I am on my way home from ten days in sunny Florida visiting my parents, and it was a gadget-rific Christmas. I saw my first Nook and Nook Colour, my first Kindle 3 (alas, out of stock, but I did play with a dummy model) and got stepdad's iPad set up for him. More on that later---we had a few days alone thanks to a family emergency that had Mom flying home for a few days, so the iPad became our little All by Ourselves project---but I have some general comments on my gadget-rific holiday to tide you over in...

Planning to give an iPad or iPod Touch this holiday season? A word of warning just came my way from my vacationing parents, who at last cracked the seal on stepdad's birthday gift iPad only to find that they can't register it---at all---until they are back in Canada. As this won't be until March, they are understandably upset! The issue is that they (and their credit card) are Canadian, but they are physically located in America at the moment. So they kept getting error messages when they tried to set up an iTunes account. Eventually, they took it to the Apple...

The pundits have been out in full force this year, as ebooks finally hit the mainstream. But amidst all the hot air about pricing and contracts and DRM and i-Whatevers, a lot of ink was shed on some red herrings---issues which, on the surface, seem very important but in my opinion are mere diversions from the real story of the future of the ebook world. What are my top five red herrings, and why do I think they are not the stumbling points the pundits make them up to be? Keep reading to find out! RED HERRING #5: THE WAY THINGS...

Here's an interesting story from the major daily paper here: Indigo Makes Bigger Play for Toy Market Buried four paragraphs in, this throwaway line hints at potential big news for trend watchers following the book market right now: "With the popularity of e-readers, like Indigo’s Kobo, freeing up more shelf space, a number of book retailers are expanding into new categories to boost sales." Indigo is Canada's version of Borders or Barnes and Noble---the major book store chain---and a major shareholder in Kobo. If it's true that their Kobo plans are freeing up valuable retail real estate, it makes sense they want to fill...

We had an open house for parents last week where I was asked to present a short lesson, and my iPad was involved in about 70% of it. It fit in naturally with what I was doing---it wasn’t gimmicky at all, and the kids didn’t even notice it was there. I started my lesson with a quick non-iPad calendar and intro routine, then we went straight to the book we’re reading. I’ve saved them all as Powerpoint shows so I can display them, storybook-style, to the kids without needing to carry around the books with me. I teach several grade...

A recent comment thread in an article here had some interesting remarks from people on all sides of the issue. This is always a fascinating topic for me because I did spend a few years as a professional writer, and ultimately decided that I just did not have the personality type to hack it as a freelancer. Unstable income and irregular work did not agree with me, so I made the choice to make a day job change and keep writing as just a hobby. But do I blame the 'pirates' for this? Or are there other forces to think...

This engaging (and free!) YA novel was a treat! The story is about three teens in a mystery-plagued New Mexico town who stumble upon a supernatural-ish adventure involving a strange mountain, a missing radio announcer and mystery forces of evil, and something else entirely. The first two thirds of the novel were excellent. It was a pleasure watching Jackie, Joseph and Kevin come to terms with the powers they were tapping into, and begin their little teen gumshoe routine. Toward the end, the story got a little too bogged down in the technical stuff, however. I started wanting to skip ahead...

Hi there, publishing industry. I have spent the last week happily walking my sister through her first days of Kindle-owning, and showing her how and where to obtain reasonably priced content. She has more options than I do because she is not, like me, living in the publishing hinterlands of Canada (or, heaven forbid, living in France---I read the latest at Mobile Read on the new 'single price for digital books' law, and wow, the French are screwed!) But even for a Blessed American like her, there is still the whole agency fiasco, and $25 e-versions of decades-old mass market...

I am delighted to welcome a guest blogger for this week's review: my sister Tammy! Tammy is a paralegal, a published freelance writer with more than 300 newspaper and magazine credits to her name (including The Writer, Rangefinder, Paralegal Today, and others) and an as-yet unpublished mystery novelist. Tammy has been a fan of e-books since they first emerged on the PalmOS platform a decade or so ago and just got a Kindle 3 graphite for her birthday. She says she believes it is finally starting to realize the promise of e-books and she dearly loves it! Tammy also reads...

The Bad Seed is a paranormal-themed small press title by a veteran Australian author. It is set in Australia, at a spooky run-down house in a 'spa' town which is purchased by a gardening columnist seeking an escape from a life in tatters after the disappearance of her daughter several years before. The writing is top-quality and the atmosphere and mood of a small tourist town is captured very well. But I found the plot tended to wander a little. Agatha's job as a magazine columnist is very prominent as the novel begins, then fades away and comes back again several...

A question came up on a message board I frequent, about whether an ebook reader can help you lose weight. I have been using the text to speech feature on my Kindle while I walk (in fact, this feature was a selling point for me as I am not a music fan) but that has not been as part of a structured fitness program per se. I am a transit user, but my bus ride home only saves about 15 minutes over a walk, so if the weather is nice, I am happy to take in the scenery. That's more...

I needed a short one this week; I am recovering (hopefully) from bronchitis and spent most of the weekend sleeping. Capable of Murder by Brian Kavanagh was just the thing---just barely novel-length, and a fairly inoffensive cozy that made for a quick and easy read. The story involves a young woman who inherits an old cottage near Bath, England from her aunt and goes to live there. She meets several sinister characters who all seem to have an interest in the cottage and grounds, and as the body count climbs, she wonders what secrets her aunt---and the old cottage---contain... The story was...