Continuing my journey through the secret world of book bloggers, I spoke to Rob Burdock – also known as Rob Around Books – about Just William, eBooks and the Father of History.
Continue reading “The Book Blogger Files #3 – Rob Around Books”
A couple of days ago I was linked to an article in The Economist suggesting that soon people will stop using shelves for books and adorn them exclusively with knick knacks, much like that old lady you used to know who kept a faux-mahogany sitting room for special occasions (like drinking chintz out of the posh tea set). The blame for this lies squarely at the feet of ePublishing and the kindle and will lead to seven plagues and the death of literacy. Or something.
The article touches on the matter of eBook piracy, which is a very touchy subject and is often tagged onto the End of Publishing debate without much explanation. I’ve read articles by a few authors saying it is A Very Bad Thing, and still more articles by different authors saying that actually it can raise your profile and boost sales. A summary googling of the topic came up with piracy articles dating back over several years, which I shall now bullet point for your indifference: Continue reading “The Great Kindle Challenge: Day 10”
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There is a copy of singer James Yorkston’s book, It’s Lovely To Be Here: The Touring Diaries of a Scottish Gent, in our house. I know because I bought it as a birthday present for my flat mate, who says it’s very good. Unfortunately I haven’t borrowed it yet, mainly because my mighty pyramid of to-read books is so enormous it hurts my brain. Still, that didn’t stop me going to see Mr Yorkston talking about it with Ian Rankin at the book festival over the weekend.
It was a great event, the atmosphere was very friendly and there was cheery banter aplenty. After a brief overview of his new guitar (made from Tazmanian blackwood, spruce and Brazilian Rosewood), Rankin began by asking about Yorkston’s background.
He grew up in Fife and attended Madras college in St Andrews, a few years below Kenny (King Creosote) Anderson and amongst such luminaries as KT Tunstall and Steve Mason from The Beta Band. Listening to him describe his early years “dancing with my across the road neighbour, Vic Galloway (a BBC Scotland presenter and DJ) like dafties on the lawn,” it strikes me the East Neuk is overdue an Almost Famous style look at the music scene – there are so many artists compressed into that area it’s a bit ridiculous.
Apparently Yorkston wrote his first song at the age of 8, him on electric guitar and Galloway on banjo. “It went, baa baa goes the cow, moo moo goes the sheep, woof woof goes the hippopotamus and they all went to sleep.”
I felt exactly like Cameron Crowe as I typed that up, seriously. This could work.
Continue reading “James Yorkston at Edinburgh Book Festival”
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Further to my Procrastination? post, I thought it only fair to put up some more links to interesting sites you can read on the internet instead of writing 12 books in 12 months. I like to think that reading people’s websites is a bit like people watching, ergo totally like researching characterisation.
Well, I didn’t think of it like that til about ten seconds ago, but it sort of makes sense actually. Anyway, get your eyeholes around the following:
Billygean – a very funny and open blog about living with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The writing in this is excellent – there’s no sort of ‘oh, poor me’ stuff to make you feel uncomfortable, rather it’s warm and engaging and often very funny.
Pictures for Sad Children – webcomics. Funny webcomics.
Dystopian Fuschia – a bit like my Daddy Long Legs site, this has all kinds of bits and pieces on it. The focus is humorous comment on telly. Not for those who like Russell Howard, though.
Hope you like these, and have a nice Easter weekend. I will be writing a bit (1,747 words done so far today), but I’m not sure how much. This is at least in part because I have Stuff To Do.
To elaborate, for no very good reason, tonight I’m heading out to the Cameo Cinema’s second night of horror (which will run from 11pm till around 7am tomorrow); then getting the train over to Fife tomorrow to have a picnic in the rain with my family. Sleep is for the weak, after all.
Oh, and I’ll have to watch the first episode of Doctor Who anywhere between one and several times. Well, those sci fi and fantasy novels are due any day now…
12 Books in 12 Months 