276°
Posted 20 hours ago

Book Wars: The Digital Revolution in Publishing

£15£30.00Clearance
ZTS2023's avatar
Shared by
ZTS2023
Joined in 2023
82
63

About this deal

History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides.I won’t lie to you, this is a long book. But it tells the history of the epic war between Athens and Sparta — it is geo-politics, it’s strategy, it’s leadership, it’s lessons in grief, rhetoric, and persuasion. From the beautiful and moving words of Pericles’ funeral oration to the cunning and creative tactics of the Spartan general Brasidas, this book has everything. There is also the powerful lesson of Athens’ overreach, which culminated their loss at Syracuse and still has immense implications today. And then there was the ultimate overreach by Sparta, who won the war but had no understanding of how to rule an empire. It’s a must read for any student of the world. (My favorite little tidbit, Thucydides fought in the war, but was apparently disgraced and missed much of it because he caught the plague.) As a follow up, the book A War Like No Other by Victor David Hanson is a good accessible but modern history of the battle. Mitchell, Elvis (9 June 2000). "FILM REVIEW; Selling Books on the Street in a Quality-of-Life Town". The New York Times.

The Liberator by Alex Kershaw.Col. Felix Sparks (later to be a Brigadier General) lands in Sicily in the first European invasion and makes it all the way to the gates of Dachau. He basically saw the entire trajectory of the Allied fight and victory over the Axis powers in WWII and this book is required reading for that reason. It gives you a full sense of just how awful the fighting in WWII really was and the quiet heroes who did it. Along with the other WWII books mentioned here and below, I recommend Ken Burns’ documentary The War, if only because it is largely based on these books and gives you a sense of the whole picture.In terms of predicting the future of the book, Thompson explains that speculating is hard to do. However, reflecting on recent patterns, he suggests that book publishing ‘will not be a one-way shift from print to digital […] but rather co-existent cultures of print and digital’ (426). Book Wars is well worth reading to understand where the book was in the latter part of the twentieth century and where it is headed well into the twenty-first. It is clearly here to stay, on our shelves as well as on our screens. The Heart and the Fist: The education of a humanitarian, the making of a Navy SEAL by Eric Greitens.Having spent his teenage and college years volunteering in refugee camps all over the world, Greitens was bothered by the impotence of it all — that he could do nothing but comfort innocent people in harm’s way. So he became a Navy SEAL. Sometimes, he observes, you have to be strong to do good, but you have to do good to be strong. Thus, the heart and the fist. This is a powerful, moving book about our recent conflicts abroad and an inspiring memoir about strength, will, and empathy. The author has left no stone unturned as he explores the rise of the e-book and how that has impacted the book world, and while digital technology had been feared by the publishers to begin with, it seems to have opened up new ideas to the 'print' world and seems to have rebooted the 'book' brand and publishing world - which is all good for us readers! FILM REVIEW; Selling Books on the Street in a Quality-of-Life Town (Published 2000)". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. There was no up-front money to continue editing and still no funding, so the director worked a variety of jobs to sustain himself and production of the movie, working as a freelance film editor, voice-over artist, and an assortment of temporary and odd jobs.

Knight’s Cross: A Life of Field Marshall Erwin Rommel by David Fraser. It’s going to feel weird reading a book about a German general in WWII but for Rommel we must make an exception. Yes, he fought for a terrible cause. But he did so brilliantly — as a soldier, strategist, and leader. His victories in North Africa were the stuff of legend, and had the US and British troops not ultimately had better resources, the whole thing might have turned out very differently. You cannot read about Rommel and not like and admire the man. I’m saying this so you’ll be prepared and ready to remind yourself that that doesn’t excuse his actions. But you can still learn from them. The granular data on the publishing industry is this book's strength. Sometimes that's pretty dull (who cares exactly what rate mp3s overtook cassettes in audiobook sales?), but sometimes it's really interesting: according to sales of one publisher in 2016, e-books account for more than half of total book sales for romance novels, 30-45% for other fiction, 10-30% for fiction but only 5% for kids' books (possibly because the less linear and/or text-only a book is, the less pleasant its e-book experience is).The work in progress of BookWars screened at the Independent Feature Project’s Independent Feature Film Market, while the nearly complete fine cut of BookWars screened at the New Filmmakers, New York series at Anthology Film Archives in the Spring of 2000.

BookWars veers stylistically from straight or journalistic documentaries through its use of creative devices. Slow motion is often employed, the narration is non-standard, the movie follows a distinct narrative structure, and dream sequences are utilized. Often, the subjects of the documentary take over as camera operators and record themselves and their surroundings at will.

1 Comments

What It Is Like To Go To War by Karl Marlantes.Read this book if you’re ready to have myths of war destroyed for you. A Yale and Oxford grad is dropped into Vietnam. There he is awarded two Purple Hearts and multiple other medals for bravery and leadership. In this book, you can actually watch as he struggles with the very human impulses to rationalize, glamorize, and justify what he was forced to do in those jungles. Yet he doesn’t — he is honest and introspective and gives us one of the most unique documents of combat and the mind of war ever written. (The essay Why Men Love War— also about Vietnam — is worth reading for similar reasons.) This is one of the most comprehensive and detailed explorations of the publishing industry with respect to the last 10 to 15 years of the digital revolution that I have ever read. No one is saying you need to read all these books. I have read them over many years (and partially because it’s my job) but you will be better for exposing yourself to whichever ones strike or intrigue you. And don’t stop with these titles either — fall down the rabbit hole and take it where it leads you. And if you liked these recommendations, you can get more every month by signing up for my reading newsletter.

Asda Great Deal

Free UK shipping. 15 day free returns.
Community Updates
*So you can easily identify outgoing links on our site, we've marked them with an "*" symbol. Links on our site are monetised, but this never affects which deals get posted. Find more info in our FAQs and About Us page.
New Comment