Daunt Books - London Legend

If you have ever dreamed of traveling the known world or exploring the Lonely Mountain for its lost treasures, look no further than Daunt Books.

These two floors are comprised of travels books with another full level in the basement.

Originally Daunt Books started out as a travel book shop. In fact, most of the store is still dedicated to travel. One of the really interesting things about Daunt Books that sets it apart from many of the other book stores across London would be that many of the fiction books can be found in the section in the travel section in which it is set or originates from. Like if you’re looking for Les Miserables, you would be better off looking in the France travel section than the fiction setting it is normally seen in. While you’re in the France section, you can pick up a book about France history around the 1860’s to understand a little more about the backstory of Les Mis or even a travel book about the 100 best places to eat.

Along with its setting, Daunt Books has another charming feature: its variety of publishings. When I say publishing, I’m not just talking about them having almost every book imaginable (because they do). I’m talking about the range of publishers for books and, thus, a wider range of book covers themselves that vary from the traditional Penguin Publishing covers. Surprisingly, these fun covered books tend to run for similar prices as the boring ordinary covers you can find in most book stores and even right next to the fun covers. As a little added bonus, every purchase includes a small, paper bookmark with more information about Daunt Books.

Conclusion: If you are looking for a book that is truly unique and memorable,
Daunt Books has you covered. The books themselves are clustered together to help set a cultural background by surrounding it with books from the same region and not just the same letter of the last name. Be warned, though, that you can easily get caught up looking at all of the books that Daunt has to offer. Daunt Books is one of those bookstores that is definitely worth a look-see for tourists and Londoners alike.

Death of the Dinosaurs

            When I say dinosaurs, your mind probably wanders to Jurassic World and all of the splendid creatures it held.  For other people, dinosaurs could mean older generations that constantly call into the IT hotlines or have to call up their grandchildren to figure out how to even turn on a printer.  Then there are people that think of outdated technologies and mentalities. 

            Almost these archaic mentalities is the dictionary.  These ten pound giants that would shake desks at a mere three inch drop.  Don’t forget their cousin: the Encyclopedia.  In most cases this involved an entire shelf of giant books.  Sometimes they’d have relevant information, sometimes they’d refer to Russia as the Soviet Union.  My favorite is when they would refer to a certain region in Asia as Korea.  Just one. 

Growing up, my teachers would always tell me to look up how to spell “synonym”
in the dictionary or to look into the swarm of encyclopedias in hopes of finding the correct French Revolution.  Now whenever I’m curious about something I have an easily accessible best friend: Google!  In fact, the saying “I don’t know, google it” has revolutionized the English language to the degree of adding the term “google” as a verb.  Google (the website) isn’t even twenty years old and it’s already in the dictionary (has been for a long time, too)! 

This rapid transition took less than twenty years!  Dictionaries that have been a vital fountain of knowledge for the last few centuries were outed within twenty years!  Basically since the beginning of household internet.  This huge meteor decimated the reigning titans.  Volunteer organizations (like Rotary) that previously spent thousands of dollars supplying dictionaries to elementary schools are even moving on.  Even an organization like Rotary that features older patrons has recognized the death of an era! 

Even though we are currently living the in the Sixth Mass Extinction, it shocks me that we can add classroom dictionaries to the long list.  

Author Interview

Who or what inspires you as an author?

The who would be the subject of my book, and that is George Eliot.  So the what is a very practical answer: I was writing my dissertation to get my PhD here in English at TCU, and I had to write my dissertation to get my degree.  Having a great subject, like George Eliot; some motivation, like necessity to finish a degree; and then a little bit extra motivation from a super advisor and mentor to turn that into a book.  That was the formula.

Who or what motivates you as an author?

You know what?  It’s really a strange answer.  Most people are going to say “Oh, I'm compelled to bring out the works of whatever.”  A part of me is very compelled to write on George Eliot’s poetry because until my book it had never been written about.  People have always written on her novels, and very few people had written on her poetry and only recently.  And so there were little smattering of articles here and there.  Here she is one of the most important authors of all time, and no one has written on one whole genre of her work.  So I feel compelled to do that because I want to bring to light her work.  In graduate school, you’re just on this treadmill of writing and researching and writing and you just kind of keep doing that when you’re done.  At least I do.  I find some pleasure in the academic process of giving papers and learning from others’ papers and transforming those papers into articles.  I think that the English department here at TCU prepared me well to continue with the publishing process.  And again, Linda Hughes is amazing.  Having a good mentor or teacher that really cares about you can make all the difference in the world. 

What authors or books inspired you as an author the most?

George Eliot.  Every novel that she wrote was amazing. 

Most often, where, when, and how do you write?

Never here.  This office is for meeting students and piling papers on my desk.  I come to campus to teach and to meet students.  I do my work from home.  I have an office in my home.  To answer the question: summer, winter break, but mostly summer.  My kids are at school from nine until three, and so from nine until three that’s when I do my work in my office.  How is by sheer will and power.  During the semester it’s a little trickier.  For example, right now I had an article accepted by Victorian Poetry, and it was an article that took me a long time to write.  So I’m really excited about finishing it.  So I have reviewers’ comments that I have to incorporate, and so I have to make a few revisions, not many but just a few.  It takes time.  So I’ve been doing it one half of a footnote per week.  On a Tuesday when I’ll get one or two hours, I’ll try to spend my first hours of the day doing that because that’s the best time of the day that my brain is working the best. 

How is technology changing print culture, specifically regarding authors and readers?

So for a fun answer, I can say that I only listen to books now.  I don’t read any books unless they’re academic books that don’t exist on audio.  Because I commute to campus and I have times here and there that I have 10 minutes or a 45 minute commute or on the airplane that I can listen.  So I get tons and tons of audiobooks, and that’s how I listen to my “for fun” reading.  My work reading, of course, I still have to read the old fashion way.  If [academic books] were available on audio, I would get it.  I don’t think that printed books are as important as they used to be.  I just gave an example of why.  My book is not a book that is on peoples’ home shelves.  It is a book, hopefully, that’s in universities’ libraries that people can reference.  It’s also online.  If anyone needs to reference my book, they can go to their school’s library and they can access the book.  They don’t have to walk into the library, even though I hope the book is in the library.  But I don’t think it matters if the book is in the library anymore.  More and more we have the books online, and as a researcher I'm quite grateful for that.  I'm grateful for the times that I'm in Dallas doing my research and I really need some information that I can find the article online.  I think we’re on the precipice of something different happening.  I feel like we’re really going into a non-print world, and I'm participating in that by ordering audiobooks and by making available online my own book by giving permission to Ashgate to do that.  I think it’s not a bad thing.  I think it’s okay.  I know a lot of people say “Oh, but I like holding books.”  I think that that’s okay, but I don’t think we’re going to be there for much longer.  When I write an article for a journal, I sometimes feel that it’s irrelevant because I feel like I’m going to receive a copy of that journal and everybody else who subscribes will receive that journal and the libraries that subscribe will receive that journal in print.  Most everyone that accesses that article will be accessing it online.  So why do we need that print copy?

When you write, who is your intended audience?

Either other scholars of 19^th century literature and culture and poetry or students that are taking classes in those areas. 

How is the current technological revolution changing your audience?

I don’t think it is.  I think that the audience is still the same.  They’re just accessing the articles and the book online.  Actually it’s no change for me because I’m a new author.  I only got my PhD in 2012.  So I’ve only been writing publishing for three years.  They will always be accessing my stuff online. 

What do you think reading and authorship will look like 50 years from now?

I wonder if people are going to be reading long works or if they’re going to just be reading blogs and short pieces.  I don’t know.  It’s hard to guess.  I think authorship will be the same, but maybe people will start producing shorter works.  There will probably be more people who become famous via online processes rather than traditional publishing.

How did you find a publisher and how long did that process take?

I had the best process ever.  I asked Linda Hughes. 

How long did it take you to get from word document to a printed book?

I think I submitted in the fall of 2013.  I wrote the dissertation in 2012.  I wrote the book in summer of 2013 full time.  I submitted it in the fall or winter of 2013, and it was in print in summer of 2014.

How much did you manuscript change during your publisher’s editorial process?

Not much.  My editor didn’t have a lot of suggestions.  I hired Bill to be my editor.  He was an excellent editor, and he helped me on sentence level.  There were no structural changes.  It was just sentence structure, word changes, and things like that.  They were not major.  By the time I submitted it, the complete manuscript the first time, that copy does not look much different from the completed copy. 

Do you have a definite and specific organization and structure in mind as you begin writing?

No.  I went to a writer’s workshop about a year and a half or two years ago, and they suggested a structure for articles.  They suggested this double triangle.  It’s kind of like your introductory paragraph with your thesis and then a secondary one with background information and then you’re thesis restated again and then your body paragraphs and then conclusion.  I thought “That’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen; I’ve never done that before.”  And I structured my article I recently mentioned to you that way and apparently was okay because it was not commented on by the reviewer.  For the book, it’s just basically one article is a chapter. 

How would you describe your writing process?

I write very closely to the final product.  I teach people to write crappy first drafts.  I teach people to write that way because I think that’s the best way to write.  For some reason, I write very close and slowly.  I think it through and I write it out.  The changes I usually make are not too major, but I teach the opposite.  Don’t tell my secrets.  I think it’s important to be able to write a bad first draft and not be attached to it and be able to throw it away and start over or throw this part away and start over and not feel badly about it.  I think it’s important to embrace the ugliness of your writing the first time.  

Let's Players

            In class recently we covered topics along the line of Machinima and other big YouTubers.  The day and age of Machinima, however, has long been dead.  Gamers on YouTube are turning to different YouTube channels for their entertainment.  Don’t get me wrong.  Machinima was a monster of a company that would seek out young talent and recruit them into the fold.  Looking at it now, Machinima was the Disney for YouTube gaming channels.  That Golden Age has ended, though.  In its ashes, a new type of gaming YouTubers has risen.  

            Enter PewDiePie. 

            Not only is this Swedish “professional screamer” the biggest video game centered YouTube channel.  PewDiePie is also the most subscribed channel on YouTube.  Breaking the ten billion (yes 10,000,000,000) view mark recently, he is one of the most viewed channels on YouTube.  

            PewDiePie entered YouTube in 2010 with no idea where his sporadic videos would take him.  The only thing he knew was that he loved video games.  With more than 2,500 videos (not including some of his older videos that he’s deleted), it’s obvious that he’s played a few games.  You would think that he’s run out of games.  Luckily he keeps finding games. 

            One of the major differences that could be attributed to PewDiePie’s success is his personality and his willingness to play just about any game.  Machinima generally stuck to the bigger games such as Call of Duty.  PewDiePie recently uploaded a video revolving around a Nicolas Cage Dating Simulator that was obviously created by a novice game designer.  The selling point for Machinima videos was the quality of the gameplay as well as the big title games they were able to feature.  PewDiePie gains views by reacting in an outlandish fashion that features jokes that might last for a minute at most (attracting the obviously ADHD society that surfs the internet). 

            Machinima is not dead, though.  Hosting 12,000,000 subscribers and anywhere from 3-5 videos a day from varying gamers under Machinima’s wing.  Depending on the gamer, Machinima’s videos make anywhere from 50,000-250,000 within the first week per video.  Comparing Machinima to PewDiePie’s 40,800,000 subscribers, it’s obvious to see the shift in focus for even YouTube. 

            

Copyright

The U.S. Copyright Office, and the position of Register of Copyrights, were created by Congress in 1897 as a separate department of the Library of Congress. Twenty-two years earlier, Congress removed copyright registration from the district courts and centralized it in the Library of Congress. Today, the Copyright Office has approximately 450 employees, the majority of whom examine and register hundreds of thousands of copyright claims in books, music, movies, software, photographs, and other works of authorship each year. In fiscal year 2011, the Office processed more than 700,000 registration claims.


The Office’s registration system and the companion recordation system constitute the world’s largest database of copyrighted works and copyright ownership information.

The Office administers several statutory licenses that manage and disperse private monies, including those pertaining to copyright owners’ rights in programming on broadcast television signals that are retransmitted by cable operators and satellite carriers.


It also provides basic copyright information services to the public in a variety of ways. Last year, the Office’s Information and Records Division answered hundreds of thousands of inquiries by phone and email, performed search and retrieval functions for customers involved in research and litigation, and served a substantial number of in-person visitors.


Congress has also prescribed critical law and policy functions for the Copyright Office. See 17 U.S.C. § 701. These include: domestic and international policy analysis; legislative support for Congress; litigation activities; support for the courts and executive branch agencies (including significant efforts on trade and antipiracy initiatives); participation on U.S. delegations in meetings with foreign governments or private parties; attendance and participation at intergovernmental meetings and other international events; hosting copyright training for copyright officials from developing countries; and providing public information and education. The Copyright Office works regularly with the Department of Justice, the Department of State, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and the Department of Commerce, including the Patent and Trademark Office. By statute, the Register of Copyrights is a member of the interagency intellectual property enforcement ad visory committee chaired by the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator ( IPEC ).

Claims to copyright in published and unpublished books or manuscripts can be registered as literary works in the Copyright Office. Textual works with or without illustrations are eligible, as are other nondramatic literary works, including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, contributions to collective works, compilations, directories, catalogs, dissertations, theses, reports, speeches, bound or loose-leaf volumes, pamphlets, brochures, and single pages containing text. See sl-35, Registering a Copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office, for the methods available for copyright registration.


Deposit requirements for literary works depend on whether a work has been published at the time of registration. For unpublished works, one complete copy or phonorecord is required. If you use the electronic Copyright Office (eCO) to register your unpublished work, you can submit your deposit electronically. See sl-35 for details about eCO. If you choose to submit a physical deposit or to register using a paper application, there is no specific require‑ ment regarding the printing, binding, format, or paper size and quality of the unpublished manuscript material you deposit. Typewritten, photocopied, and legibly handwritten manu‑ scripts, preferably in ink, are all acceptable. However, because deposit material represents the entire copyrightable content of a work submitted for registration, copies deposited in a format that will facilitate handling and long-term storage (for example, stapled, bound, or clipped material) are greatly appreciated by the Copyright Office.


The deposit requirements for published works are as follows:

• if the work was first published in the United States on or after January 1, 1978, two com‑ plete copies or phonorecords of the best edition

• if the work was first published outside the United States, one complete copy or phono‑ record of the work as first published

• if the work is a contribution to a collective work and published after January 1, 1978, one complete copy or phonorecord of the best edition of the collective work or a photocopy of the contribution itself as it was published in the collective work.


Copyright protects an author’s expression in literary, artistic, or musical form. Copyright protection does not extend to any idea, system, method, device, name, or title. See Circular 1, Copyright Basics, for more information about copyright, deposit requirements, and registra‑ tion procedures.






(Please note that this is intended to be ironic.)

Reader Interviews

I interviewed four individuals from varying backgrounds about their media habits as well as reading habits.  Here are my findings:

English Major

1.      Do you like to read?   Yes!

2.      What do you like to read?      British literature, Hemingway, Christian books, academic books

3.      Have you read a book in the last 12 months?             Yes

4.      How long do you read before stopping?        Usually 45 minutes or more

5.      How much time do you spend on social media each day?     20 minutes

6.      How much time do you spend on your cell phone each day?                        1-2 hours

7.      How much time do you spend studying?  How much of that is reading?     4-5 hours studying; at least half of that reading

8.      How much time do you spend on the internet each day?      At least 2 hours

9.      How much time do you spend watching television or streaming videos each day?              0-2 hours

10.  How much time do you spend totally unconnected from all media technology each day?   15 ish hours

11.  How do you relax?     Reading and Netflix

12.  Reading is…   relaxing, fulfilling and fun!

13.  My favorite book is…             How do I pick?  Hamlet, The Hiding Place, Harry Potter

14.  Reading poetry is like…         trying to see the bottom of a lake

Business Major

1.      Do you like to read?   Yes

2.      What do you like to read?      Science fiction, romance, fiction in general

3.      Have you read a book in the last 12 months?             Yes

4.      How long do you read before stopping?        About 50 pages unless there’s a plot twist near the end of the 50 pages then I read a few extra pages

5.      How much time do you spend on social media each day?     An hour max

6.      How much time do you spend on your cell phone each day?                        2 hours

7.      How much time do you spend studying?  How much of that is reading?     1.5 hours; 1 hour reading

8.      How much time do you spend on the internet each day?      4-6 hours

9.      How much time do you spend watching television or streaming videos each day?              2.5 hours

10.  How much time do you spend totally unconnected from all media technology each day?               10 hours

11.  How do you relax?     Internet and socializing

12.  Reading is…   fun.

13.  My favorite book is…             Jurassic Park.

14.  Reading poetry is like…         figuring out the soul of the author.

Psychology Major

1.      Do you like to read?   Depends

2.      What do you like to read?      Mystery novels

3.      Have you read a book in the last 12 months?             No

4.      How long do you read before stopping?        About two hours

5.      How much time do you spend on social media each day?     None!

6.      How much time do you spend on your cell phone each day?                        2-3 hours

7.      How much time do you spend studying?  How much of that is reading?     3 hours, almost all of it is reading           

8.      How much time do you spend on the internet each day?      2-3 hours

9.      How much time do you spend watching television or streaming videos each day?              1-2 hours

10.  How much time do you spend totally unconnected from all media technology each day?               12 hours

11.  How do you relax?     Socializing and outdoor activities

12.  Reading is…   enjoyable when I’m interested in the topic.

13.  My favorite book is…             any well-written mystery.

14.  Reading poetry is like…         solving a puzzle with words.

Science Major

1.      Do you like to read?   YES!

2.      What do you like to read?      Autobiographies, mystery novels, non-fiction

3.      Have you read a book in the last 12 months?             Yes

4.      How long do you read before stopping?        On average… 1.5 hours

5.      How much time do you spend on social media each day?     About a total of two hours per week?

6.      How much time do you spend on your cell phone each day?                        15-30 minutes

7.      How much time do you spend studying?  How much of that is reading?     2-3 hours studying; 30-60 minutes of reading

8.      How much time do you spend on the internet each day?      1-2 hours

9.      How much time do you spend watching television or streaming videos each day?              An hour or less

10.  How much time do you spend totally unconnected from all media technology each day?               About 20 hours

11.  How do you relax?     Reading, art, caring for animals, gardening, fitness

12.  Reading is…   an escape from reality.

13.  My favorite book is…             Harry Potter!

14.  Reading poetry is like…         analyzing fine art while eating chocolate in bed.

Death to Print

            When’s the last time you had a newspaper delivered to your door and read it from the front page all the way through the classified ads?  When’s the last time you clicked on a Facebook link to read a quick 200 word article your friend ranted and raved about?  You’ve probably read an online article more recently than an entire newspaper. 

            That’s one of the main reasons you’ve been seeing less newspapers around. 

            What about those sweet classified ads, though?  How are you going to find that one thing you were looking for?  Easy, look it up on Craigslist or Ebay. 

            With the internet filling in some of the staples that were previously satisfied by newspapers, newsprint isn’t such a big deal anymore.  Magazines are able to stay afloat because they’re able to adapt to the new needs and digitize. 

            Is this the end for all newspapers?

            The answer to that is not completely.  Newspapers will continue to be on the highly endangered list, but they’re not completely out for the count. 

            Giants in the industry, like the New York Times, will continue to struggle until they’ve exhausted all of their resources.  However, the underdog will survive in the newspaper industry.  Even though small towns have internet too, they heavily rely on their local newspapers for local events. 

            My family, for instance, still subscribes to our local newspaper so they can stay on top of the obituaries to see who all is dying.  A bit morbid, but it’s a legitimate sector that is keeping small newspapers alive. 

            Although the internet may have killed the giants, like in the day of the dinosaurs, the little guys will stay alive long enough to hopefully evolve and adapt to a changing world.