Jeff Bezos, in a whopping seven-page Newsweek cover story, is claiming that the world is coming to an end era of the eBook is finally being ushered in thanks to Amazon's Kindle. Using electronic ink to simulate real paper, this e-reader is paperback weight and size but can store around 200 books or a combination of novels, newspaper subscriptions and blogs. Because it can use 3G - on the bundled Sprint SIM card - as well as WiFi it's even easier to download books at any time.

Some consumers appear to be convinced. The US-only $399 device sold out in under 6 hours. Head over the jump for a roundup of what the blogs are saying, and cast your vote here.

BookSnap is designed to turn your paper books into PDFs - handy if the recent Newsweek cover story heralding the long-expected never-quite-happening arrival of e-reading is actually accurate. You could be ripping your books to digital formats as a matter of course soon and devices like BookSnap would be the way to do it. However...

It works by placing your books in a V-shaped cradle and snapping them with two digital cameras before outputting as a single PDF. This is presumably better than a flatbed scanner because it doesn't require breaking the spines, but it does still require you to turn every single page yourself. For a $1595 price tag. So you could, um, just read paper books. Perhaps better for cataloguing rare editions photographically, then...

Atiz BookSnap [via Gizmodo]

Like that? Read this: iLiad eBook reader | The death of the e-book? | BookFob eBook Keychain

Good news for Neil Gaiman fans, as Stardust saw its LA premiere this week and first pics of a CGI Angelina Jolie emerged from Robert Zemeckis's Beowulf, which Gaiman co-scripted. More pics of a gold-drenched Angelina emerging from the darkness, as revealed in today's Metro, are after the jump. Try and keep tongues rolled in.

As a fantasy and comic book author, Gaiman's work is a particularly rich subject for computer-enhanced filmmaking. I for one am dribbling fervently over Stardust, which boasts a mixed bag of US and UK talents including Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jason Flemyng and Sienna Miller cast obviously completely against type as the beautiful but vapid Victoria. There's also an appearance from Adam and Joe's Adam Buxton and Yvainne, the star Tristan is seeking, is played by Claire Danes. Flemyng and Buxton are tragicomic relief in the form of the ghostly princes of Stormhold. Stills from the film are also beyond the link.

For more Shiny Shiny celebrity news, click here.

So, like every other sad fangirl loser (Alex, Kat, I’m talking about you, ladies) I spent my weekend ignoring the one sunny day we’ve had in the UK in the past 400 years (feels like it anyway) and instead sat eating biscuits and reading The Deathly Hallows. I finally finished it on Sunday night (no spoilers, I promise), with feelings of relief, happiness, and a smattering of annoyance (little tip if you haven’t read it – don’t read the epilogue, it made me want to vomit). But overriding all the nagging doubts over plot holes, sadness at one particular death and a feeling that grown women probably shouldn’t queue for a children’s book at midnight on a Friday, was relentless voice in my geek brain. And what was that relentless voice saying in my geek brain? It was saying “why the hell didn’t Harry and Hermione get a couple of mobile phones while they were living with muggles?”

That way they’d be able to communicate without worrying about anyone catching them in the act. I'm fairly sure that Voldemort isn't au fait with tapping phones. A GPS would have helped Ron out no end, and when it came to researching the Deathly Hallows conundrum, Hermione could probably have just done a “Willow” and found out everything she needed to from the internet with a few clicks on her mouse.

The boy wizard has been casting a spell over readers and cinema-goers for ten years now, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will deliver the grande finale this Saturday. So its about time we celebrated the PR wizardry that has resulted in reams of Harry Potter merchandising hitting parents where it hurts... their pockets.

By now you should be prepared for the disappointment when you / they (depending on whether you're pretending you're buying them for your kids or not) realise that a fluffy owl won't deliver post or that the magic wand is, in fact, a stick that the dog would get more use out of. I'm a little disappointed at some of the lack of imagination in Potter gizmos; it's magic, people, think of the possibilities! Still, I dug out some which had an element of geeky goodness. People of an adult disposition should probably back away now.

Howard Webster's The Many Worlds of Jonas Moore is no ordinary novel. Buy a package, and you'll receive a login code which provides you with a wealth of multimedia resources to create your own scenes, soundtracks and storylines.

Jonas Moore, played by uber-cool Bond actor Colin Salmon, rides from game world to game world in a virtual reality controlled by video games where the people are mere digital slaves. Writers, muscians and other Internet creatives can contribute to his adventures and develop the story. If successful, Webster plans to create further episodes, completing a trilogy. Perfect news for the Machinima generation.

The Many Worlds of Jonas Moore

Related posts: DS Lite Game Review: Hotel Dusk, Room 215|The Friday Project's Friday Books: The best of the web

The Friday Project is a publishing company close to my heart. Not only do they take the best of the web and distill it into that enduring and wonderful medium, the book, they also gave us one of the most unexpectedly focussed social networking websites currently online, London Friday Cities, through which I got this great job (email me and I'll think about sending you an invite... maybe).

I've recently got my hands on two of their most recent releases, Confessions of a Chatroom Freak and The Blog Digest 2007. Over at Dolly Mix, Cate is ploughing her way through Holy Moly's downright hilarious Eat Well, Stay Fit, Die Anyway (until I rip it from her hands).Chatroom Freak is much funnier than it sounds, containing the anarchic transcripts of LoopyLisa21f's chatroom addiction.

The concept of the eBook has been floating around the technological ether for years, and with the advent of the Internet, epaper and similar advances many have predicted the death of the book repeatedly. This week, Andrew Marr of the Guardian road-tested the iRex Iliad (a device we wrote about some time ago!) and proclaimed that while the paper book was likely to be alive and well for years to come the new generation eBooks were readable and portable enough to quickly find their (common)place in society.

I can't conceive of replacing my battered, beloved and above all slightly smelly collection of books with an eBook (you know what I mean... must and dust and many readings lend a distinct biblioscent). But as the technology zooms ahead, what are the options that might tempt a bibliophile like me away from the bookshelves?

Susi excitedly introduces Katie to the wonders of a device that does one thing and one thing only.

Playaway Audiobooks

Related posts: Playaway: The Audiobook That Looks Like A Book|The Death of the E-Book?|Electronic Braille Book

Clearly I've been fooling myself that Kurt Vonnegut would live forever, but sadly even the best things have to come to and end, and one of the great writers of the the modern age has passed away. There isn't really anything I can write that will do justice to the great man, so I leave you instead with his own words, spoken at the funeral of Isaac Asimov: "Isaac is in heaven now, that was the funniest thing I could have said to a crowd of Humanists. God Forbid, Should I pass on sometime, may all of you say that Kurt is in Heaven too".

For more of Kurt's legendary words of wisdom and whimsy: Kurt Vonnegut Wikiquote
Kurt Vonnegut dies (Guardian news story)

The story of Girl Genius involves incompetent "spark" (a semi-magical steampunk engineer) Agatha Clay discovering that she has a far more convoluted background than she ever dreamed - to the degree that the people she thought of as parents are actually sophisticated "clanks" - robots. Such elaborate caregivers would only be given someone of great importance, and as the story progresses, Agatha learns precisely how important she is. She can build and shoot a death ray, is beautiful but realistically constructed, and gender stereotypes are gratifyingly absent.

Susi Weaser writes....
I was always told that everyone has a book inside them. It may be a textbook about the mating habits of moths, but it's definitely there. And with a new blog being created every half a second, there's somewhat of a gold rush in the publishing world to sign up the best bloggers, with the most interesting lives.

And arriving like manna from heaven to prove my point, the second annual Blooker Prize shortlist has been announced this week, celebrating the best of the books that originated as blogs. But there's still time to jump on the bandwagon. Just follow my Ten Commandments of Blooking Success and it's practically a foregone conclusion (no, I don't have my own book deal yet, mainly because my personal blog consists of bullet points and photos of ice creams).

Start ‘em young, that’s what I say. Well, not to the health visitor, my mother, or my daughter but, you know, just when I’m trying to flog baby books about alcoholic beverages.

There is in fact a whole series of these inappropriate baby books, from ‘Baby, Mix Me a Drink’, through ‘Baby, Do My Banking’, to ‘Baby, Fix My Car’, but the cocktail one is the most appealing. With clear, step by step instructions, it teaches Junior how to mix a variety of cocktails through bright pictures and symbols – the best ways for young children to learn.

According to my mother, the internet is a Very Dangerous Place. She's one of many people who want to be able to explain to net-addicted teenagers like my sister why they should be careful, and more importantly, how. I refer her, and her kin, to this book - Own You Space.

Written by Linda McCarthy, a professional hacker who is employed to show corporations their weak spots online, it's aimed directly at teenagers (you can tell this from the number of Star Wars metaphors).

They read books like they are going out fashion and tell you plenty about them too. For those of you who like your chick lit and more, check out our book blog Trashionista for the latest releases, guest blogs from top authors, reviews, the movie versions and check out the topics for the Thursday three - this week they've got novels set in Los Angeles. Go on, you know you want to.

Trouble With Lichen
John Wyndham, Penguin, £6.39

Published in 1960, John Wyndham's Trouble With Lichen has one of the best female scientist protagonists in the genre: Diana Brackeley, biochemist. The plot involves her discovery of the Antigerone, a lichen extract which substantially retards the aging process. Since it comes from lichen (a very slow-growing plant) there's a limited supply. Being a clever lass - clever enough to study science instead of just getting married despite being very pretty - Diana's solution is unorthodox, clever, and dryly funny.