RAW 141231

The last Random Articles across the Web offering for the year.  While reading through these articles I would recommend a basic espresso.  Use a quality coffee, my favourite is Ethica Coffee, check it out, you won't be disappointed.

• Sieghart Report warns of “absolute disaster” in UK library services
• Bezos: 'books are too expensive'
• Give boys screen time and they’ll start to read
• Bestselling books of 2014: did the booksellers get it right?
• Announcing the publication date of Mistborn: Shadows of Self!
• From the archives: Good Food for Men - Gabriel Gaté

Sieghart Report warns of “absolute disaster” in UK library services

teleread.com - The just-released “Independent Library Report for England” launched by the UK government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport, has outlined a situation that its chief author, William Sieghart, has referred to elsewhere as the brink of “absolute disaster.”  Read more...

Bezos: 'books are too expensive'

thebookseller.com - To maintain a “healthy culture of long-form reading”, e-books must be cheaper, Amazon founder and c.e.o. Jeff Bezos has said. Bezos said that making “reading more affordable is going to make authors more money”, and that publishers “are having unparalleled profitability, and the book industry is in better shape than it ever has been, and it’s because of e-books”.  Read more...

Give boys screen time and they’ll start to read

theguardian.com - How can we get boys reading? It’s a question that for decades has exercised teachers, parents and literacy campaigners. New research suggests that, for working-class boys at least, touch-screen stories are better learning tools than books.  Read more...

Bestselling books of 2014: did the booksellers get it right?

theguardian.com - In an attempt to monitor the Christmas market, we asked seven leading UK retailers – which included large chains and independents – plus the industry journal the Bookseller to predict the season’s bestsellers, and we’ve been monitoring their predictions through the autumn.  Read more...

Announcing the publication date of Mistborn: Shadows of Self!

gollancz.co.uk - We’re so excited! You wait not very long at all for a new Brandon Sanderson release date and then two turn up at once! We launched Brandon in the UK with the Mistborn trilogy so it’s always been a series that’s very close to our hearts. Read more...

From the archives:

Good Food for Men - Gabriel Gaté

wolfsbooks.blogspot.com - The book is crammed with information on health and cooking, and encourages men to discover the joys of cooking and good eating. About 150 recipes of all sorts. Winner of the Australian Food Writers' Award and first prize at the International Cookbook Fair at Perigueux, France. Read more...