Ebook Piracy

I was searching the Net for some open source linux software for my tablet, and stumbled upon a file-sharing website. It was chock full of files, documents, music, movies, and… ebooks. Lots of the stuff was copyright-free, whether open source, or copyright expired, as in the case of Aristotle, Demostenes, perhaps even Jane Austen. Now, movies and music do not interest me much, but what really affected me, was the availability of ebooks (freely downloadable) by authors whose works remain protected under the copyright terms, and who, undoubtedly, never consented to this type of distribution.

I should add that many authors believe in file sharing of their books, just as many musicians believe that MP3s of their music help spread the word and lead to increased exposure, and some do release their books on the inernet, for free. I am among those authors who would gladly release his book in electronic format, for free, alas the publisher would not be enthused.

What struck me, as a negative, was the availability of books that neither the author nor the publisher consented to electronic circulation, as in the case of books that only hit the bookshelves in the past few weeks but are already available for free download. As an author I find it infinitely satisfying to see that someone out there wants to go to all the trouble to prepare spiffy electronic versions of my work, and even more pleasing is the download count which shows how many readers are keen to strain their eyes only to read my work. Is there any better sign of popularity and admiration than readers’ time and energy spent on aquiring their favorite author?

What insterests me is the thought-process of a publisher who is faced with this reality. When a book is available for free, so very shortly after its hard copy release, what publisher will want to pay to buy the rights to publish, and to publish a book that circulates for free at the same time? Perhaps a time is coming when royalties and advances will be the stuff of tales of the times past? (Not that these are, or were, that valuable to the vast majority of authors anyway).

Perhaps a time is coming when publishers will rely exclusively on re-printing in hard copy the stuff they scrounge on the Internet, as they already do.

Perhaps a time is coming (has come) when authors will no longer rely on the middle-men to reach their readers? I am trying to see the nagative of this scenario, but just can’t.

PS

Many of the books available for download are bundled together, in one compressed package. They include old classics, as well as new material, some of which comes from my friends.

Here’s a selected list of bundled books I saw available for download:

David Morrell — 19 books in one downladable file
P Coelho — 10
Jonathan Kellerman — 6
Ann Rice — 15
Tim Zahn — 22
Clive Cussler — 27
Nora Roberts — 13
Meg Cabot — 4
Robert Ludlum — 32
Harlan Coben — 5
Agatha Christie — 93
Alex Kava, Colin Forbes…
…and the list goes on.

Five kinds of spies

Knowledge of the enemy’s disposition can only be obtained from other men. Hence the use of spies, of whom there are five classes: Local, Inward,  Converted, Doomed, Surviving.

When these five kinds of spy are all at work, none can discover the secret system. This is called “diverse manipulation of the threads.” It is the sovereign’s most precious faculty.

Local spies means employing the services of the inhabitants of a district.

Inward spies is making use of officials of the enemy.

Converted spies, getting hold of the enemy’s spies and using them for our own purposes.

Doomed spies, doing certain things openly for purposes of deception, and allowing our own spies to know of them and report them to the enemy.

Surviving spies, those who bring back the news from the enemy’s camp.

Hence it is that with none in the whole army are more intimate relations to be maintained than with spies. None should be more liberally rewarded.

Sun Tzu, in Roots of Strategy, Art of War; 500 B.C.

Public Washroom Art

This public washroom sink really makes my Home Depot-purchased sink look bad:

Hand-painted talavera sink in a public washroom

San Miguel Allende, Mexico

Recipes for thrifty cooks

I listened to a report about the various ways people are coping with their budgetary woes, particularly in the context of this so called “economic downturn”. The radio show concentrated on the Radical Thrift Movement, with such ideas as re-using dental floss. What stood out in the report was the way folks are saving on food. Apparent popularity enjoy restaurants which diversify their offers, from $20 beef steaks, to $3 choice squirrel cuts, and rats being even cheaper.

Somehow no one who participated in the show noticed how it defeats the whole concept of thrift to dine in restaurants, regardless of whether the main dish is a rat with a fairy tail or a bold one.

What ever happened to cooking your own meal? The solution seems very simple (for city meat eaters): why go out for a backyard catch if you can DIY? So, I dug out some recipes that will save $$ and satisfy any homeowner who loses sleep over raccoons, possums, or squirrels.

This week’s recipe:

Broiled Squirrel

Ingredients:

• 2 squirrels
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 4 tablespoons melted bacon fat

Skin and clean the squirrels. Wash and pat dry. Cut in half lenghtwise and remove the head. Run the squirrel with salt and pepper. Place the halved squirrels on a broiling rack and brush with bacon fat. Broil 8 inches away from heat for 30 minutes. Baste every 5 minutes with bacon fat. (Source: Wilderness Cooking, by Berndt Berglund)

Lemme know how it works out.

Gestapo on the loose

Time-shifted this morning when a very old man asked: “Have you seen the Gestapo today?”

My immediate thought was to refer him to my grandfather, so the two of them could swap stories.

Turned out the old man was referring to city by-law officers who are harassing dog owners in a major blitz to cover the regime’s debt.

Another passer-by pitched in angrily that the city hall’s debt is nearing a billion dollars, and in a desperate move to patch up budgetary holes, the city released its meanest. Dog owners across town are furious. No one is spared, as spooks in civilian clothes knock on every door in town, demanding that all pet-owners pay license fees…

Harold Pinter’s Nobel Acceptance Speech

Found this on FM radio, am posting it cause it ties with the novel I’m writing

Press play button to listen (total 13 minutes).

Part 1:

Part 2:

Writing and physical neglect

Someone told me this morning: “I didn’t know that writers leave their basements, little else that they jog.”

So let this picture prove that writing does not mean that our bodies turn into mashed potatoes — here I am, in my full display:

Books (not) in translation

A French author writes to me to share his frustration at not being able to find a US or a British publisher to release his bestselling novel in the English language. What else could I say but: “You are not being singled out. English speakers are deprived of most of the books that are written in other languages. More books are translated from the English language than into it.” Then I forwarded a link to the recently released data (pdf), which shows that of all books available to English speakers only about 2% are translated from other languages; whereas in Germany 13% of books are translations, in France 27%, in Spain 28%, in Turkey 40% and in Slovenia 70%.

The Guardian had an interesting article on the subject. In it we read that

mainstream publishers have a ready excuse for ignoring literature from around the world. “The idiotic notion is that there’s enough being written in English, […] so you don’t have to bother.” English is so generally spoken that it’s possible to read very widely and not notice that you’re only reading books written in one language.

The Guardian notes that writers are beginning to realize that in order to enter into the English language world of books they must create in the English language:

Creative writing schools in the UK and America are now seeing writers already published in their own languages enrolling for writing courses in English, a solution to the problems of getting translated.

and

there’s even a danger that the dominance of English-language publishing is putting other languages and literary cultures at risk.

I don’t see it in quite as dark colors.  I recall this quote I read somewhere in my youth: “The boundaries of our language are the boundaries of our world.” Books in other languages will continue to be printed, though perhaps not translated. In my view the real losers are / will be all mono-language speaking readers who are / will be deprived of glimpses into other cultures via books written in languages other than their own.

How tequila is made

We visited the Corralejo distillery and found out how our favorite drink comes to be:

Farmer grows blue agave (7 years to mature)

Then agave gets a haircut and is brought to the distillery

Locals call it the piña, for its uncanny resemblance to a pineapple

Plenty of juice in this baby

Then the piña gets chopped in half and thrown into giant steamers (in the background)

Piña cut in half

Once it’s steamed gringos arrive to suck the delicious juice

Alternatively juice is extracted by giant presses

Then it is distilled and out comes 90% alcohol, alas it’s tasteless

So it gets poured into the barrels, where it sits 2-12 months

Meanwhile gringos have their pictures taken next to the 10,000 liter barrels

Under a ceiling with windows made of the same blue glass that’s used to bottle tequila

The tour stops by the store where gringos get treated to a glass of delicious margaritas

And leave the store with a set of tequilas…

Las Ranas, Queretaro, Mexico

The pyramid at Las Ranas:

View from the pyramid:

Playing ball at the ancient court – the winner gets sacrificed:

Verifying the GPS coordinates:

Seeing green in the semi-desert of Sierra Gorda:

Sierra Gorda, on the way to Las Ranas: