We’ve had a couple of bits of feedback that the site sometimes isn’t as fast as it should be, and it can be hard to search for books and use the bookcase application.
So this week Rob and Nick have implemented a new search engine that now operates all the book, author, user and content searches on the site.
So searching should now be blisteringly fast and bookcase tagging should be much easier.
It is also a more intelligent search, so you should now get better search result. Give it a try.
The complete set of seven Harry Potter “deluxe” first editions signed by J. K. Rowling sold at Cameo Fine Art Auctioneers in Midgham, Berkshire for £17,800. The Illustrated hard covers were in near fine condition, signed, but without dedication, went to an anonymous overseas buyer. Apparently the lots were not true first editions, but the first in Bloomsbury’s ‘deluxe’ series, but still, £17,800 is not a bad figure for the seller, and one wonders what the price the books would fetch if they were first editions.
Henry Winkler of Fonz fame from the classic hit TV series Happy Days has written the Hank Zipzer books about a 10-year-old boy with dyslexia to help dyslexic children. Winkler himself a dyslexia sufferer has been in London to launch the National Year of Reading and made an appearance at the Department of Children, Schools and Families’ Teaching Awards.
“Just because we learn differently, that does not mean that we are not incredibly smart human beings. That’s something I need every child to understand.”
His books are amusingingly titled Hank Zipzer: I Got a “D” in Salami and Hank Zipzer: Niagara Falls - or Does It?
…apparently these books ‘rock!’ very much like the Fonz.
Hitting Back
‘With Andy, the sky’s the limit…’ - John McEnroe. At Wimbledon in 2005, a young, brash Andy Murray came out of nowhere and thrashed star pros Georges Bastl and Radek Stepanek. His dramatic winning run came to an end against David Nalbandian, but a legend was born, and Britain had a new sporting hero. Henman Hill was renamed Murray Mound, and Henmania became Andymonium. In 2006, Murray went stellar. He won his first ATP trophy at San Jose, California, where he beat former world number 1s Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt en route to the title. In the same month he became the British Number 1. By the end of a wonderful year in which he became one of only two players to beat Roger Federer, Murray was number 17 in the world. But Murray is much more than a truly gifted tennis player and potential world champion.He has changed the face of the game, blowing away the Middle England cobwebs of the All England Club, and dividing opinion with his brash, straight-talking style, anti-establishment rhetoric and on-court anger and passion. A whole new generation of kids are now officially tennis fans. Andy has made tennis cool again, for the first time since the days of McEnroe, Borg and Nastase. Here, in his own words for the first time, Andy Murray will talk about the long, testing, and sometimes difficult path to superstardom. The boy from Dunblane will talk about having to deal with the constant limelight and attention from a media and a general public desperate for a genuine British tennis star, and he’ll give the exclusive lowdown on Wimbledon 2007 as he prepares to go all-out guns blazing for grass-court glory. Tempermental, gifted, passionate, fiery: Murray is the dazzling new face of tennis, and a role model to a whole generation. Andy’s story will enthrall and excite the entire country.
According to a recent survey by Piper Jaffray & Co. 71% would not buy a Kindle digital book reader, 71% still would not buy if price was not a pivoting factor, and 60% surveyed would not want one even if it was free.
High mileage readers were also less likely to be tempted by the Kindle digital book reader, book lovers preferring real books, libraries and swopping books between friends.
This is also echoed by research by A Zogby International/Random House survey of reading habits in the United States. Approximately 4% of those surveyed said they would purchase a digital reader, but a whopping 80% wouldn’t buy one. The general consensus of fair magnitude is 82% of readers like to curl up with a printed book.
