Daily Planet's Jay Ingram speaking in Brandon

Come meet Jay Ingram, co-host of Daily Planet, as part of the 2010 Prairie Innovation Forum. March 16, 1:30 pm, Western Manitoba Centennial Auditorium.

Pennywise Books will be on hand, selling copies of his books: The Daily Planet Book of Cool Ideas ($28); The Science of Everyday Life ($24); and The Velocity of Honey ($22).

Listen to Jay's talk, buy a book and get it signed by the author.

To celebrate this engaging speaker's presence in Brandon, Pennywise will pay the GST on all books purchased at this event.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Writing Fiction course for Youth

WINNIPEG AUTHOR MICHAEL VAN ROOY ANNOUNCES HE WILL BE TEACHING A COURSE IN WRITING FICTION FOR THE ARTS AND CULTURAL INDUSTRIES ASSOCIATION OF MANITOBA

Winnipeg author Michael Van Rooy will be teaching a course in Writing Fiction for youths 16 to 19 at the Winnipeg Millennium Library.

The course will run from February 2 to May 11 and is organized by the Arts and Cultural Industries Association of Manitoba. The course is free.

Selected participants will attend sessions on Tuesday evening from 5:00 to 8:00 pm every other week from February 2 to May 4 with a launch of an anthology on May 11. Youths from the ages of 16 to 19 are encouraged to apply.

Instructor

Michael Neelak Van Rooy was born in Kamloops, British Columbia and has lived most of his life in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Michael’s first novel, An Ordinary Decent Criminal, was published in 2005 and his second novel, Your Friendly Neighbourhood Criminal, was published in 2008. In 2009 Michael won the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer. In 2006 An Ordinary Decent Criminal won the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book by a Manitoba Writer.

An Ordinary Decent Criminal has been published in Germany as Ein gewohnlicher Verbrecher by Verlagsgruppe Lubbe. It has also been optioned as a film by Frantic Films and Big Mind Productions. In July of 2010 An Ordinary Decent Criminal will be published in the United States by Minotaur Books. In 2011 Minotaur will publish Your Friendly Neighbourhood Criminal.

The third book in the Monty series, A Criminal to Remember, will be published by Winnipeg’s Turnstone Press in the spring of 2010.

Application Process

Interested students should:

1) Discuss their application with a ‘nominator’ (adult not related to you), who is one of your

present or former teachers or other leader in an artistic discipline and have him/her fill out the

Nominator’s Form, which is part of the Application Form. Ask that it be returned to you.

2) Fill out the application form - include a teacher’s signature, if you are in high school.

3) Submit completed form along with your resume. Applicants under 18 years of age require

the signature of a parent or guardian.

Submit to: ACI Manitoba Or by fax: 204 927-2789

501 -62 Albert Street

Winnipeg, MB. R3B 1E9

Call ACI Manitoba with your questions: 204 927-2787

Visit our website: www.creativemanitoba.ca

The dark side of the Kindle

(The following note is reposted from AbsurdIntellectual.com):

As a bookseller, I obviously have a bias against any sort e-book. To date, my argument has tended to be along aethestic lines — how a book feels, how it smells and the like — as well as toting the technological advantage of the traditional book — you can read it in the bathtub without too much worry, don’t worry about dropping it, no batteries to recharge and so on.

I still believe these to be valid arguments, but I have found another that might be more convincing to true technophiles. Blogger Dan Cohen found that Amazon has unwritten restrictions on downloads for the Kindle:

“Oh that’s the problem,” he [the customer service rep] said “if some of the
books will download and the others won’t it means that you’ve reached the
maximum number of times you can download the book.”

I asked him what that meant since the books I needed to download weren’t currently on any device because I had wiped those devices clean and simply wanted to reinstall. He proceeded to tell me that there is always a limit to the number of times you can download a given book. Sometimes, he said, it’s five or six times but at other
times it may only be once or twice. And, here’s the kicker folks, once you reach
the cap you need to repurchase the book if you want to download it again.

Granted, this information is available to the customer — its right there in the small print of the legal agreement that we all love to ignore on a daily basis. And when I say “this information,” I mean the fact that there’s a limit. The specific limit is trickier:

“How do I find out how many times I can download any given book?” I asked. He
replied, “I don’t think you can. That’s entirely up to the publisher and I don’t think we always know.”

I pressed — “You mean when you go to buy the book it doesn’t say ‘this book can be downloaded this number of times’ even though that limitation is there?” To which he replied, “No, I’m very sorry it doesn’t.”

How many versions of the Kindle have come out to date? How frequently are Kindle users going to be expected to update their technology? Cohen suggests it might happen every couple of years, meaning sooner or later, all the previously purchased books will have to be repurchased. (Note: I have paperbacks I bought twenty years ago that I have not needed to repurchase, even though new editions have been released).

Given that Cohen’s post was written in June and I haven’t come across any other outcry, I wonder if this issue has been resolved or if it simply hasn’t come to a head yet.

In any case, I still don’t see the death of print in the near future, as the marketplace is becoming crowded with e-readers: Amazon’s Kindle, Sony’s Reader, the Barnes and Noble nook, and Samsung’s Papyrus, not to mention the multitude of ways books can be accessed through the regular old Internet. Until there is a industry standard, I think most people will shy away from making an investment in an e-library that might up and dissapate into the ether when their e-reader fails to make the cut.

Though the printed book may seem antiquated, sometimes the best technology is the old technology.

Author visits and a new service

With the weather turning cooler, people in Brandon and the surrounding area may find themselves looking for entertainment options that take place indoors. At the same time, the holiday season is approaching and time seems to be in increasingly short supply. We at Pennywise Books are pleased to offer opportunities for both of these challenges.

Author Events

On December 8, at 7:00 PM, author Dale Brawn will be on hand to read and sign copies of his most recently released book entitled Every Stone a Story II: Manitoba’s Buried History, the follow-up to the popular Every Stone a Story. This much-anticipated book contains more stories gleaned from Manitoba’s buried history. Illustrated with black and white photographs, each story describes the life, death, and experiences of someone buried in a particular cemetery. The stories are often about the famous or infamous, but equally often they are about people little known outside their communities, but who have done something extraordinary.

Two nights later, on December 10, at 7:00 PM, join professional wrestler Vance Nevada as he talks about his new book Wrestling in the Canadian West, a thorough account of the history of professional wrestling in western Canada. Originally from Brandon, Nevada has competed in over 1,200 matches in his fourteen year career since his first bout at age seventeen.

The next evening, December 11 at 7:00 PM, co-founder of Amarok Society, Gem Munro will be discussing his new book South Asian Adventures with the Active Poor. Gem’s family will be in attendance to show video clips and converse about the family’s adventures in the slums of Bangladesh.

The Amarok Society is a Canadian registered charity operating in South Asia. Motivated by the suffering created by poverty and ignorance, the Amarok Society believes that education is the only way to permanently overcome poverty. This charity was founded in response to a critical need that wasn't being addressed - providing education to the many children who can never afford to go to school and whose own parents are illiterate.

Service

To assist with the time crunch, Pennywise Books is offering a free delivery service of book purchases to addresses within Brandon city limits. Prepaid purchases of $25 or more qualify to be delivered to the buyer’s home. Don't forget — Pennywise Books can order books that are not currently in stock.

Finally, until the 3rd week of December, we will be staying open until 9:00 PM on Thursdays to try and fit your schedule a little better.

If you have any questions, remember that we're always glad to hear from you. Call us at 728-BOOK (2665), or email pennywise@westman.wave.ca.


Hope to see you soon!

Author Reading - October 13

With the first hints of winter in the air, Pennywise Books has begun preparing for an extremely busy season of special events and author appearances.

The first guest, co-founder of Amarok Society, Gem Munro will be in the store on Tuesday, October 13 at 7:00 p.m. Gem will be discussing his new book South Asian Adventures with the Active Poor. Gem’s family will be in attendance to show video clips and converse about the family’s adventures in the slums of Bangladesh. Chai tea will be served free of charge.

The Amarok Society is a Canadian registered charity operating in South Asia. Motivated by the suffering created by poverty and ignorance, the Amarok Society believes that education is the only way to permanently overcome poverty. This charity was founded in response to a critical need that wasn't being addressed - providing education to the many children who can never afford to go to school and whose own parents are illiterate. For more information about the Amarok Society, visit www.amaroksociety.org.

For details about future authors and events, watch this website in the coming days.