Bummer, Dude: Surfer Magazine Wipes Out

Shake the sand out of your baggies, stow your boards, and pack up the woodie. After 60 years, Surfer magazine is ceasing publication. And just when climate change is making more monster waves, too. Observers say it’s the ebbing economics of the pandemic that helped end Surfer‘s epic ride.

More:

“Surfer magazine, iconic touchstone of Southern California beach culture, shuts down,” Mike Freeman and Gary Robbins, Los Angeles Times

“Iconic SURFER magazine publishes last issue after 60 years,” Martin Wisckol, Orange County Register

Related?:

“UC San Diego virus expert pleads with surfers to stay out of the ocean to avoid coronavirus,” Gary Robbins, San Diego Union Tribune

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Image (“The Great Wipeout Off Kanagawa, after Hokusai”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Trump Tariffs to Cause Bible Shortage

President Donald Trump is waging a trade war with China, but most of America’s Bibles are printed there, so publishers warn of a Bible shortage if the next round of tariffs goes through. The U.S. imports some 150 million Bibles from China each year, where they’re printed on ultra-thin paper subject to a proposed 25 percent tariff. Maybe American Christians can substutute copies of The Art of the Deal for the Good Book. Lord knows many of them have done that already.

More:

“Bible shortage? Publishers say tariffs could cause it,” Travis Loller, Associated Press

“A ‘Bible tax’: Christian publishers warn that China tariffs could lead to costly Bibles,” Emily McFarlan Miller, Religion News Service via Washington Post

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The Future of Reading

“Ever since the first hand-held e-readers were introduced in the 1990s, the digital-reading revolution has turned the publishing world upside down. But contrary to early predictions, it’s not the e-reader that will be driving future book sales, but the phone.”

— — “The Rise of Phone Reading,” Jennifer Maloney, Wall Street Journal

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Image (“Young Beauty With iPhone, after Kikugawa Eizan”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Cat Fancy Magazine ‘Put to Sleep’

After 49 years, Cat Fancy Magazine is no more. To put that in perspective, 49 years is 3 or 4 cat lifespans [insert ‘9 Lives‘ joke here].  Cat Fancy was known for beautiful feline photos and practical kitty-keeping advice and had many fans, including Ayn Rand. The magazine will be succeeded by something called “Catster.”

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National Book Festival 2014

The 2014 National Book Festival is running until 10:00 PM Saturday August 30th in Washington DC, produced by the Library of Congress. This year’s festival was kicked off the National Mall and is being held in the cavernous Walter E. Washington Convention Center, but they could have held it in a phone booth. 24 percent of Americans haven’t read a book in the last year, and those who did read around 5, probably comic books.

You can attend for free. Go to the Culinary Arts Pavilion to enjoy America’s new National Pastime, watching other people cook.

Related:

“The Decline of the American Book Lover,” Jordan Weissmann, The Atlantic

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Britannica Bytes

After 244 years, Encyclopaedia Britannica will cease publishing paper editions and become a solely digital resource. Britannica has had digital editions on CD-ROM and online for the last thirty years, and will continue updating and publishing online. Unlike Wikipedia with its anonymous authors and crowd-sourced editing, digital Britannica will still be produced by professional editors and named authors who actually know what they’re writing about.

More:

“Wikipedia Didn’t Kill Britannica. Windows Did,” Tim Carmody, Wired

“Change: It’s Okay. Really.” Britannica Editors, Britannica blog

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What Men Think About

Shed Simove has published a book called What Every Man Thinks About Apart From Sex. Each of the book’s 200 pages is completely blank.

The book is a worldwide best-seller.

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Bio Optical Organized Knowledge device

Forget the Kindle™, Nook™,  Kobo™, and Sony Reader.™ A new technology writes the final chapter in solid-state reading devices.

Books and eBooks

 

Amazon.com reported that, in its last quarter, eBooks outsold hardbacks. The media went mad:

Bristol Baby Daddy Book?

Mark Sanford isn’t the only one looking for a book deal these days.  The New York Post‘s authoritative “Page Six” reports that Levi Johston, father of Sarah Palin’s out-of-wedlock grandson Tripp, is shopping a tell-all book about his tempestuous relationship with Governor Palin’s daughter Bristol.  Mr. Johnston can also draw on some colorful family history of his own for literary inspiration.