Gettin’ Webby with books
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Nominations for the 12th annual Webby Awards have just been announced. There are more than 100 categories: Most are plain ol’ websites, but there are also nominees in interactive advertising, mobile and online film and video.
Yet ... not a lot of books. There are website categories for news, for banking, for art and netart, for family/parenting, for financial services, for games, for ‘weird’ -- 70 categories in all. But not one for literary or book sites. A quick perusal found just two book-oriented nominees: Blurb (in services) and BookGlutton (in community).
Blurb is a print-on-demand site, where anyone can order up a book of his or her own making. Print-on-demand has been around for a while, but Blurb has distinguished itself with a prominent selection of art-book formats (it’s more picture-y than text-y) and its easy integration with Flickr and several other blog services. So you can import your photos -- or your blog -- and make ‘em into a book (that is, unless you want to hold out for that $350,000 book deal like the guy from Stuff White People Like).
Book Glutton is a Web-based online reader that allows you to make notations about a text and to have online conversations about it. In the center of a screen you’d see a page much like one from a printed book. On the right you can type notes -- and share them. On the left you can enter into a chat with anyone else who is reading the book -- in real time, if you’ve decided to join an online book group. You also can randomly bump into others reading the same book, if you like; and you can set your preferences so you connect only with readers who are on the same chapter (no spoilers!).
The biggest hitch right now is that BookGlutton seems to include only books already in the public domain. There’s nothing wrong with Sherlock Holmes, but it would be so much fun to be able to go online to read and discuss the new Pulitzer Prize winners.
Carolyn Kellogg
Extra, a super L.A. geek note:
Blurb is showcasing on its homepage a book of L.A. artist Jon Huck’s work. Huck -- also a musician -- is such a man-about-town that he wound up with a quick cameo in ‘You Don’t Love Me Yet,’ Jonathan Lethem’s recent novel set in Los Angeles.