Book News
Sony unleashes latest Reader
With the market for electronic books still relatively sleepy, Sony Corp. is trying a new tack: untethering the latest model of its e-book reading device from its own online bookstore.
Last month, Sony provided a software update to the Reader, a thin slab with a 6-inch screen, so the device can display books encoded in a format being adopted by several large publishers. That means Reader owners are able to buy electronic books from stores other than Sony’s.
With the move, Sony is partly letting go of its e-book business model, under which it sold the $300 device and the books that could be read on it. It’s also a challenge to Inc., which last year put out its own e-book reader, the Kindle, and tied it to its own online store. Amazon, however, makes it relatively easy for publishers and individuals to submit books to sell through the store, with Amazon taking 65 percent of the proceeds.
Sony’s move could also help energize the e-book industry, which has yet to take off, despite the investment of big- name companies like Sony and Amazon. Neither has released sales figures for its reading devices. The Associated Press
First Lines
Good-bye and Amen by Beth Gutcheon
“The trouble started when Jimmy took the piano.
“Not their famous father’s Steinway; that was too valuable to keep and was, anyway, nine feet long. Jimmy took the piano from the living room, the baby grand that had belonged to their Danish aunt Nina, the Resistance hero. Everyone knew Monica wanted the piano more than anything, and certainly more than Jimmy did.
“Well, we all knew it. We assume Jimmy knew.
“The middle-aged orphans’ lottery. Three grown siblings come together at the scene of their shared childhood, which they experienced the same and totally differently in about equal parts, to divide up the contents of the house they grew up in. Was there ever a scene more fraught with possibility for bloodless injuries, sepsis in wounds no sane person wants to reopen? They’d have been better off burning the house down. But they hadn’t. So few do.
“Which we think is just as well. Birth is usually instructive. Death always. But as one of the minor passages, this one holds much interest. Deciding within a family how to divide or share what the dead leave behind is a test that tells.”
Picture book best sellers
1. You Can Do It! by Tony Dungy, illustrated by Amy June Bates
2. Gallop! by Rufus Butler Seder
3. Alphabet, by Matthew Van Fleet
4. A Visitor for Bear, by Bonny Becker, illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton
5. Read All About It! by Laura and Jenna Bush, illustrated by Denise Brunkus
6. Knuffle Bunny Too, by Mo Willems
7. Fancy Nancy: Bonjour Butterfly, by Jane O’Connor, illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser
8. Smash! Crash! by Jon Scieszka, illustrated by Loren Long and David Gordon
9. Dirt on My Shirt, by Jeff Foxworthy, illustrated by Steve Bjorkman
10. The Pigeon Wants a Puppy! by Mo Willems
Publishers Weekly
