http://booksprung.com/songs-as-books-an-illustrated-version-of-lady-gagas-telephone http://booksprung.com/songs-as-books-an-illustrated-version-of-lady-gagas-telephone#comments Thu, 20 Jan 2011 20:54:53 +0000 Chris Walters http://booksprung.com/?p=4974 Yesterday I wrote up a whole bunch of notes for what will most likely be another long post about some hypothetical near-future publishing idea. That’s not important (yet). What’s important is that in those notes I used Lady Gaga as an example of how musical artists could offer small written works as impulse-purchase content to their fans, thus raking in yet more money.

As usual, as soon as I gave shape to the idea, the universe spat it back in my face in some way or another. Me and this universe, we’re gonna have a throw-down one of these days. Not 18 hours after I typed out my Gaga example, I came across this Flickr set of an illustrated “book” presentation of Lady Gaga’s song “Telephone.” (I swear I didn’t know about this before today, even though it was posted last September.)

Sure, it’s not “real” in the sense of being an actual product for sale. Also its visual appeal is partly due to the vintage effect of the illustrations, inking and fake paperback texture.

But whether or not you like Gaga, that particular song, the corresponding crazy-assed video featuring Beyoncé, or drawings of ladies at country clubs, I argue that this is still incredibly cool looking. And if I ever manage to get my notes formed into a cohesive post, you’ll see why I think it’s not as far-fetched a concept as it first appears.

Lady Gaga – Telephone [Andrew Kolb @ Flickr, via omgblog.com] ]]> http://booksprung.com/songs-as-books-an-illustrated-version-of-lady-gagas-telephone/feed 0 http://booksprung.com/does-a-kindle-make-a-good-prison-bribe-no-it-does-not http://booksprung.com/does-a-kindle-make-a-good-prison-bribe-no-it-does-not#comments Mon, 10 Jan 2011 23:48:10 +0000 Chris Walters http://booksprung.com/?p=4741

The Los Angeles Times reported today that when a prison official returned from holiday vacation last month, she found a new Kindle on her desk. It had been given to her by Fabian Nuñez, former Assembly Speaker for California and father of inmate Esteban Nuñez, who is serving time for murder. The prison official reported it and returned it immediately, and Nuñez Sr. apologized for the bribe gift.

It seems absurd to me that a state politician would be unclear on the ethics of giving and receiving gifts to officials, even if the Kindle was a very popular gift this past Christmas. Of course, what seems even more absurd is the idea of using a sub-$200 ereader for bribe. Clearly an iPad is a more appropriate prison official gift, or at the very least he could have bumped it up to a Nook Color.

Fabian Nuñez gave Kindle to official at prison where son is serving sentence [Los Angeles Times]

(Photo: )

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eBookNewser] ]]> http://booksprung.com/is-a-kindle-bullet-proof-theres-one-quick-way-to-find-out/feed 0 http://booksprung.com/amazon-pulls-kindle-game-over-offensive-language http://booksprung.com/amazon-pulls-kindle-game-over-offensive-language#comments Wed, 11 Aug 2010 22:52:23 +0000 Chris Walters http://kindlerama.com/?p=2373 The new Kindle game

At his blog laughing-stalk, Erik Deckers wrote that last night he was trying to finish an Every Word game and got stuck on one final, missing term.

I was missing one 6-letter word. Not wanting to leave an incomplete board before I moved to the next level, I logged on to an online Scrabble anagram generator to see if I could find it.

The generator gave me three choices: agings, gaping, paging. The game accepted gaping and paging, but had a word in between that I just wasn’t getting.

Frustrated, he gave up and let the game show him the missing word. Shield your eyes, o reader, if you find hip-hop racial slang offensive in pictographic form when included as part of a blog post. (Just to be on the safe side, I’ll put it after the jump.)

CrunchGear picked up Deckers’ post earlier today, and shortly thereafter Amazon contacted them to say it was pulling the game off the Kindle Store until it could replace the dictionary with a bowdlerized version.

Meh. I’m not sure I can bring myself to be offended by a term that’s not even used by white racists in a derogatory manner (or at all, I imagine), but rather by members within a group to refer to one another; I’m not even sure you could claim that it’s just used to refer to members of one race by young people anymore. However, I always thought it was spelled with a “z.”

But whatever, you know how people can be, and Amazon is a big target right now for potential outrage–especially the kind that the media can blow up into a short cycle. If you didn’t download a copy before it was yanked, you’ll have to wait until the new version is posted. And yes, Amazon told CrunchGear that it will update existing copies of the game as well.

“Amazon Kindle Game “Every Word” Uses N-Word” [laughing-stalk via CrunchGear] ]]> http://booksprung.com/amazon-pulls-kindle-game-over-offensive-language/feed 0 http://booksprung.com/author-holds-virtual-book-signing-event http://booksprung.com/author-holds-virtual-book-signing-event#comments Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:08:34 +0000 Chris Walters http://kindlerama.com/?p=2066 One of the puzzles of ebooks is how to hold good old-fashioned book signings when you don’t have a printed product to pass back and forth. Sure, you could let an author Sharpie your Kindle, but that’s not really the same. (Not to mention you’ll run out of room fairly quickly.)

Sci-fi writer M. David Blake wants to help solve that problem, so he and MobileRead are holding a virtual ebook signing this week. Between now and Wednesday, July 14th, you can email him directly and he’ll send you a free personalized copy of his short story “We Don’t Plummet Out of the Sky Anymore” in both ePub and mobi formats. (Mobi is Kindle-ready.)

So how does virtual ebook signing work? A lot like traditional book signing, it turns out, at least in the beginning of the process. On MobileRead Blake explains that for each incoming request, he signs and numbers a blank page of paper, scans it in, converts it into a “unique, numbered flyleaf,” inserts it into the manuscript, and generates new copies to send to the reader.

“MobileRead is hosting an eBook Signing Event!” [MobileRead] ]]> http://booksprung.com/author-holds-virtual-book-signing-event/feed 0 http://booksprung.com/4-more-screens-for-your-kindle http://booksprung.com/4-more-screens-for-your-kindle#comments Sat, 19 Jul 2008 16:27:28 +0000 Chris Walters http://kindlerama.com/?p=106 Medusa! Some old books! A really ugly dog! And a cartoon Day of the Dead box! Now your Kindle can look weirder than ever when it’s not in use. (Don’t worry, it looks awesome when you’re using it.)