Marginalia

I see via The Agony Column that Vintage Books has completed publicatino of all of Philip K. Dick’s SF novels with the release of Dr. Futurity.

If you hadn’t heard already, Yahoo has launched the Open Content Alliance in response to Google Print. Both seek to digitize book content. Google Print, however, has been sued by the Authors Guild, claiming that project amounts to “massive” copyright infringement. It uses an “opt out” approach for material whereas the OCA apparently plans to avoid litigation by using an “opt in” approach with copyright holders.

The Quill Awards, which I’ve mentioned before, don’t seem to be sparking much interest.

Finally, the power of Oprah appears again. James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces was, in my opinion, one of the best books of 2003, if not the best. It probably would even make my all-time favorites list. A bestseller when it was published, Oprah Winfrey recently picked it as the new selection for her book club. As a result, it is now No. 1 on the NYT paperback bestseller list.

There is no mistaking a real book when one meets it. It is like falling in love[.]

Christopher Morley, On Visiting Bookshops