Not that I’m obsessed, or anything (current Amazon rank: 1106), but here are the results from my incomplete survey of local book stores regarding How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: Barnes & Noble: “Out of Stock” in all local stores. Has never been in stock, really. Borders in Crossgates Mall: “Likely in store” according… Continue reading Local Bookstore Report
Category: Books
You Don’t Really Understand a Subject Until You Teach It To Your Dog
I’m typing this from the local Barnes and Noble, waiting for the dealership next door to finish changing my oil and inspecting my car. Sadly, they don’t have How to Teach Physics to Your Dog on the shelves in their (rather small) science section. Grump, grump, grump. The disappointment at not immediately finding it on… Continue reading You Don’t Really Understand a Subject Until You Teach It To Your Dog
How to Teach Physics to Your Dog Is Out Today!
Today is the official publication date for How to Teach Physics to your Dog! I’ve got another reason or two why dogs should love quantum physics that I’ll probably post later, but if the ones posted so far haven’t sold you on the book, how about a really nice review from Cory Doctorow at Boing… Continue reading How to Teach Physics to Your Dog Is Out Today!
Quantization of Books 2: What Does One Sale Get You?
I’ve been playing around with the spiffy sales rank tracker Matthew Beckler wrote, because I’m a great big dork, and enjoy playing with graphs. Here’s a graph of the sales rank vs. time through 2pm EST today (plotted in Excel from the data table at the bottom of the page): As I noted in my… Continue reading Quantization of Books 2: What Does One Sale Get You?
Great Moments in Vanity Searching -or- The Hotness of Physics
I was Googling for “How to Teach Physics to Your Dog” last night, to check whether a review of said book that I know is coming has been posted yet (side question: Does anybody know a good way to exclude the umpty-zillion versions of Amazon and other sellers from this sort of search? Most of… Continue reading Great Moments in Vanity Searching -or- The Hotness of Physics
That’s More Like It
Checking in to see whether the Amazon page for How to Teach Physics to Your Dog has been updated (it had an older version of the cover copy yesterday morning, but that’s been fixed), I see that the “Buy Together” box has been updated. It now says: Customers buy this book with The God Engines… Continue reading That’s More Like It
Quantum Mechanics Is Not Magic, No Matter What Amazon Says
While I’m thrilled to see How to Teach Physics to Your Dog listed on Amazon, I am distressed to see it offered as a pair with something called The Intention Experiment by Lynne McTaggart. I’m not linking to the Amazon page for that book, because it’s a giant pile of crap, and I wouldn’t want… Continue reading Quantum Mechanics Is Not Magic, No Matter What Amazon Says
Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2009?
The overlap between my readership and SF fandom is not as high as one might like, but I thought I would throw this out there anyway: What were the best science fiction and/or fantasy stories of 2009? (“Stories” here can mean anything from short stories to novels to feature films. We’re all about inclusiveness, here… Continue reading Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2009?
Best Books, With Bonus Irony
Like every other media outlet, Slate has a Best Books of 2009 list, in this case featuring one book chosen by each of their 22 editors. Editor in chief Jacob Weisberg chose Richard Holmes’s The Age of Wonder, and writes: If, like me, you didn’t study much science after high school, this absorbing narrative will… Continue reading Best Books, With Bonus Irony
Monetizing Neuroses
You know, if somebody were to put together an application that would periodically check the Amazon sales rank of a given book and generate a Google Analytics style time series graph, and charge authors $5/book to see the output, I bet they’d make a bunch of money. Granted, it would put that person on the… Continue reading Monetizing Neuroses