jeromemartin.ca

The Joy of Reading

This is Literacy Week in my city, and today I had the pleasure of reading The Hockey Sweater by Roch Carrier and A Hero Named Howe by Mike Leonetti to a group of Grade Four and Grade Five students at James Gibbons School.
I love being read to and I love reading to other people. These students were very attentive and interested in the books and in hockey in general (It is our national sport). Reading to a group is similar to telling stories around a campfire – but we need good stories and audiences which are interested. I was fortunate to have both.
We had time for questions, and the students were not shy about asking them.

'How old are you?'
'Do you like to read?'

'Is hockey your favourite sport?'
'Did you play hockey?'
'Did you play in a big league?'

'How do you publish a book?'
'How do you make the typing so neat?'
'How do you make the words so small?'
'Tell us more about publishing a book.'
'If I had a book to publish where would I take it?'

Spending time with these young students today was a privilege. They are so excited about learning, so keen about life: and their enthusiasm is contagious.

p-books and e-books

Rob Preece suggests that paper books are for decoration and e- books are for reading. Most of us who love paper books – and read them – may disagree, but it's an interesting idea.

Black Oak Books strives to stay open...

Black Oak Books strives to stay open, but the times, they are a-changing:
Black Oak Books, with a store in San Francisco and one in Berkeley, is for sale. This article, from the January 15 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle, discusses the past successes and the current difficulties of a fine bookstore. It's appropriate reading for anyone in the book industry.
The number of independent bookstores in the United States has apparently decreased by about 50% since 1993. The owners of Black Oak attribute this partly to the effect of major chains of booksellers and partly to people's reading habits: 'Today, people don't seem compelled to build a library or to read outside their area of expertise.'
If you'd like to buy or lease one or both of the Black Oak stores go to this page on their site.

Selling Literature to Go With Your Lifestyle - New York Times

Selling Literature to Go With Your Lifestyle - New York Times:
"With book sales sagging — down 2.6 percent as of August over the same period last year, according to the Association of American Publishers — publishers are pushing their books into butcher shops, carwashes, cookware stores, cheese shops, even chi-chi clothing boutiques where high-end literary titles are used to amplify the elegant lifestyle they are attempting to project."
We who spend time in bookstores and who shop for books online often assume that everyone else does the same: but not everyone has ready access to bookstores and not everyone who does is interested in going into a bookstore or shopping online.
Selling books in other venues makes sense: it's been done for years but, according to this article, publishers and retailers are becoming more creative in their marketing.

Serendipity and Conferences: the story of Hazawi Al Heen

Attending a conference can be a rather ho-hum experience: we see what we expect to see and meet the people who were at the conference last year. Same stuff, different city. However, there's always more to be learned than what we expect: and there are always fascinating people who attend and give presentations.
Serendipity has been defined as the faculty or phenomenon of making fortunate accidental discoveries. Staying at the conference hotel, attending a session, and chatting with people at coffee breaks often results in contacts and learning which may have profound effects our lives.
Such events are serendipitous, but we have to be there so that they can happen.
I recently attended a session at the 4th International Conference on the Book entitled Future Memories: A Case Study of a Student Book Publication in the Middle East by Prof. Peter Stockwell Martin and Dr. Halim Choueiry. The paper they gave was described as 'A collaborative good design project about everyday life in the rapidly changing society of Qatar by 18 third year graphic design students at VCU Qatar'.
The presenters had a stack of books at the podium. Their visual presentation (probably done on Keynote) was probably the best I've seen. I love fine design and seeing it in a presentation like this is a real treat.
The book they discussed – Hazawi Al Heen (Stories of Now) – was designed and written by the students and their highly talented and committed instructors in fourteen weeks. This is a beautiful and compelling book which has served as not only a class project but as an important contribution to '...the growing tradition of local books within Qatar.'
At the end of the presentation Martin and Choueiry gave each of us who attended their session a copy of the book. This presentation and this book comprise my most serendipitous experience at this conference.
I learned a lot about design, about teaching and about Qatar from the presenters – but I had no expectation of that experience when I chose to attend that session rather than several others which were happening at the same time.
Serendipity is always nearby. We just have to be open to it.

Books and Boston

I'm participating in the 4th International Conference on the Book in Boston. Todd Anderson, Director of the University of Alberta Bookstore, and I are presenting a session entitled 'Competing with Free' tomorrow.
I travelled by bus from Montreal, through Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, and enjoyed the fall colours. I'll be travelling back to Vermont tomorrow and home a few days after that.

The conference has attracted academics and a few people in the private sector. There are a lot of participants from Australia and a few from other countries, including Canada.
The theme of the the conference is 'Save, Change or Discard: Tradition and Innovation in the World of Books. Thus far we have heard mostly about 'Save' and 'Tradition.' I hope that we hear more about Change and Innovation before the end of the conference.

Used Books On the Internet

In the Letters section of today's New York Times Alfred Glossbrenner, an author, suggests that the used book market on the internet is having serious effects on the earnings of authors and publishers. He uses, as an example, John Updike's latest book which had an initial print run of 150,000 with a list price of $25. According to Glossbrenner he can buy a used copy of the book from Amazon, pay a shipping cost of $3, then sell it again for nearly what he paid for it, thus being able to enjoy Updike's prose for approximately $3.
The cycle continues. The book is sold again and again while the author and the publisher were paid for only one book.
Glossbrenner suggests that in future no more that 10,000 copies of any book will be printed and that they will circulate through cyberspace ...'like a sparking cloud, a veritable Van Allen belt of books.'

Excellence in Publishing: Books on Photographers and Photography

I love to visit bookstores, at home and abroad. I also enjoy visiting libraries to learn about books which are published locally. I'm in Burlington, Vermont, home of several fine bookstores and libraries. Thus far I've visited two Borders stores (one large downtown store and one mall store) and a large Barnes & Noble store. And, yes, I've bought a book or two.
I'm fascinated by the types of books that publishers choose to publish: poetry, fiction, non-fiction, photography, business, current events, biography and natural history. Obviously in the market served by the stores in this city each of those categories has a strong following.
Excellence in publishing includes the choice of books, the quality of editing, design, production and marketing. Publishers in the USA have a large market to serve but they also have a lot of competition. This apparently benefits the consumer since the books produced in this country tend to be high in quality and relatively modest in price.
New England publishers, and American publishers in general, publish high quality photography books, books that deal with famous photographers and regional photographers. Many of these photographers produce or have produced primarily black and white images. I read and collect such books and always buy at least one on most of my trips to the USA.
I bought Harry Callahan: The Photographer At Work several days ago and have been reading it and enjoying the photographs a few pages at a time. The book is published by Yale University Press in conjunction with The Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, Tucson. It's a comprehensive look at an important and fascinating artist. It's also a fine example of the art and craft of bookmaking. The prints in the book are well reproduced, vibrant, full-range black and white images. No short cuts. Nothing lacking. It's a large hardcover book, 192 pages, with 227 tritones and 20 colour illustrations, and it's a bargain at $50 US.
Photography books, like many art books, will continue to be published in paper form, at least in some countries, because there is a significant market for them. Owning a high quality photo book is not quite as enjoyable as owning original photographs by famous photographers, but it comes close, as close as most of us will get.
While paper photo books are or can be wonderful products there is also great interest and logic in using the electronic media to publish photographic material.
Last week the Drumlummon Institute of Helena, Montana, published Drumlummon Views, an extensive, high-quality online publication which includes poetry, fiction, reviews and a portfolio of excellent photographs by David Spear. This PDF journal (276 pages) focuses on Montana and its writers, poets and photographers. The photographs are easy to view since one can change their sizes easily. E-journals and e-books of photographs will allow more photographers (and other creative people) to publish and distribute their work.
If you're interested in photographic books stop by Photo-Eye Gallery and Bookstore in Santa Fe, New Mexico. While I recommend a real visit to Photo-Eye and Santa Fe, a virtual visit will also be interesting. The bookstore stocks virtually all of the new photo books on the market and provides considerable information about them in their newsletter.
Photo books, be they paper or PDF, allow us to learn from photographers, their photographs and the essays which accompany them.
We can revisit these books years later and then pass them on to others, just as we do with our own photographs.

The Book as Precious Object

I spent my early years on a farm and in a small town in southwestern Saskatchewan. Most families in that area had very few books, and even the school had very few books other than the textbooks we used. In high school we bought most of our text books, usually from older students.
Our small school did not have a library. However, each month or two each class received a box of 'supplementary reading books' sent by the Saskatchewan Department of Education in Regina. Opening the box was an exciting experience for us. We would pick the books that we wanted and then put our names on lists for the other books.
I discovered novels by Enid Blyton when I was in Grade Five. Her books, including The Island of Adventure and The Castle of Adventure, were also very popular with my fellow students. Each of us wanted to get her books first from the book boxes or to be high on the list. We waited patiently for our chance to read these and other books.
Books were rare and precious objects in that small town. We read every book that we could find.
That small town is far smaller than it was when I left there forty-six years ago. Nevertheless, they now have a library, located in the Post Office.
Books are now everywhere. One can buy them online, borrow them from libraries, or buy them in small or large bookstores. Last year in the USA 1.2 million books were published, although only 2% of those were printed in quantities of 5,000 or more.
We'll have paper books for some time to come, but the advent of new types of books – interactive, mulitmedia products available electronically – will change the book business significantly. Indeed, changes are already occurring. As energy costs increase the cost of shipping books around the country and around the world will become very high.
New innovative e-books containing audio, video, links and other innovative features will change our concept of what a book is and what it can do. Knowledge will continue to become more accessible to everyone.
The paper book will become a precious object again. Paper books produced in the future will be similar to some books produced today: very high in quality, archival, highly desirable, but at a higher cost.
We'll use electronic products to store most of the knowledge that we have, but some of us will continue to collect fine paper books.
Some of the books we own will become collectible. Don't give your paper books away and don't sell them until you check their value using a source such as Abebooks. You may find that some of them are valuable.
Keep books that you would like to pass on to your family and which have special meaning for you. Read them, enjoy them and conserve them carefully.

Scan This Book: Kevin Kelley's article in the New York Times

Scan This Book!

According to Kevin Kelley in the New York Times Sunday Magazine (May 14, 2006) scanning books and making them available to everyone in the world with access to a screen is both inevitable and desirable, in spite of the difficulties with copyright and the affection we still have for the paper book.
'In the clash between the conventions of the book and the protocols of the screen, the screen will prevail. On this screen, now visible to one billion people on earth, the technology of search will transform isolated books into the universal library of all human knowledge.'
Kelley said that people who currently have limited access to fine libraries and bookstores will benefit more that the rest of us from mass digitization of books and access to those digitized products.
This is a comprehensive and fascinating look at how knowledge will become more accessible for all of us and what impact this will have on writers, publishers, students and the public.