tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-306049792024-03-13T19:41:33.375-07:00Dead Tree BlogA blog about booksJonathan Pottshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18433924194960127561noreply@blogger.comBlogger91125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30604979.post-74784178098363542002009-01-07T19:27:00.001-08:002009-01-08T13:49:16.572-08:00<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/686207.Head_and_Heart_American_Christianities?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Head and Heart: American Christianities" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41brRR0YZvL._SL160_.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/686207.Head_and_Heart_American_Christianities?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Head and Heart: American Christianities</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/228.Garry_Wills">Garry Wills</a><br/><br/><br /> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/11088408?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a><br /> rating: 4 of 5 stars<br/>This was a sophisticated history of the Christian faith in the United States, and how it has influenced culture and politics. Wills' premise is that America has had two main strains of Christianity: Enlightment (head) and evangelical (heart). They reached synthesis at key points in our history, namely to oppose slavery and fight for civil rights for African Americans and other minorities. <br /><br/><br /><br/>The early chapters are a bit of a slog -- it's hard to keep track of all the Puritan offshoots and leaders, and Wills assumes a lot of knowledge on the part of the casual reader. The book is most entertaining when Wills examines Transcendatlism, religion and the Civil War and the evangelical awakening in the early part of the 20th century.<br /> <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/322133?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>Jonathan Pottshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18433924194960127561noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30604979.post-59236119465006344472008-11-16T11:29:00.000-08:002008-11-16T11:30:13.968-08:00<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3109.The_Omnivore_s_Dilemma?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="The Omnivore's Dilemma" border="0" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1192945129m/3109.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3109.The_Omnivore_s_Dilemma?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">The Omnivore's Dilemma</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2121.Michael_Pollan">Michael Pollan</a><br/><br/><br /> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/13010761?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a><br /> rating: 3 of 5 stars<br/>I really loved this book, until I hit the last three chapters, which is where an editor needed to have stepped in to say "Enough with the mystical properties of wild mushrooms already."<br /><br/><br /><br/>Still, this was an incredibly well-written, thoughtful citique of modern American eating habits, and the political, social and economic forces that have shaped them. <br /> <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/322133?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>Jonathan Pottshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18433924194960127561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30604979.post-35790157203883545702008-11-16T11:28:00.001-08:002008-11-16T11:28:59.185-08:00<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11588.The_Shining?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="The Shining" border="0" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166480264m/11588.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11588.The_Shining?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">The Shining</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3389.Stephen_King">Stephen King</a><br/><br/><br /> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/10921342?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a><br /> rating: 4 of 5 stars<br/>This is one of those books that I'm glad I read after seeing the film adaptation. I wouldn't have enjoyed Stanley Kubrick's movie version nearly as much had I read the book first.<br /><br/><br /><br/>Stephen King, you may know, was not too pleased with Kubrick's adaptation. For one, he thought Jack Nicholson's interpretation of the character of Jack Torrance left little doubt that he would go insane and try to murder his family. When we meet him, he seems halfway there already.<br /><br/><br /><br/>Indeed, Jack Torrance was a far more complex character in the novel, and the film by necessity dispensed with much of his backstory. Jack Torrance of the film was clearly ill-suited for domestic life, and barely cared to conceal it. The Torrance of the novel, however, was a loving father who wanted to be a good husband. Nonetheless, he was beset by demons that cost him his job, and it was out of desperation that he agreed to become the caretaker for the Overlook Hotel.<br /><br/><br /><br/>In the book, Jack Torrance struggled against insanity, but was overcome by the hotel's malignant power. This was a tragedy in the novel; in the film, it was the subject of black comedy. Torrance was merely a horror film monster that had to be evaded and destroyed. I do give the film credit, however, for providing a more chilling ending than the book. At the end of the novel, the hotel was destroyed, its evil laid to rest. But in the film, it lived to fight another day, and Jack Torrance had become part of its dark history.<br /> <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/322133?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>Jonathan Pottshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18433924194960127561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30604979.post-39615462779395484662008-11-16T11:25:00.001-08:002008-11-16T11:25:37.294-08:00<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21685.A_Drink_Before_the_War?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="A Drink Before the War" border="0" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167322952m/21685.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21685.A_Drink_Before_the_War?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">A Drink Before the War</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/10289.Dennis_Lehane">Dennis Lehane</a><br/><br/><br /> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/26283524?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a><br /> rating: 3 of 5 stars<br/>This is the first book in the Kenzie-Genarro series, but I actually read it after I read <a href="/search/search?q=+Gone+Baby+Gone&t=title"> Gone Baby Gone</a>, which I enjoyed much more than this one. Perhaps because Lehane had already introduced his characters, he wasted much less time in exposition and backstory. I found the background about Kenzie's father tiresome, and it lacked the emotional resonance that Lehane no doubt intended. The book also seemed preachy. <br /><br/><br /><br/>Nonetheless, Lehane knows how to tell a story, and this one zipped right along. <br /> <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/322133?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>Jonathan Pottshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18433924194960127561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30604979.post-62137630583526852382008-07-23T19:15:00.000-07:002008-07-23T19:17:20.183-07:00<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/472343.Duma_Key?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Duma Key" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516WEx5I49L._SL160_.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/472343.Duma_Key?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Duma Key</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3389.Stephen_King">Stephen King</a><br/><br/><br /> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/24879508?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a><br /> rating: 4 of 5 stars<br/>This may not have been Stephen King's best novel, but it's up there, and it's going to stick with me for a long time. Like many of King's recent works, the book is not so much terrifying as emotionally haunting; it is full of suspense and a heaping dose of the supernatural, but its power comes from its exploration of human grief and suffering. <br /><br/><br /><br/>Faithful readers will appreciate some of the nods King makes to his other books, though some are familiar to me from their film adaptations. (For example, there's a line that seems lifted almost straight from "Stand By Me" and there are refernces familar from "The Shawshank Redemption.") The evil China figurine Perse reminds me of the can toi from "The Dark Tower" series as well as "Desperation", but I'll need to spend some quality time on Wikipedia exploring those links.<br /><br/><br /><br/>Bottom line, King will fans will love this, but like <a href="/search/search?q= Bag of Bones&t=title"> Bag of Bones</a> and <a href="/search/search?q= Hearts in Atlantis&t=title"> Hearts in Atlantis</a>, I'd recommend it as well to those who have never read him. He once again proves his chops as a writer of serious literature.<br /> <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/322133?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>Jonathan Pottshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18433924194960127561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30604979.post-18388713286993931162008-06-11T17:28:00.000-07:002008-06-11T17:47:52.202-07:00I recently watched the cinematic adaptation of P.D. James' "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307279901/102-1846740-6116115?ie=UTF8&tag=theconversa00-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=0307279901">Children of Men</a>", a dystopian novel set in a future in which the entire human race has become infertile. This may be one of those films that I would have appreciated more had I not read the book ahead of time. It was well-made but the story, which departed significantly from the source material, seemed flat in comparison to the book.<br /><br />For one thing, the novel tells a much richer story, with deeper characterization. The film, which came in at just under two hours, probably could have spent more time developing a backstory. The novel is full of details that provide a vivid and poignant picture of a world without children, one in which society is slowly dying. James alternates chapters between the third-person and the first-person perspective of her protagonist, Theo. This allows us to imagine the novel's decaying England through Theo's eyes and to learn all there is to know about him, much of it unpleasant. We barely get acquainted with the Theo of the film before he is thrust into action, becoming involved with a revolutionary group that is sheltering the first woman to bear a child in a generation.<br /><br />All told, the novel is sadder and darker, with a less likeable hero and a more ambigious ending. In the film, England is ruled by an openly repressive regime whose jack-booted enforcers operate with impunity. The tyranny of the government in the novel is hidden by a veneer of paternalistic benevolence, which makes it seem somehow more insidious and chilling. "Children of Men" was one the best books I've read in the past year. The film was entertaining but ultimately forgettable.Jonathan Pottshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18433924194960127561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30604979.post-77018578153658161002008-04-09T17:46:00.000-07:002008-04-09T17:47:34.632-07:00My co-worker and fraternity brother Val Brkich is organizing a book festival this summer in Bridgewater, Beaver County. More info is <a href="http://www.bridgewaterbookfest.com/">here</a>.Jonathan Pottshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18433924194960127561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30604979.post-1566940852863723942008-04-03T17:44:00.000-07:002008-04-03T17:45:55.019-07:00Ever break up with someone <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/books/review/Donadio-t.html?_r=1&em&ex=1207108800&en=7b4467fc2951f2de&ei=5070&oref=slogin">because of their book collection</a>?Jonathan Pottshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18433924194960127561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30604979.post-43520761100954212262008-03-11T16:51:00.000-07:002008-03-11T18:41:06.722-07:00I just read "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743424425/105-9023737-7856469?ie=UTF8&tag=theconversa00-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=0743424425">The Shining</a>" (spoilers ahead), and it's one of those books, <a href="http://deadtreeblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/copeland-links-to-site-where-writers.html">which I've discussed before</a>, that I'm glad I read after seeing the film adaptation. I wouldn't have enjoyed Stanley Kubrick's <a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0081505/">movie version</a> nearly as much had I read the book first.<br /><br />Stephen King, you may know, was not too pleased with Kubrick's adaptation. For one, he thought Jack Nicholson's interpretation of the character of Jack Torrance left little doubt that he would go insane and try to murder his family. When we meet him, he seems halfway there already.<br /><br />Indeed, Jack Torrance was a far more complex character in the novel, and the film by necessity dispensed with much of his backstory. Jack Torrance of the film was clearly ill-suited for domestic life, and barely cared to conceal it. The Torrance of the novel, however, was a loving father who wanted to be a good husband. Nonetheless, he was beset by demons that cost him his job, and it was out of desperation that he agreed to become the caretaker for the Overlook Hotel.<br /><br />In the book, Jack Torrance struggled against insanity, but was overcome by the hotel's malignant power. This was a tragedy in the novel; in the film, it was the subject of black comedy. Torrance was merely a horror film monster that had to be evaded and destroyed. I do give the film credit, however, for providing a more chilling ending than the book. At the end of the novel, the hotel was destroyed, its evil laid to rest. But in the film, it lived to fight another day, and Jack Torrance had become part of its dark history.Jonathan Pottshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18433924194960127561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30604979.post-76792983756052955942008-02-26T18:55:00.000-08:002008-02-26T18:57:42.018-08:00Fifty <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/02/23/bocrime123.xml&page=1">must-read crime writers</a>.Jonathan Pottshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18433924194960127561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30604979.post-24117618543088379782008-01-23T17:57:00.001-08:002008-01-23T17:58:34.063-08:00If you've ever wondered what books Art Garfunkel has read over the last 40 years -- and who hasn't? -- then <a href="http://www.artgarfunkel.com/library.html">this is for you</a>.Jonathan Pottshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18433924194960127561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30604979.post-45224381849718416172008-01-12T10:49:00.000-08:002008-01-12T10:50:52.611-08:00The New York Times has had a couple of essays recently about adaptations and re-tellings of novels and classic stories, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/25/books/review/Donadio-Essay-t.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=%22golden+compass%22+adaptations&oref=slogin">here</a> and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/books/review/Gee-t.html?8bu=&emc=bu&pagewanted=all">here</a>.Jonathan Pottshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18433924194960127561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30604979.post-81171371402359696972008-01-07T16:55:00.000-08:002008-01-07T16:57:42.573-08:00I haven't had a chance to read it, but I discovered <a href="http://www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com/detritus/moses/">Robert Moses' response </a>to Robert Caro's "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0394720245?ie=UTF8&tag=theconversa00-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=0394720245">The Power Broker</a>."Jonathan Pottshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18433924194960127561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30604979.post-76370970040431507782007-11-25T13:53:00.000-08:002007-11-25T14:07:43.035-08:00<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/25/weekinreview/25rich.html?_r=1&ref=weekinreview&oref=slogin">This New York Times essay</a> ponders what it is that turns a person into an avid reader. Which books spark the habit? For me it was probably <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardy_Boys">the Hardy Boys</a>, which seemed a bit less dated in the early 1980s than I'm guessing they do today. I read the newer tales as well as the old books that were left over from my father's and older brother's childhoods.<br /><br />Having a library card helped. For a year or two when I was in elementary school my mother got us cards for the Greensburg (Pa.) library, and I checked out several books every couple of weeks. By the time I was in junior high, books were among my favorite gifts, and Stephen King and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonlance">Dragonlance chronicles</a> propelled me into high school.<br /><br />Lately, I've rediscovered the joys of the library, and the <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/">Goodreads</a> social networking site is an endless source of book recommendations.Jonathan Pottshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18433924194960127561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30604979.post-26160893975374205412007-11-22T07:37:00.000-08:002007-11-22T07:41:12.818-08:00<a href="http://www.triggerstreet.com/gyrobase/index">TriggerStreet.com</a> allows you to submit book and film manuscripts to be reviewed by others -- and you review others' manuscripts in return. Maybe I'll submit <a href="http://jonathanpotts.blogspot.com/2006/11/done-and-done.html">my novel</a>.Jonathan Pottshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18433924194960127561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30604979.post-92044377939782714552007-11-22T07:30:00.000-08:002007-11-22T07:31:44.990-08:00Take this for what it's worth:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.criticsrant.com/bb/reading_level.aspx"><img style="border: none;" src="http://www.criticsrant.com/bb/readinglevel/img/genius.jpg" alt="cash advance" /></a><p><small>Jonathan Pottshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18433924194960127561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30604979.post-84811669074169690892007-10-30T17:52:00.000-07:002007-10-30T17:53:47.151-07:00Slate asked some contemporary authors to name <a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2176907/">classic books that they have never read</a>. It makes me feel a bit better about the gaps on my own bookshelf.Jonathan Pottshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18433924194960127561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30604979.post-88252147853488745352007-10-26T15:39:00.000-07:002007-10-26T15:49:52.324-07:00Post-Gazette writer Mark Roth pointed me to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/24/arts/24book.html?ex=1193976000&en=8b640f29d8be5689&ei=5070&emc=eta1">this story </a>about German booksellers, who are fearful now that the Swiss government has eliminated a rule, which Germany shares, that prohibited on books. This has allowed small and independent book stores in Germany to survive, while their counterparts in America and England have fallen to the big chains.<br /><br />Competition from the Swiss, however, may force Germany to follow suit:<br /><br /><em>Meanwhile, opinion is divided about what the Swiss decision will mean in Germany. </em><a title="More articles about Michael Naumann." href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/n/michael_naumann/index.html?inline=nyt-per"><em>Michael Naumann</em></a><em>, a longtime publisher and editor, now running for mayor of Hamburg, as Germany’s culture minister some years back won a battle with the </em><a title="More articles about the European Union." href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/e/european_union/index.html?inline=nyt-org"><em>European Union</em></a><em> to protect Germany’s fixed-price system. He’s not too worried, he said.</em><br /><br /><em>“The fixed book price has worked for more than a century and has provided us with the most competitive book industry, something the market ideologues don’t quite understand,” he said.</em><br /><em><br />But Elisabeth Ruge sounds fearful. She runs Berlin Verlag, the German publisher of </em><a title="More articles about Richard Ford." href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/f/richard_ford/index.html?inline=nyt-per"><em>Richard Ford</em></a><em> and of the English-language edition of the most recent “</em><a title="Recent and archival news about Harry Potter." href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/complete_coverage/harry_potter/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier"><em>Harry Potter</em></a><em>,” which has sold more than one million copies here. It’s not just the Swiss market, she said, but especially the growth of the German chain stores that troubles her.</em><br /><br /><em>“Small literary bookshops here sell our books and other literary books,” she explained. “The chain stores don’t even see our sales reps anymore.” Her representatives visit 2,600 independent bookshops in Germany, three times every year. </em><br /><em></em><br />I don't know what bookstores are like in Germany or the rest of Europe. But <a href="http://deadtreeblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/scott-mclemee-who-i-met-few-weeks-ago.html">as I've said before</a>, I believe the value of independent bookstores is overstated.Jonathan Pottshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18433924194960127561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30604979.post-80960761598279627192007-10-20T08:45:00.000-07:002007-10-20T08:47:15.574-07:00Steve at Blogspotting discovers that publishers and booksellers are <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/blogspotting/archives/2007/10/local_blog_bari.html">targeting local blogs </a>for reviews.Jonathan Pottshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18433924194960127561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30604979.post-61863401316493161172007-10-20T08:38:00.000-07:002007-10-20T08:43:20.315-07:00Dumbledore <a href="http://www6.comcast.net/news/articles/entertainment/2007/10/20/Books.Harry.Potter/">gay</a>? Isn't the whole gay boarding school thing some kind of bad British stereotype?Jonathan Pottshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18433924194960127561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30604979.post-31726937624321733072007-10-09T18:25:00.001-07:002007-10-09T18:27:30.618-07:00Quick -- who was the publisher of the last book you read? Steve Baker bets you don't know, and that's why he can't understand <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/blogspotting/archives/2007/10/where_should_au.html">why authors have blogs at their publishers' websites</a>, where readers will never find them.<br /><br /><em></em>Jonathan Pottshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18433924194960127561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30604979.post-67770590976813501682007-09-29T08:06:00.001-07:002007-09-29T08:06:35.534-07:00This Monday: <a href="http://2politicaljunkies.blogspot.com/2007/09/12th-annual-banned-books-reading.html">a banned book reading</a>.Jonathan Pottshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18433924194960127561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30604979.post-86336192524275071712007-09-24T17:55:00.000-07:002007-09-24T18:01:42.177-07:00My colleague Robert Mendelsohn has written a new book, "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1600372783/104-1898193-1827135?ie=UTF8&tag=theconversa00-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=1600372783">The Chase for Beauty</a>", which is described today in the <a href="http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07267/820015-44.stm">Post-Gazette</a>.Jonathan Pottshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18433924194960127561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30604979.post-45211122811024566782007-09-23T09:01:00.000-07:002007-09-23T09:04:26.678-07:00The New York Times tackled the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/16/books/review/Donadio-t.html?_r=1&ei=5070&en=3cc7b0bf4e6c0b30&ex=1190520000&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&emc=eta1&adxnnlx=1190563235-SZ/tqyEtpFvuWIlZmlJ3lQ">canon wars </a>last week.Jonathan Pottshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18433924194960127561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30604979.post-72140247101723397912007-09-06T18:13:00.000-07:002007-09-06T18:16:13.110-07:00Heather at Blogspotting thinks eBooks are a solution in search of a problem:<br /><br /><em>But honestly, as much as I am fascinated by the notion of having a digital version of a book, the problems it purports to address seem like none issues to me. I don't want to carry around more than one book and between Amazon online and Barnes and Noble around the corner, there really isn't that much of a wait between when I think of a book and when I get it. </em><br /><br /><em>There is one thing though, that a digital book could address that would probably persuade me to try these devices: a lower price. Afterall, a digital version of a book costs less to product than a physical version of it. However, this isn't an advantage that the ebook folks are talking about. So it makes me skeptical about whether they will offer enough of a price difference to make it worth my while. </em>(<a href="http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/blogspotting/archives/2007/09/can_the_ebook_b.html?campaign_id=rss_blog_blogspotting">link</a>)Jonathan Pottshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18433924194960127561noreply@blogger.com0