Buzz
by John Wolf
Ebooks have reached mainstream status in 2009 with sale numbers to back up the claims. This is relevant to each of us as writers. The times, they are a changin'. According to the Association of American Publishers, between 2002 and 2008, eBooks grew at a annual rate of 58% compared to 1.6% for the overall book industry. In the last two years, this trend has increase to 214% growth, which now accounts for 1% of all book sales.
Wait, that sounds small. There's more. In 2009 alone, that number has increased to 2.4% of all sales. These are numbers that make people like Warren Buffet's eyebrows rise slowly. I think you get the picture now. Let's move on.
Here are some trends that make all this possible. Screen reading now rivals paper as surveyed users of eBook readers say. They like it. The devices that provide you with eBooks, like the Kindle, the Barnes&Noble reader, Sony's device...are multiplying like the MP3 player surge of the recent past.
It didn't hurt when Oprah Winfrey blessed the industry and ogled the devices on her TV show, causing an overnight increase of 20% in Kindle sales. There are now hundreds of thousands of eBook files available, probably as fast as they can be uploaded to servers by publishers. Marketers are pulling out all the stops to entice electronic books. They use the ol' buy two, get one free, etc. The pumps are primed and the handle is flying up and down. We're pumping.
The library system is getting on the band wagon and will fuel the fire. Social groups and outlets have embraced this media. Even the Nerds are uniting to blend the protocols so that this phenomena can spread to handheld devices of all types. I can't imagine being engrossed in a novel on a Blackberry, but it's happening.
And most of all...it's much cheaper to buy a book this way. Okay, look out, that is going to turn the tide. We are in an eBook world now. I don't want to hear that, "But I love the smell of pulp dust when I pop open a real book." That's like the audiophile that still thinks scratchy vinyl records are here to stay. Digital everything is better than real—really. Soon women will be giving birth to digital babies.
Book Reviews
I have three books to recommend. They are all super, so pull out your best specticles and get cracking.
“In the Shadow of the Sphere” by Thomas Youngholm is a trip.
Tom’s book takes place in the jungles of Costa Rica and on the raging waters of the Rio Pacuare. It’s the story of a fellow named Digger, whose given name of Jonathan Taylor, has paid for a river ride in a far off place to get away from his problems of dealing with the women in his life. His mother’s recent death and the conflict he felt with his girl friend Bendi.
What he doesn’t expect is to fall into the mystical world of Los Otros, a band of people hundreds, if not thousand of years ago legend says were in the jungle and have connections to the world beyond by virtue of these intriguing spherical stones.
Tom introduces a Dr. Ortega, a museum conservator and professor of archeology and very informed about the known history of the spheres, when Digger’s girl friend goes to Costa Rica to find Digger after she has a dream that something had gone wrong with Digger’s trip. She travels to San Jose and sees these strange objects at the museum. Ortega is intrigued by her dream. It triggers ideas that match his. Bendi discovers Digger didn’t return with the other rafters, in fact, had gone off his own on a very eventful day. The earth shook; the river rose rapidly from a huge deluge storm and set off a chain of events the reader is swept away with along with the fate of poor Digger.
Will Bendi find him? Does the words of the professor ring true? Do the Los Otros still exist—all of these questions have answers, but in a much unexpected way. Mr. Youngholm takes the reader on an adventure of a lifetime or many lifetimes, considering the implications as Digger struggles to find himself, dealing with his past, and become a different person.
You can’t stop reading this excellently crafted book. The story tears at you emotionally and spiritually and new concepts emerge as the story of spheres and their power are revealed. Costa Rica has many hidden secrets entangled in its deep jungle, steeped with folk lore of magical jaguars and lost worlds. The land is violent with earth quakes and the weather is unforgiving. All of nature and the spirits of nature are speaking. Digger has to hear the voices and follow their advice to survive.
You will enjoy this book to the very last word. It's available through Amazon.
Click on this: next column
Next is a book titled: "Sleeping with Schubert" by Bonnie Marson. You quickly are introduced to the "fact" that the likeable protagonist, Lisa, is possessed by the spirit of the dead composer Franz Schubert—sure. But, Marson makes you believe it.
This is a smart, savvy, clever book, full of fun metaphors and a romp through the life of a young woman whose law career comes to an immediate halt, while she deals with the demon inside her.
Franz's talent is extended through her fingers and she become beyond famous and catches fire from all the notoriety.
This book is the dripping definition of chick-lit, but I found I enjoyed every page. It was just a hoot to read. I should have seen the ending coming, and was hoping for an eyepopping twist, but alas, it was fitting and appropreate afterall.
The book is available at Amazon in all its forms: hardcover, trade paperback and yes, eBook on a Kindle.
Next is “Thunder Below!” by Admiral Eugene B. Fluckey.
This is a University of Illinois publication copyright 1992. I felt fortunate to be able to read a copy of this extraordinary book. Normally, war stories are not my favorite, but this book is gripping, full of details of the life onboard the famous submarine US Barb that served with distinguished honor in WWII against Japanese forces, merchant ships, sampans, to include a few mills, factories, and one set of train tracks that was targeted by the crew of this slippery U-boat that came, saw, and conquered everything in its path.
This is not just a story of battles and danger, but of a leader that wielded cunning and determination in the face of the enemy that inspired his crew to go way beyond the call of duty. It was men like Admiral Fluckey that gave us victory in WWII over worldwide evil, especially in the Pacific where is started under the very precarious circumstances of losing the fleet at Pearl Harbor. I was so taken by the adventures, for a better word, in this story that I would have signed up for the next patrol tomorrow if the battle in the Pacific was still ongoing.
This story is about people and struggles against difficult odds. Fluckey obtained war records from the Japanese after the war to embellish the stories with distinct poignancy by letting the reader know what was in the mind of the adversary at the time the torpedoes flew. One particular heart wrenching tale told of the rescue of Australian and British POWs that happened to be on a Japanese ship sunk by the Barb. When it was revealed to the submarine there might be allied survivors, the Barb returned in typhoon conditions to save 14 men. Their sister submarine, Queenfish picked up 18. They stayed on station another 24 hour in 20 foot waves to look for others before they were driven away by the storm.
One of the survivors, Al Allbury, an Aussie, tells his side of the story and opens the reader to the lives of allied POWs during this most brutal conflict. Together with the submariner’s story, the reader is pulling at the pages to read faster with tearing eyes to be part of this story. Fluckey has a gifted talent to tell this story in a way that pulls the reader in. You feel like your right there. Excuse me while I get into some dry clothes. Batten down that hatch over there will you!
Not only is this book a pleasure to read, the history made by the Barb and its crew is remarkable. This submarine broke all the records for the times. Not only in number of ships sunk in one engagement, but the first to install rockets on deck to demonstrate the value of enemy harassment and disrupting vital war efforts, but the crew of the Barb holds the record for the only actual invasion by America soldiers on the Japanese homeland before the war ended by landing part of the crew to blow up a single track rail along the coast that constricted traffic between major rail centers. This daring mission shut down supply efforts for months, which never fully recovered. What the reader soon realizes is all this brilliant execution was the product of one Gene Fluckey, who was determined to end the war as soon as possible so he could return home to his family. In all of the daring action this ship saw during an unprecedented five patrols (the Navy physiatrists rule was to limit patrols to four) Captain Fluckey never lost a crewmember. They all came home heroes.
If you like to wrap yourself in the flag, you have to read this book.
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John keeps the kennels clean at the Fox&Quill Hunting Club. Move along. There nothing to see here. |
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