[W]e got out of the camera business…
Seattle’s King County Library System has decided to remove all security cameras from their libraries. The reason? Fear that the video footage would be used by law enforcement to pry into the reading lives of their patrons.
via MOBYLIVES » When it comes to privacy, librarians watch out for their patrons.
Philip Roth has won the Man Booker International Prize. Booker judge Carmen Callil was so annoyed with the decision to honor Roth, she resigned from the judging panel.
“I don’t rate him as a writer at all. I made it clear that I wouldn’t have put him on the longlist, so I was amazed when he stayed there. He was the only one I didn’t admire – all the others were fine,” said Callil … “Roth goes to the core of [Booker judges Justin Cartwright and Rick Gekoski’s] beings. But he certainly doesn’t go to the core of mine … Emperor’s clothes: in 20 years’ time will anyone read him?”
The thing is, people are still reading Goodbye, Columbus, which Roth wrote over 50 years ago. So, yeah, I think his work will be around in 20 years. It doesn’t make any sense to ask if his work will stand the test of time when it already has.
via Jessa Crispin
Earlier this year The Boston GlobediscontinuedKatherine A. Powers‘s longtime literary column â€A Reading Life.†The column was later resurrected at The Barnes and Noble Review. Reading Powers’s third column at her new home, a review of Erik Larson‘s In The Garden of the Beasts, it struck me how this move—ostensibly from a 100+ year-old, 21-Pulitzer newspaper to a glorified book chain blog—was clearly a step up rather than down. For example, consider design. Powers’s last column at The Boston Globe was a pitiful sliver of text surrounded by garish ads. Perhaps the print version redeems it, but at least in its online incarnation, there is nothing to suggest care or seriousness in the Globe’s presentation.
Boston Globe vs. B&N.com: Where is the future home for book reviews?, via MOBYLIVES.
Locus magazine has announced the finalists for this year’s Locus Award, a popular science fiction, fantasy and horror award voted on by the magazine’s readers.
Science Fiction Novel
* Surface Detail, Iain M. Banks (Orbit UK; Orbit US)
* Cryoburn, Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
* Zero History, William Gibson (Putnam; Viking UK)
* The Dervish House, Ian McDonald (Pyr; Gollancz)
* Blackout/All Clear, Connie Willis (Spectra)Fantasy Novel
* Under Heaven, Guy Gavriel Kay (Penguin Canada; Roc)
* Kraken, China Miéville (Macmillan UK; Del Rey)
* Who Fears Death, Nnedi Okorafor (DAW)
* The Fuller Memorandum, Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit UK)
* The Sorcerer’s House, Gene Wolfe (Tor)First Novel
* The Loving Dead, Amelia Beamer (Night Shade)
* The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit UK; Orbit US)
* Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)
* The Quantum Thief, Hannu Rajaniemi (Gollancz; Tor)
* How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, Charles Yu (Pantheon)Young Adult Book
* Ship Breaker, Paolo Bacigalupi (Little, Brown)
* Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins (Scholastic)
* Enchanted Glass, Diana Wynne Jones (HarperCollins UK; Greenwillow)
* I Shall Wear Midnight, Terry Pratchett (Gollancz; HarperCollins)
* Behemoth, Scott Westerfeld (Simon Pulse; Simon & Schuster UK)
The U.S. Library of Congress, in conjunction with Sony Music Entertainment, has launched a new website today, the National Jukebox. The site will stream some 10,000 sound recordings from several historic music collections. This includes music and other audio recordings from the Victor Records collection, one closely associated with the early Victrola hand-cranked record players.
The songs can all be listened to for free online, but they cannot be downloaded.
via Library of Congress Launches A National Jukebox, ReadWriteWeb