Book Expo USA

Since my family was visiting Disney World in Florida at the same time as this year's "Book Expo America" ( held in New York City - www.bookexpoamerica.com) I could not attend this conference but look forward to 2008's show which will be held in Los Angeles, California.

The range of seminar topics and speakers (see website mentioned earlier) were impressive in terms of being timely and in terms of overall variety. I was most intrigued by the sessions focused on - Google, blogging, and promoting book authors via "social networking" technologies.

I registered on their website for future conference updates but if my readers know of any conferences being held in the Midwest of the USA I would appreciate hearing about such opportunities to enjoy perhaps the "Greatest Innovation" (see my posting at http://spacebeaglenotes.blogspot.com where I incorrectly stated that the "wheel" was the greatest innovation) - the printed BOOK.

Keep reading,

Todd

Iraq

The Los Angeles Times recently published an op-ed written by Sumana Raychaudhuri and Saswato Das entitled, "Book Market Bombing Targeted Those Who Read, Think." This op-ed's central focus was on last week's bombing of the Al-Mutanabbi book market in Baghdad, Iraq. As the authors noted this book market is named after a famous 10th Century Arab poet.

If you love reading books, appreciate their role in dispensing knowledge, and believe in their power to generate creative thinking please take the time to read the Raychaudhuri/Das op-ed at:

http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_5419763

Since I always love a good quote let me share this one that the authors use in their op-ed which summarizes the tone of their message:

"HE WHO DESTROYS A GOOD BOOK DESTROYS REASON ITSELF"

JOHN MILTON - ENGLISH POET

Whether it is challenging well-intentioned parents who want certain books banned from school reading lists or terrorists who bomb book markets like this one society must remain vigilant in its opposition to the various methods of censorship.

Read Free or Die,

Todd