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Find Hundreds of Free eBooks, Audio Books, and Textbooks at Open Culture

According to Young, changing technology is easy, changing cultural values is another story. Does this explain why readers are slow to embrace the e-book?

Why is publishing doing better than other "culture Industries"

"Each August since 1998, Beloit College has released the Beloit College Mindset List, providing a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college this fall." 2. They have always lived in cyberspace, addicted to a new generation of "electronic narcotics." 5. If they miss The Daily Show, they can always get their news on YouTube. 18. Their folks have never gazed with pride on a new set of bound encyclopedias on the bookshelf. 27. Outdated icons with images of floppy discs for "save," a telephone for "phone," and a snail mail envelope for "mail" have oddly decorated their tablets and smart phone screens. 35. Probably the most tribal generation in history, they despise being separated from contact with their similar-aged friends. 47. Before they purchase an assigned textbook, they will investigate whether it is available for rent or purchase as an e-book. 56. They have always enjoyed school and summer camp memories with a digital yearbook. 71. Despite being preferred urban gathering places, two-thirds of the independent bookstores in the United States have closed for good during their lifetimes.

Prior to the September 11 attacks and the stock market slump, one of the hottest policy issues debated by technology scholars was the so-called racial "digital divide," a term concocted to portray "haves and have nots" in the world of the Internet.

A reflection on threats to sustained, immersive reading and the culture that produces it.

Tucked away in libraries across the country are unexpected archives and world-class treasures, including nurse romance novels, forgers and other frauds, and painted books.

EW's pop-culture columnist takes a Beretta and blowtorch to the idea that men don't read.

The English language is rapidly approaching a million words. However, experts disagree on what exactly constitutes a "word." The Global Language Monitor uses proprietary software to monitor word use and popularity.

George Walkley, head of Hachette UK, discusses how to combat piracy at The Bookseller's Digital Conference.

Data-grounded research on the costs of media piracy developing economies.

Challenges to traditional textbook publishing.

Sad. Just very very sad

Bookish is a new online service for discovering and purchasing books. It's a joint venture of three of the largest trade publishers: Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Penguin. (Penguin will shortly be merging with Random House.)

It's all just a little bit of history repeating...some of these quotes sounds awfully familiar these days WRT lamenting how no one writes or reads paper anymore because of the frenetic pace of life.

Crowdfunding out-of-print books.

Always good to see small groups thinking outside the box and pooling their money to try something innovative.

Many new releases have design elements usually reserved for special occasions - deckle edges, colored endpapers, high-quality paper and exquisite jackets that push the creative boundaries of bookmaking. If e-books are about ease and expedience, the publishers reason, then print books need to be about physical beauty and the pleasures of owning, not just reading.

I find it interesting that while some of us in the US are lamenting the decline of the book, in other places in the world books and book production are actually enjoying a surge....

Google Editions launches!  This should be fun to watch.

Strange how there is no Arts/Culture subject category to browse (film? music? art? photography? painting? dance?), since they have other categories defined...

A useful antidote for some of the anxiety expressed in class. Yes things are changing, but it's not the of publishing, it's not the end of reading, it's not the writing, or the end of culture. The opportunities in publishing are far greater than any losses.