A Random Thought about Reading & Writing

I've had a weird little bout of writers block for a few days.

What is weird about it is that I have had plenty of ideas to write about, but one idea that doesn't seem nearly worthy enough to post keeps getting in the way. It's as though I can't write anything else until I get this out...

Since I heard Joe Wickert of Wiley speak at Publishing University last month about blogging, I've been inspired to keep it up. And to do so, I've found that I am doing an amazing amount of reading. And it's not just in the blogosphere, but that has been significant, it is everywhere in my life. Since committing to writing, I've become an almost insatiable consumer of the written word.

Some I skim, and some I savor, but I think that I've read more in the past month than I have in the past two years!

I'm not quite sure where to go with this notion. It's probably something that writers - of all kinds - have experienced forever. But, it is a new concept to me. I have to believe that there is some lesson for our education system here.

When I was coming out of college, everyone 'said' you had to have good written communication skills, but, if you had a major like mine (Computer Science/Math), no one really worried much about your writing skills. Since the advent of email, however, we've all had to sure them up. And, with the rise of social networking, it seems that this requirement has taken another quantum leap.

Extrapolating out my reading and writing experience, it seems that the more we as people in a society want to be part of the blogospheric dialog, the greater demand we are going to place on written content. This has to bode well for publishers...

Well, now that this is out of my system, maybe I can get back to writing about other things. Thanks for taking the time to read this!

Thank You, Thank You

I started writing this post after an incredible evening back in late September, but never finished it. For this Thanksgiving day, it seems appropriate to share, now...

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Last night, I had one of those magical moments...

On a whim, and at the encouragement of my wife, I went for a sail by myself after work. I own a 1976 Catalina '27, and I don't get out on it often enough.The weather has been spectacular lately, and I got to the boat at about 5:30pm. It takes me about 45 minutes to get out of the river to the ocean.

So, about 6:30pm, I was exiting the mouth of the Merrimack, and I put up my sails.There was a gentle, 7-8 knot breeze and the swells were only about a foot. As I cut the engine and let the wind take the boat (which in itself is one of my favorite moments in life), I couldn't help but be choked up by the beauty of it all. The sun was a big orange ball setting off my stern, and to starboard a half moon was rising. All around me, the skies were multi-hued orange and purple.

About 3 minutes later, Natalie Merchant's, "Kind and Generous" played on the radio, and I felt completely overwhelmed by how lucky I was. And, as Ms. Merchant sang, "Thank you, thank you - thank you, thank you", it was hard not to think about how incredibly fortunate I have been in my life. I have a great family and wonderful friends and coworkers. Compared to most, I really want for very little.

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My wish for you all on this Thanksgiving day is that you put aside the battles and recall one of your magical moments. Maybe you will even have one today! Then take the time to thank God for all your good fortune.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Can Jeff Bezos be Santa Claus?

subtitle: My Christmas Wish

All the news about Kindle, and my own very high hopes for the XO Pc got me thinking... wouldn't it be nice if.....

Picture the setting, the W Hotel in Union Square in NYC. One of the hippest locations in town. It's 9:30am on Monday, November 19th. Some nameless PR person from Amazon is providing a colorful introduction for the main speaker, Jeff Bezos, President, and resident big kid at Amazon.

With his trademark guffaw and his huge smile he approaches the podium with a big cardboard Amazon box. He puts the box down on a small table beside the podium. He looks at the crowd, and gives them another of his 'billion dollar grins'.

He reaches into the box and pulls out the Kindle, and triumphantly holds it up over his head, and says nothing. The crowd starts to clap, there are obligatory smiles all around the room which is crowded not only with members of the press, but with big dignitaries from all manner of companies, not the least of which are book publishers.

This goes on for a full minute, and Mr. Bezo's guffaws start to drown out the room. The first words he says are, "You all thought I was going to announce this today, didn't you?". The room goes silent, then the murmurs of people whispering among themselves grows to the sound of a loud air conditioner. More guffaws.

Mr. Bezos goes on, "No, everything you read is true. It still looks like a B2 Stealth bomber and still has a few software glitches."

He puts the Kindle down, and reaches back in the box. He pulls out an odd looking green and white laptop. He opens it, flips up the little bunny ear-like antennae and laughs again.

He says, "Now this, is ready, and it is sooooo cool!"

"What I am here to announce this morning is that Amazon is going to put its full marketing and distribution muscle behind the One Laptop per Child Program!". The crowd is stunned - most don't even know what the program is.

"In fact, we are putting on a promotion, for every $100 book order, we will send you one of these XO pc's, and the OLPC people will send another to a needy child in a third world country. We at Amazon believe so much in this program, and have a goal of providing 20,000 of these to the world by January 30th."

Another big grin, and he continues, "Just think how many of the kids that will use these machines will make their first online transaction from Amazon.com? These machines are so cool, that I haven't been able to stop playing with it since I got it."

Its fun to dream...........

Holtzbrinck Name Change

I had done a tongue in cheek post on the topic of Holtzbrinck's name change to Macmillan but took it down when someone asked me (nicely) to do so.

But it still gives me a chuckle to think about how long this name will last, and more so to ask the question, how long will many of us simply call them "the publisher formerly known as Holtzbrinck"?