News: Abandoned Walmart reclaimed as Library

The McAllen Public Library in McAllen, Texas, is the size of 2.5 football fields — the largest single-story library in the United States. But in its former life, its size wasn’t all that unusual. That’s because the McAllen library used to be a Walmart.

News: New Guy Gavriel Kay Novel

Guy Gavriel Kay's newest title, River of Stars, should be on shelves in the first quarter of 2013. It's set in the same lands as his novel Under Heaven, but several centuries later. Hopefully, the effect will be similar to that of reading The Lions of al-Rassan and the Sarantium Mosaic, two of his previous books which complimented each other wonderfully.

News: Creation of the A.E. VAN VOGT Award

The Winnipeg Science Fiction Association has just announced the creation of the A.E. van Vogt Award (The A.E.V.V.A.). Here's the press release:

Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada – The Winnipeg Science Fiction Association Inc (WINSFA) is delighted to announce the creation of the A.E. VAN VOGT Award (The A.E.V.V.A.).

Exactly 100 years ago, on April 26, 1912, Alfred Elton Van Vogt was born on a farm in Edenburg, a Russian Mennonite community east of Gretna, Manitoba, Canada. By July 1939, he had written his first Science Fiction story and had it professionally published.. He continued to write in Winnipeg until 1944 and it was during this time that one of his major stories “SLAN” was written. By 1995 he was awarded the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award by the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) . He has been the ONLY Canadian Science Fiction Writer to be awarded this major title.

News: Google launches new book alerts

From the Inside Google Books:

Starting this week, you can set up a Google Alert for books and receive email notices when new books that match your interests become available.

To create an alert for books, go to Google Alerts, type in the keywords you are interested in about a book, (whether it’s title, author name, or topic) and choose “Books” from the Type drop-down button, and create. You can also preview the email you’ll be sent on the right side panel. Once you create the alert, you will automatically begin receiving notification emails about new, recently published books in Google Books.

Get started with Google Books Advanced Search Interface!

News: Amazing Stories

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Amazing Stories Project Announces Editorial Advisory Board; Commissions Cover Art

Hillsboro, NH 10/21/11 - Steve Davidson (Crotchety Old Fan) who recently acquired the Trademarks for Amazing Stories, has announced the creation of an Editorial Advisory Board to assist in the re-launch of the world's first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories.

Currently serving on the board in a voluntary capacity are four former editors of Amazing Stories - Barry Malzberg, Patrick L. Price, Ted White and Joseph Wrzos (who edited under the pen name Joseph Ross).  Their tenures as editors of Amazing Stories spans nearly three decades and includes some of the most volatile, challenging and innovative periods in the magazine's history.

Each of the board members has made important contributions to the genre, serving variously as authors, agents, editors, collectors and historians. Their combined experience with the genre provides the Amazing Stories project with access to an unparalleled wealth of information.

Steve has also commissioned Frank Wu, multiple Hugo Award winning artist, to create a re-imagining of  Frank R. Paul’s inaugural cover illustration for the magazine.  The cover art will be made available on a variety of different media and will be used as a fund raising and promotional vehicle.

Additional details about the Amazing Stories project can be found in Steve Davidson's monthly column on the review blog Grasping for the Wind (10/21/11)

Those interested in following the project can visit the magazine's website at Amazing Stories Mag (sign up for a newsletter is available there) and on its Facebook page.

Steve Davidson is a science fiction fan, blogger, curator of the Classic Science Fiction Channel website, author of several paintball books and currently edits the news and information website for paintball - 68Caliber.  He made application for the Amazing Stories trademarks in 2008 and was granted the marks in September 2011.

Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle Complete

Christopher Paolini has announced the completion and delivery of the manuscript for the final book in the Inheritance Cycle. The book, Inheritance, hits shelves November 8th.

E-reader Ownership Doubled in Six Months

From a New Report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project:

“The percent of U.S. adults with an e-book reader doubled from 6% to 12% between November 2010 and May 2011. Hispanic adults, adults younger than age 65, college graduates and those living in households with incomes of at least $75,000 are most likely to own e-book readers. Parents are also more likely than non-parents to own these devices.

Tablet computers have not seen the same level of growth among U.S. adults in recent months. In May 2011, 8% of adults report owning a tablet computer such as an iPad, Samsung Galaxy or Motorola Xoom. This is roughly the same percentage of adults who reported owning this kind of device in January 2011 (7%), and represents just a 3 percentage-point increase in ownership since November 2010. Overall, the highest rates of tablet ownership are among Hispanic adults and those with household incomes of at least $75,000 annually.”

News: Library Icons turn One Hundred

Patience and Fortitude, the pair of lions flanking the entrance to New York Public Library (which Ghostbusters first introduced me to), will be celebrating their one century anniversary, and the library will be celebrating the milestone with a gala. Patience is the one on the south side (the left facing the entrance) and Fortitude is the one on the north side. According to an article in The New York Times the statues, which are 99 years, 11 months, 2 days old today, were not at all well received when they were first arrived at the library's 5th Avenue location. According to the Times, New Yorkers originally hated the statues, calling them "squash-faced, mealy-mouthed, and complacent." One reader wrote in to the editor to flatly declare: "We do not want square-jawed lions."

In case you were wondering, new, the statues cost thirteen thousand dollars each, or about three hundred thousand dollars in today's money.

Source: Flickr

News: Angry Robot launching Short Story Store

I just received the following press release via e-mail from Angry Robot.  It's an announcement that the publisher will be launching what it calls "Nano Editions," an online store for short stories. And may I just say, it's about (#@%^*) time someone did something along these lines. For years, I've been wondering why genre publications don't augment their subscriptions by selling short stories ala cart online. Shelling out thirty bucks to have banged up paper editions of my favorite magazines (that I don't have the shelf space to store) via snail mail each month is getting a bit old. Let's hope other publishers take note of Angry Robot's good idea. Read the full press release below:

ANGRY ROBOT ANNOUNCES DIGITAL SHORT STORY STORE

On December 1st 2010, Angry Robot will be launching “Nano Editions”. Exclusive to the publisher’s own webstore at angryrobotstore.com, Nanos are digital short stories by Angry Robot novelists, sold at sensible prices in ePub format, ready to load onto the world’s most popular eBook readers.

Nicholas Negroponte says books will be Gone in Five Years

Nicholas Negroponte of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) Association predicts that books are going the way of the phonograph. I'm not sure I buy the time frame he's talking about, but he makes a few good points.

There Are 129,864,880 Different Books in the World

Google, which is engaging in extensive book digitization projects, recently set out to determine the number of distinct print books currently in existence:

After some intensive analysis, we’ve come up with a number. Standing on the shoulders of giants—libraries and cataloging organizations—and based on our computational resources and experience of organizing millions of books through our Books Library Project and Books Partner Program since 2004, we’ve determined that number.

As of today, we estimate that there are 129,864,880 different books in the world. That’s a lot of knowledge captured in the written word! This calculation used an algorithm that combines books information from multiple sources including libraries, WorldCat, national union catalogs and commercial providers. And the actual number of books is always increasing.

Source:  GoogleBlog via Cool-O-Rama
Photo: Flickr user Nrbelex used Creative Commons license

W. S. Merwin Named New Poet Laureate

W.S. Merwin has been named the 17th U.S. Poet Laureate for 2010-2011.

"William Merwin’s poems are often profound and, at the same time, accessible to a vast audience," said James Billington, Librarian of Congress. "He leads us upstream from the flow of everyday things in life to half-hidden headwaters of wisdom about life itself. In his poem ‘Heartland,’ Merwin seems to suggest that a land of the heart within us might help map the heartland beyond—and that this ‘map’ might be rediscovered in something like a library, where ‘it survived beyond/ what could be known at the time/ in its archaic/ untaught language/ that brings the bees to the rosemary.’" For information about Merwin and his poetry, visit The Poetry Foundation and the Library of Congress Poetry Page.

The SF Signal Podcast

The popular blog SF Signal is launching its own podcast.  It their first episode they hold a round table discussion about the new exclusivity deal between Kindle and a host of authors represented by Literary Agent Andrew Wylie and how this could affect eBook sales and purchases of genre titles if similar deals become the norm.  Then, John DeNardo and JP Frantz, sit down with Lou Anders, editorial Director of Pyr books, to chat about his recent projects and anthologies.

Awards: 2010 Hugo Nominees

BEST NOVEL (699 nominating ballots)

• Boneshaker by Cherie Priest (Tor)
• The City & The City by China Miéville (Del Rey; Macmillan UK)
• Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America by Robert Charles Wilson (Tor)
• Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente (Bantam Spectra)
• Wake by Robert J. Sawyer (Ace; Penguin; Gollancz; Analog)
• The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade)

BEST NOVELLA (375 nominating ballots)

• “Act One” by Nancy Kress (Asimov’s 3/09)
• The God Engines by John Scalzi (Subterranean)
• “Palimpsest” by Charles Stross (Wireless)
• Shambling Towards Hiroshima by James Morrow (Tachyon)
• “Vishnu at the Cat Circus” by Ian McDonald (Cyberabad Days)
• The Women of Nell Gwynne’s by Kage Baker (Subterranean)