Advise and a Weird New Kind of Bookshelf

Some good advise? Take it or leave it, but remember that most of it is quite true and could make you a happier person from this day forward!

• Your career is not nearly as important as your life. Don't sacrifice the latter for the former.
• Hug your Mom. Someday she'll be very old, very loving, very concerned, 1200 miles away, and too frail to travel. And someday after that, she'll be gone.
• I think the best advice I have heard was to try to never let someone ruin your day by their actions.
• Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. (Mark Twain)
• Enjoy your kids now, but remember that your job is to make yourself unnecessary to them eventually so they can live their own life happily and independently.

An unusual bookshelf design and is one that you can "roll" up with a good book. Here’s a circular bookshelf by designer Zhdanova Irina. Her design also comes with a set of sofas that can be stored as a matching ring: Link - via Cribcandy and Yanko Design

What's Happening to the Novel's Future?

The news is saying that the novel is DEAD!!

I read reports that say the novel is dead. What? How can that be? I am still buying them and racking up the $$ on my Visa; aren't you? I mean any "readoholic" is doing the same. And who doesn't love book stores? It just is not the same to use a cell phone to read a book or download it onto the computer. I need that warm and fuzzy feeling I get in a book store. I also need the scones they have there!!

It's no secret that the number of independent bookstores is on the wane. And even big chain stores like Borders are having trouble. Scott Karp, who writes the Publishing 2.0 blog, predicted bookstores would be obsolete in 10 years. That was last year, so we apparently have just nine years left.

Is it time to write the novel's obituary?
More recently, author Richard Laermer wrote that book publishing is dead because editors are too young (oh, please), books are too expensive (maybe), and the publishing industry publishes too many books and spends too much marketing books that don't need it, and not enough on books that do (I'm inclined to agree). Also, the industry generally moves too slowly (I'd second that).

With dying bookstores and publishers, what future is there for the novel?

I predict it will be around for a long time, although maybe not necessarily in the form we're used to.

Though publishers might have to find new ways to make money and structure deals, people have loved novels far too long for them to vanish.A Scholastic project called "The 39 Clues" is already out. This is a 10-book mystery series about the powerful Cahill family; each book is said to unlock one clue (I'm a little worried about the math, given that there aren't 39 books in the series). "Book 1: The Maze of Bones" was written by Rick Riordan, the author of the wildly popular Percy Jackson series. It's likely this will be big with kids. I sure want to read them.

In the most important ways, the future of the novel looks great. People still love writing them, even if they're doing it in their spare time on cell phones, as did the best-selling Japanese novelist. People also still love reading them, as evidenced by the bake sales they'll hold to buy more.

If publishers can't figure out how to make a profit on the novel, that's their problem -- and another story entirely.