Book Wars: The Digital Revolution in Publishing

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In the closing moments of BookWars, the narrator admits that after all the recent problems with the city, he has grown restless; he realizes that he wants to do something different, and wants to change his occupation at last. A single massive rainstorm is enough to convince him to give up his street bookselling activities. This is one of the most comprehensive and detailed explorations of the publishing industry with respect to the last 10 to 15 years of the digital revolution that I have ever read. On War by Carl von Clausewitz.In terms of tactical warfare, this book would probably be better titled On War Against Napoleon, because that’s really what Clausewitz was writing about. It is in his understanding of politics — or rather, what happens when politics break down — that Clausewitz really made his contributions. So read On War for that, not for specific strategies.

Thompson also shares with the reader statistical analyses of both public as well as private sales data from the industry. Of particular value is the statistical analysis appearing in the chapter on the explosion in self-publishing. Thompson’s work is authoritative and will be of tremendous value to future readers and researchers in understanding how a 500-year-old culture of print was able to absorb and adapt. I’m aware of no other title that provides such a useful account of how publishing professionals have fought to ensure stabilization and reliable delivery of content. Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence.To some, T.E. Lawrence was a brilliant soldier, strategist, and cultural expert. But to others he was a charlatan. Regardless of what side you fall on, there is no doubting that T.E. Lawrence was a talented writer and expert on guerilla warfare. And with Seven Pillars of Wisdom he wrote an excellent — if at times embellished — account of his time as a liaison with rebel forces during Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire in 1916. The Campaigns of Alexander by Arrian.Arrian gifted us with two amazing documents: one was the lectures of the philosopher Epictetus and the second was his history of the wars of Alexander the Great. Alexander is a wonderful example of the toxic burden of ambition. Yes, it brought him to the edges of the conquered world — but that’s also where he died, likely murdered by his own men. He had no real purpose for it all, no real plan or true empire — it was just fight, win, own, fight, win, own until the end (and in the end, as Epictetus observed, he still died and was buried like the rest of us). I’m not saying there are no other lessons, but this is the most salient one. Other lessons include: leading from the front and the importance of speed, surprise, and boldness. Another great book on Alexander is Steven Pressfield’s The Virtues of War. War is unquestionably mankind at his worst. Yet, paradoxically, it is in war that men — individual men — often show the very best of themselves. War is often the result of greed, stupidity, or depravity. But in it, men are often brave, loyal, and selfless.The study of war is the study of life, because war is life in the rawest sense. It is death, fear, power, love, adrenaline, sacrifice, glory, and the will to survive. It’s clear that the library community will insist on equitable treatment in the establishment of e-lending practices for the ebook to ensure that patrons are equitably treated. Legislators may agree with them, given that the states of New York and Maryland have legislation requiring that “publishers who offer to license e-books to the public” offer those same e-books to libraries on “reasonable” terms.

Losing the War by Lee Sandlin. Okay, this one isn’t a book — it’s just an essay. But this essay is better than almost any full book ever written on WWII. It may in fact be one of the best essays ever written (seriously). I’m not going to even bother to try to say more than that. Just read it, trust me. For this reason we must understand war and how it is won. And we must understand what it does to people. Doing this helps us politically, socially, and consciously. It also helps us with whatever we happen to be doing. Wars are textbooks in logistics, planning, leadership, and execution. We can learn those skills by studying the best. We can also learn what not to do from the wars and generals who fared badly. A book and audiobook titled 10,000 Miles to Go: An American Filmmaking Odyssey, [4] about the unusual physical and creative process behind the making of BookWars, was published in 2015. Civil War Stories by Ambrose Bierce.Forget Mark Twain, forget Stephen Crane. They didn’t really know the Civil War. Ambrose Bierce was an officer in Sherman’s army and fictionalized his experiences into some of the more harrowing, disturbing portraits of warfare and its stupidity and indiscriminate destruction (and yet, deep allure), ever written. He hated war, but also loved it — all that comes through in a powerful way. Kurt Vonnegut considered Bierce’s “Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” the best short story ever written and that’s enough for me. You have not truly experienced the Civil War until you read this book.

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Company K by William March.What Ambrose Bierce was to the Civil War, William March was to WWI. Forget All Quiet On the Western Front, read this instead. It is WWI — possibly one of the worst things Western Civilization has ever done to itself — as it actually was. No glamor, no glory. Just a bunch of guys dying in trenches, trying not to go insane. If you want a second book (from the British perspective), try Robert Graves’ Goodbye to All That. Like March, Graves went on to be an important and successful writer but never got over the demons he met on the battlefield. The content generated on this blog is for information purposes only. This Article gives the views and opinions of the authors and does not reflect the views and opinions of the Impact of Social Science blog (the blog), nor of the London School of Economics and Political Science. Please review our comments policy if you have any concerns on posting a comment below. En parte, se trata de un amplio estudio de éxitos y fracasos de actores -tradicionales y nuevos producto de la revolución digital- de la industria editorial anglosajona. También es un profundo estudio -de al menos dos décadas, del 2000 al 2019- sobre los cambios y tendencias producto del paradigma digital en el ecosistema editorial: