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This Week: Sony eReader Debuts

Category: Digital Publishing, E-commerce
sony ereaderThe Sony eReader (Sony Portable Reader System PRS-500) has finally hit the American market – at $350 each. The not-quite palm-sized eBook reader uses what Sony calls eInk, and has been available overseas for some time.

Publishers, confident of the Reader’s success and popularity, are producing over 10,000 titles compatible with the device.

The new eBook reading technology is available now (for shipment at the end of October) via the Sony Style store online and will be available at select Borders Books stores in late October.

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Posted by Laura Dawson, 7:02 am, Comments (0), permalink

Banned Books Week Report: Potter Most Challenged

Category: Bookselling, Publishing

Opening the 25th annual Banned Books Week comes this report from the HPANA and the ALA posting the entire Harry Potter series of titles at the top of the list of the books most challenged over the past five years.

According to an American Library Association press release:
 
"The 10 most challenged books of the 21st Century (2000-2005) are:

1.   Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

2.   "The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier

3.   Alice series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

4.   "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck

5.   "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou

6.   "Fallen Angels" by Walter Dean Myers

7.   "It’s Perfectly Normal" by Robie Harris

8.   Scary Stories series by Alvin Schwartz

9.   Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey

10. "Forever" by Judy Blume"

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Posted by Laura Dawson, 8:08 am, Comments (0), permalink

Number of challenged books drops

Category: Bookselling, Publishing

Since the start of Banned Books Week in the early 1980’s the number of books challenged for removal from libraries has dropped.
The ALA defines a challenge against a title as a "formal, written complaint filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness."

According to an article from Ohio’s Beacon Journal:
"The number of works actually pulled has also decreased over the past quarter century, from more than 200 in 1982, to at least 44 last year, including Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, the Nobel laureate’s debut novel."

Banned Books Week kicks off this Saturday, with libraries, booksellers, and the publishing industry highlighting titles that have been removed or faced removal.

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Posted by Laura Dawson, 7:08 am, Comments (0), permalink

Upcoming: Banned Books Week 2006

Category: Industry Events, Publishing

From the ALA website comes the announcement for Banned Books Week 2006 – to be held from September 23-30th.

"Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read is observed during the last week of September each year. Observed since 1982, the annual event reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted.

Banned Books Week (BBW) celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can exist only where these two essential conditions are met."

The list of the top ten most challenged books for 2005 includes "The Catcher in the Rye" and are further listed as:

  • “It’s Perfectly Normal” for homosexuality, nudity, sex education, religious viewpoint, abortion and being unsuited to age group;
  • “Forever” by Judy Blume for sexual content and offensive language;
  • “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger for sexual content, offensive language and being unsuited to age group;
  • “The Chocolate War” by Robert Cormier for sexual content and offensive language;
  • “Whale Talk” by Chris Crutcher for racism and offensive language;
  • “Detour for Emmy” by Marilyn Reynolds for sexual content;
  • “What My Mother Doesn’t Know” by Sonya Sones for sexual content and being unsuited to age group;
  • Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey for anti-family content, being unsuited to age group and violence;
  • “Crazy Lady!” by Jane Leslie Conly for offensive language; and
  • “It’s So Amazing! A Book about Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies, and Families” by Robie H. Harris for sex education and sexual content.
  • Also according to the website:
    "Off the list this year, but on for several years past, are the Alice series of books by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain."

    More information about the event, it’s history, why and how books are challenged and banned, and a list of the most challenged books in 2005, can be found at the American Library Association webpage dedicated to Banned Books Week.

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Posted by Laura Dawson, 7:48 am, Comments (0), permalink
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