Actual news, plus a quote roundup

First things first: Omnibus is moving to a new home. If you've already dropped by Bookselling This Week, you've probably seen the shiny new site we've got now. (And if the shiny doesn't impress you enough, let me say that the back end changes make it all so very worth it.)

And the new BTW site is on a much bigger server, so we decided to move Omnibus over there, where it can share a platform with its less frivolous sibling. (Kind of like how NPR.org hosts serious news and Monkey See, no? Except in this case I get to be both Nina Totenberg and Linda Holmes.)

From now on, therefore, Omnibus can be found at http://news.bookweb.org/omnibus. I'll post identical content at both the old and new sites for the next few weeks, but once we get the RSS feed working over there, you're on your own.

One other bit of business: As next week is BEA, and I'll be covering the show for BTW (being Nina Totenberg, in other words), no Omnibus update next Friday.

But I'll make up for it with a decent list of quotes today.

Never heard of the groundwood-vs-free-sheet debate? You haven't been following Permanence Matters:

"My concern is that the physical book's competitive edge over ebooks is that it's an object. Quality needs to increase, not decrease. Because if hardcovers deteriorate to the extent that they are disposable, I have one less argument for their existence."

If I could wear this shirt without appearing anti-tech, I'd be all over it - I'm a sucker for Nixon puns:

"I am not a book." (see also)

On a related note, a clear winner for quote-of-the-week (bonus points awarded for interrobang use):

"When did the Kindle become a baby seal?!" (For the q-o-w runner-up, read this opening paragraph.)

Our Canadian cousins have been having a fun week. (And can anyone explain this to me - if The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest isn't big enough for a one-day laydown up north, then what is?):

"In the words of Indigo’s Star Wars counterpart, M. le Vader, 'I am altering the deal. Pray that I do not alter it further…'"

Got ideas? Send 'em along:

"So if I were organizing Tools of Change, I’d want to scan the horizon for technologies that could have an impact and ask 'how?' Because I’m organizing Digital Book World, I’m looking at trade publishing’s commercial environment and operations for the impact of technology and asking 'what should we do?'"

Roger Ebert issues a challenge:

"We should start a Campaign for Real Movies. These also would not be carbonated by CGI or 3D. They would be carefully created by artists, from original recipes, i.e., screenplays. Each movie would be different. There would be no effort to force them into conformity with commercial formulas."

Posted at 05:08PM May 22, 2010 by Sarah Rettger in General  |