Lauded author Jonathan Franzen held the first press conference of his career this week at the Hay Festival, a literature and arts festival held in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, where he will serve as a headline speaker. The writer spoke on several weighty topics such as politics and religion, and expressed his thoughts on the inferiority of eBooks, when compared to traditional printed books. “The technology I like is the American paperback edition of Freedom. I can spill water on it and it would still work! So it’s pretty good technology. And what’s more, it will work great 10 years from now. So no wonder the capitalists hate it. It’s a bad business model,” Franzen is reported as saying in The Telegraph.

“I think, for serious readers, a sense of permanence has always been part of the experience. Everything else in your life is fluid, but here is this text that doesn’t change. Read more…

After a six-year break, children’s author Dav Pilkey will publish two new books in his Captain Underpants series. Hugely popular with the elementary school set, the stories follow the hijinks of practical jokers George and Harold and their comic book creation Captain Underpants. The titles, both of which will evoke quite a few giggles from readers, are slated for release over the next year. Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Return of Tippy Tinkletrousers will hit stores on August 28, 2012, and Captain Underpants and the Revolting Revenge of the Radioactive Robo-Boxers will arrive in January 2013. Read more…

Yesterday, Amazon began offering a new service to its Prime members with the launch of the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. This new feature allows members to borrow eBook titles free of charge, though the program does have restrictions. The service is only available on Kindle eInk hardware or the soon to be released Kindle Fire tablet, and will not be accessible through any of the Kindle apps on other platforms. As reported by The Wall Street Journal, about 5,000 titles will be available at launch “including more than 100 current and former national bestsellers”, though at present, none of the six largest publishers in the U.S. have agreed to participate in the program. Users are allowed to borrow one title per month, a number that may not impress avid readers. However, unlike most public library eBook lending policies, there is no due date, so users can borrow book for as long as they like. Read more…

This week Amazon released Kindle Cloud Reader, an HTML5-based app that works with Safari and Chrome web browsers. This new reader, optimized for the iPad, allows Amazon to circumvent Apple’s recent restrictions on their native iOS apps, preventing companies from linking directly to their online stores. Users can now login to read.amazon.com to access their Kindle library and purchase new books. They have the option of reading eBooks in the cloud or downloading volumes to read offline. Along with iPads, the web-based app will also work with Safari and Chrome on Macs and PCs, however the Firefox web browser is not yet supported. According to an article on TechCrunch, the iPhone platform is not supported either. But, an iPhone friendly version is presumed to be in the works. Read more…

For the past week, the Muggle world has been furiously guessing about the details of JK Rowling’s new website, hinted at with a mysterious splash page that pointed to a countdown video on YouTube. Today, Rowling released the details at press conference held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. “Pottermore has been a really great way to give back to the Harry Potter readership, who made the books such a big success,” she announced. In a video screened at the conference, and now posted on the Pottermore home page, the author thanked her readers. “No author could have asked for a more wonderful, diverse and loyal readership.” Rowling then went on to explain the particulars of the site.

“Digital generations will be able to enjoy a safe, unique online reading experience built around the Harry Potter books,” stated Rowling. “Pottermore will be the place where fans of any age can share, participate in and rediscover the stories. It will also be the exclusive place to purchase digital audio books and for the first time e-books in the Harry Potter series. I’ll be joining in too because I will be sharing additional information I’ve been hoarding for years about the world of Harry Potter.” Read more…

This morning Amazon published a press release announcing a Kindle Library Lending feature that will launch later this year. The retail behemoth has teamed up with digital content solutions provider OverDrive to create “a seamless library borrowing experience.” Kindle Library Lending will allow readers to checkout Kindle eBooks free of charge from 11,000 libraries across the U.S. The feature will work on all versions of the Kindle as well as the free Kindle apps that are now currently available for the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone, Mac and PC. Kindle customers will also be happy to know that the Whispersync technology will still work with the borrowed eBooks. Read more…

Mashable names "PopOut! The Tale of Peter Rabbit" as one of the top interactive children's books for the iPad.

In previous posts, In the Stax has discussed the merits of the iPad as an eReader and as an educational tool for young children. This engaging device also offers a unique platform for app developers to combine these two functions and produce stand-out interactive interpretations of classic children’s stories. Mashable recently posted a list of their Top 5 classic children’s books designed for the iPad. Each selection was chosen for the eBook’s ability to engage young readers and provide a variety of interactive experiences through out the story. Read more…

On Monday, Google debuted their new Google eBookstore, and will now compete with Apple and Amazon for a share of the lucrative eBooks pie. As announced on the company’s official blog, consumers will be able to “browse and search through the largest eBooks collection in the world with more than three million titles including hundreds of thousands for sale.” This launch is significant in that Google eBooks are not linked to a specific device but are compatible across many platforms “— everything from laptops to netbooks to tablets to smartphones to e-readers.” The books themselves are stored in the cloud instead of on an individual piece of hardware. “That means you can access your eBooks like you would messages in Gmail or photos in Picasa – using a free, password-protected Google account with unlimited eBooks storage.” Read more…

Screenshots from "Dracula: The Official Stoker Family Edition" interactive eBook app for the iPad.

A thoroughly modern approach to Bram Stoker’s classic spooky tale, Dracula, makes its debut on Apple’s App Store today, just in time for Halloween. Dracula: The Official Stoker Family Edition, a fully interactive eBook, blends nearly 300 pages of text with 600 illustrations and implements the iPad’s touch screen functionality to create a user experience similar to video game play. Readers can use a lantern to light up words on a page, reveal information on tombstones by blowing away leaves and use their virtual blood to uncover hidden messages. The interactive book was developed by Padworx Digital Media using the company’s proprietary game engine. “It really is a different kind of reading experience,” Jeffrey Schechter of Padworx Digital Media tells USA TODAY. “…Not only can we do everything other interactive books can do, but we can also bring in 3-D graphics and game-play elements.” Read more…

Yesterday, Amazon sent out a press release announcing that eBook sales have now outpaced hardcover sales and touting the increased sales of lower priced Kindle units. Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO, stated, “Amazon.com customers now purchase more Kindle books than hardcover books – astonishing when you consider that we’ve been selling hardcover books for 15 years, and Kindle books for 33 months.” In the past three months Amazon has sold 143 Kindle books for every 100 hardcover books it has sold in the U.S. In the past month, Amazon has increased that ratio by selling 180 Kindle books for every 100 hardcover books it’s sold. The number of eBooks sales in the first half of 2010 is more than triple the number sold in the first half of 2009. Amazon also applauds a group of five authors that have sold more than 500,000 Kindle books. Charlaine Harris, Stieg Larsson, Stephenie Meyer, James Patterson, and Nora Roberts have all passed the half million mark.
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