Update Feb 5: Scott Westerfeld's article in the Guardian (UK) summarizes the whole contretemps in one easy to digest article.

Update Feb 4: Truepenny's blog is a great starting point for an update on what's been happening. It includes commentary and links to a follow up letter from Macmillan CEO John Sargent; and an excellent post from Joseph E. Lake Jr. explaining all the people involved in getting one of his books to print and the stages it goes through - which in turn explains why ebooks don't have a much cheaper cost basis than printed books.

Feb 1 2010: For those looking for a quick catchup on the Amazon-Macmillan fight I suggest these three starting points:
The open letter from Macmillan CEO John Sargent on Jan 30:
John Scalzi's post giving the author's point of view.
The Association of Authors' Representatives response as reported in Publishers Weekly.

Steve Jobs today unveiled the all new iPad tablet which, to quote him, is a "mobile video-watching, book-reading, game-playing, photo-perusing, music-listening, web-surfing, and email-emailing device."

Perhaps the biggest surprise is that its base price starts at $499, which is much lower than the ~$1000 price point industry watchers predicted. At this price it is likely to give dedicated e-readers such as the Kindle and Nook serious competition, and also significantly impact the market for smaller computers known as netbooks.

You will find a thorough description of the new device, as described by Jobs himself here

And for more about the likely pricing and availability of e-books on the iPad click here

Lastly two particularly salient paragraphs lifted from Rik Myslewski's article in theregister.co.uk.....

"And speaking of Amazon's Kindle, Apple clearly is in a gauntlet-throwing mood when it comes to ebooks. But putting aside the epaper-versus-backlit display debate, it's difficult to compare the iPad and the Kindle. The Kindle, for example, can download books from (sorta) anywhere at anytime over Sprint's wireless Whispernet service. To accomplish the same degree of convenience, an iPad owner will not only have to pony up the extra $130 for 3G connectivity, but also pay AT&T $14.99 for 250MB a month or $29.99 for an unlimited data plan.

That said, however, the Kindle is merely a monochrome reader for ebooks (and enewspapers and emagazines and blogs), while the colorful, oleophobic, LED-backlit, 1024-by-768 iPad includes a range of entertainment, creative, and productivity software, plus access to those aforementioned 140,000 iPhone apps. If you're already an iPhone or iPod touch owner, by the way, the iPad will also run all the apps you've purchased for those two handhelds. Another bonus: when docked, the iPad can double as a full-color digital photo frame."

Davina Morgan-Witts, BookBrowse editor

Since the first publicly-funded library opened in the USA in 1833, many generations of children have been inspired and nurtured by local librarians - none more so than the two generations of children in Old Greenwich, Connecticut who have had the privilege to be members of the Young Critics' Club at Perrot Memorial Library.

The club (actually, two clubs, one for grades 4-5 and one for 6-8) was founded by librarian Kate McClelland over 25 years ago (the oldest "Young Critics" are now in their 40s) and up until this week was run by Kate, her colleague Kathy Krasniewicz, and library director Mary Clark.

That was until yesterday when an apparently drunk driver veered into an airport bus on its way to Denver airport, killing two of the passengers, identified as Kathy Krasniewicz, 54 and Kate McClelland, 71 - who were returning home from the American Library Association's Midwinter meeting. Greenwich's local newspaper, The Greenwich Times, has more details.

I did not know either woman personally but have followed the Young Critics' reading lists for some years and have admired the club from afar; so I considered myself extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to interview Kate just three months ago to find out more about the Young Critics' Clubs. You can read the full interview here, but here is a small snippet of Kate's words that, to me, sums up the impact that a single person can have when she (or he) is doing something she loves and has the drive to share that enthusiasm with others:

"It is inspiring, and it is the kids themselves in all their quirky, funny, loud, interruptive glory who inspire. The meetings are highly amusing and entertaining... like herding the proverbial cats. I feel like I spend way too much time asking them to "hush" so I can hear people speak, but one day I overheard them talking about how they thought club meetings were a party; and I thought, "well, that's cool!"

I once heard a new member telling her mother in the parking lot how thrilled she was because she loved books and none of her friends read so she never had anyone to talk to about her books... they only wanted to talk about TV shows and movies. She said that in one room, for the first time, she met more people to talk to than she'd ever met before in her life!

We always tell the Young Critics that no one ever has to leave and many come back to visit. As you might guess, they are always overrepresented when awards are handed out senior year. We see them on breaks from college when they want to gather up all the YC books and read them ALL over the break. One visited a summer club meeting and gave a booktalk of Carl Hiaason's 'Flush'. At least two have gone into publishing. One became a journalist. One is a librarian who has been very active in the Young Adult Literature community." More.

Picture shows author Libba Bray, Kate McClelland and Mary Clark (l to r).

Davina Morgan-Witts, BookBrowse editor

Over the last few years we've seen virtually all newspapers cutting back on their book coverage and, according to the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC), all but two have now closed their standalone book review sections. One of the remaining bastions of the book world is the Washington Post which first introduced the standalone 'Book World' section to its Sunday edition in 1972.  But this literary stalwart appears to be crumbling.  According to the NBCC's blog Critical Mass, a reliable source at the Washington Post says that "among the budgetary recommendations new editor Marcus Brauchli is making to his board is the elimination of 'Book World'."
 
In response to this news, the NBCC have started a petition and are asking for signatures.  If you would like to sign, write to savebookworld@yahoo.com before the 23 January deadline.
 
The standard reason cited for cutting back on book coverage is a lack of advertising revenue; but that logic seems a little questionable - after all is the sports section supported by advertising from the sports teams featured?  Or, for that matter, is the foreign news section sponsored by overseas governments? 
 
Most of us know that the vast majority of newspapers are hurting financially at the moment.  Falling print circulations (as people move to finding their news online) plus the crumbling economy have hit newspapers where it hurts most - in their advertising revenue.  Even when a former print advertiser moves their advertising budget to the online edition, the newspaper's bottom line suffers because online ad rates don't come close to the nosebleed prices that newspapers have been able to charge for advertising in their print editions. 

So cuts are necessary, but why does the book section always seem to be the fall-guy?
 
Just last week, the National Endowment for the Arts published encouraging figures showing that the percentage of Americans reading literature is now a little over 50%, a significant increase over the 46.7% reported in 2002; and the percentage reading any sort of book is a little over 54%.  That represents about 120 million Americans who feel that, to a greater or lesser degree, books are part of their lives.  Wouldn't it be a wee bit short sighted of a newspaper to cut coverage that can attract such a literate, educated audience simply because a direct return on investment between that particular section and overall advertising revenue can't be found?

Update Jan 28 2009: It has been confirmed that Book World will cease to exist as a stand alone section as of mid-February. More about this in News.