The Year's Best

David Brooks' annual Sidney Awards for outstanding journalism, and Sidney Awards, part II
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Annual List of Banished Words from Lake Superior State University
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The Kindle is the most "gifted" item ever on Amazon.com. On Christmas Day, there were more Kindle downloads than print book purchases. I was one of the downloaders, choosing Malcolm Gladwell's The Outliers at $9.99.
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Roger Ebert's Best Films of 2009
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The New Yorker's David Denby: Best Films of 2009
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Paste Magazine: 50 Best Films of the Decade
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BEST MOVIES I'VE SEEN THIS YEAR
(in the order I saw them)
1. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
2. Slumdog Millionaire
3. Secrets and Lies
4. Revolutionary Road
5. The Reader
6. Frozen River
7. Milk
8. Frost/Nixon
9. Doubt
10. Julie and Julia

Honorable Mention
11. The Informant!
12. Gran Torino

Digitizing Books

My Office Wall

An article from The Weekly Standard announces Google's plan to digitize 32 million books. This is one of a growing number of developments that are taking the printed word increasingly to the computer screen. Amazon.com has recently announced Kindle, a compact handheld computerized reading device with a large storage capacity (over 200 books, newspapers, or blogs). The screen mimics black ink on paper, easy on the eyes. There are currently over 80,000 books available to buy, most of them 9.99. You can also subscribe to newspapers, magazines, and blogs. The cost for Kindle: $399. Another online reading service is WorldCat, short for "World Catalog," which allows you to search thousands of libraries for books, beginning with libraries closest to you. Some books are available digitally. One response to Google's ambitious online text scheme is the Open Content Alliance, a group of libraries that resist having commercial interests take over the online publication of books. The Universal Digital Library at Carnegie Mellon University is up and running with a number of books currently available. When I tried accessing it, I was denied access because of heavy traffic, but interestingly, I was given the option of trying one of 3 sites in India or sites in China or Egypt. I chose one in India and was able to get to Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi. For a while, I've been aware of Bartleby.com, which makes available a list of free online books. The basic issue faced by Google, as well as its competitors is the obvious one of copyright violation for books still falling within the 28-year limit (extendable by 60 or so additional years). Apparently, they're seeking permission to digitize books where the copyright is still in effect. Interestingly, book publishers are beginning to face some of the same proprietary issues that have stirred up the music industry in recent years.