March 2010

05 March 2010

An Author's View of How Publishers Should Deal With e-Books

"Lately the publishing industry has been trying to commit suicide over electronic rights. It’s funny because every time in history a revolutionary new way to do business comes along, the first instinct of all established players is to strangle themselves with it. Movie studios fought the VCR. Microsoft fought the Internet. The music industry fought MP3s. TV networks are fighting PVRs. Eventually, these turn into important markets, fully embraced by the companies that tried to kill them. But until then everyone spends a lot of time throwing lawyers at anything that doesn’t look like a traditional business model."

My Stupid Industry

03 March 2010

Authors choose their favourite books of the decade

"Zadie Smith and Cormac McCarthy have both scored well in a poll to find out which authors writers themselves enjoy reading."

The Guardian

02 March 2010

Beware of Your Chair

"Your chair is your enemy.

It doesn’t matter if you go running every morning, or you’re a regular at the gym. If you spend most of the rest of the day sitting — in your car, your office chair, on your sofa at home — you are putting yourself at increased risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, a variety of cancers and an early death. In other words, irrespective of whether you exercise vigorously, sitting for long periods is bad for you."

Stand Up While You Read This!