This is mostly a link I want to remember, but if you’re in publishing, you’ll be interested too:

John Battelle’s Searchblog has a good post on what’s at stake for publishers and Google.

Quote: First, who is making the money? Second, who owns the rights to leverage this new innovation – the public, the publisher, or … Google? Will Google make the books it scans available for all comers to crawl and index? Certainly the answer seems to be no. Google is doing this so as to make its own index superior, and to gain competitive advantage over others. That leaves a bad taste in the publisher’s mouths – they sense they are being disintermediated, and further, that Google is reinterpreting copyright law as they do it.

Battelle also points out that this is not just about books. Why couldn’t Google or anyone else scan and index video. “Look at who owns the book companies that are suing – ahhh, it’s Newscorp (Harper Collins), Viacom (Simon&Schuster), Time Warner (Little Brown).”

My favourite Vancouver kids bookstore is having its annual sale.

Thursday, January 19 to Sunday, January 22
Kidsbooks: 3083 West Broadway, Vancouver, or 3040 Edgemont Blvd., North Vancouver
20% off all stock plus further reductions on selected items.

If you’re a teacher or librarian or parent, this is the sale for you. Also the staff at Kidsbooks are incredibly knowledgeable. Ask them many questions. You don’t even have to put your hand up. It’s madness.

Are you a Canadian resident? Do you want to preview and review books before they hit the bookstore? Check out HarperCollins Canada’s First Look program.

Quote: First Look
Read and review tomorrow’s books today

This is a very cool idea. Partly because I want to read and review tomorrow’s books today, but also because I think Harper does a good job from a user point of view. The sign up was easy. The books on offer are clearly displayed, and once logged in, it looks like it is easy to request a copy. The reviews are also organized in an interesting way. Check out the reader reviews.

I’ve lobbied to review Justine Picardie’s My Mother’s Wedding Dress. It is a nonfiction memoir about Picardie’s garments, in particular how clothes create narrative, for example, how tight plastic pants say just a little something about you.

Is there a garment lurking in your closet that you’d rather no one know about? Why not publicly rejoice the misguided nature of that purchase? Post a photo on your blog or a comment below with a description. Articles that have made it to the Salvation Army, but once existed in your closet, still count.

In the geek work today I watched the live transcript of Steve Jobs’ keynote address at Macworld.

I learned the following:
10:41 am Shows pic of Jobs and Woz. will be 30 years in 4-1-2006.
10:33 am Demoing the new MacBook Pro.

I want one. Ships in February. Has a small camera in it, the isight. Hair thinner than the 17″ but is the fastest notebook ever. iWork and iLife are awesome, and now there’s iWeb. I can barely breathe. The crowd goes wild.

Apple also released Mac OS X 10.4.4 along with a number of other software (iTunes 6.0.2, Quicktime 7.0.4, iLife ’06, iWork ’06).

So I like the 12″ iBook, which is where I was going to put my money, but now …

If money wasn’t an option, which it is, but ignore that for now, which one would you choose? From a tech geek perspective rather than a fashion accessory perspective.

Here’s another plug for Women Who Blog, but also for Marti Leimbach, author of Daniel Isn’t Talking. See my book review.

In the comments field of my review, Marti posted:
Quote: … Daniel Isn’t Talking is a very special novel to me because it is drawn, in part, from my own real life as a mother of an autistic boy.

I have a written a little about the novel on my website www.martileimbach.com if ever you want to have a look. I am also reading at the Harbourfront Centre on Wednesday April 26 at 7:30. If you happen to be there, please come and introduce yourself afterwards!

So not only is Marti talking on my blog, and at Harbourfront Centre, she also has a blog:
http://www.martileimbach.com/forum.asp

If you want to get an idea of her novel’s style, read the post about her son Nicholas learning to skate. She seems to post once a month. I didn’t see an RSS feed, which means I’ll have to remember to keep visiting instead of subscribing, also the Harbourfront website doesn’t seem to be updated yet for 2006, but here’s the link to events.

The book is coming, in the meantime, read the blog.

I don’t want to turn this into a love fest, but … Patricia at BookLust called my writing style “elegant and enchanting.” The comment is within the context of a post on Women Who Blog. Patricia is outraged about a recent Glamour magazine article that gives women bloggers some exposure, but essentially portrays them as “vacuuous idiots who are lonely and crave attention” (Patricia’s words). The subheader is apparently “Are They Self-Absorbed Exhibitionists? Groovy Free Spirits? Or Just Plain Bored? Meet Them And Decide For Yourself.” Rightly so, Patricia has challenged this foolish commentary and listed 5 women who blog and are not vapid, self-absorbed lunatics. I was listed. (Clearly Patricia has been protected from firsthand exposure to my madness.)

The honour of the link on Patricia’s site, which I love, is much appreciated and in return I want to mention 5 other women who deserve some attention.

First, of course, is Patricia who deserves a mention for her very witty blog about cartoons, her life, and books. One of my top three sites to visit whenever I fire up Bloglines.

Jen of Canuck Librarian who continues to amuse me with her commentary on libraries and working as a librarian. It is the Dilbert nature of so many jobs that gets me giggling like a drain.

Susannah Gardener of Buzz Marketing with Blogs. Part buzz marketing, part techie, part business, part blogosphere insider’s look. And she has published a couple of books with Wiley. Who doesn’t like a girl who can geek it up?

Lalia of Moorish Girl who writes about books, including her own, plus cultural or political commentary on the world, particularly the Arab world. Her book is Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits. Not only a great title, but I’m sure her writing is as good as her blog.

Lex of Canadian girl out and aboot who writes about writing and dance and TV. I think she is my doppleganger. We have similar allergies, we both dance, we know people who work at the Canadian Cooperative Association, we’re prairie girls, I’ll stop there. I like her site because her writing is very real. I do enjoy a voyeurist view of other people’s lives.

Those are just a few of the women I read out of personal interest. There’s a whack of them I read out of business interest, either technology or books or tap dancing.

So is there a woman blogger in your life who you’d like to mention? Share the love.