session's agenda is more of a hindrance to debate than the weather at Tokyo Big Sight. The session blurb promises answers to questions such as...