Publishing is Dead. Books are Dead. But it doesn't matter because no one is reading anyway.

Publishing is Dead. Books are Dead. But it doesn't matter because no one is reading anyway.

Richard Murphy

Economics / Nonfiction / Politics

This is a study of the paradigm shift of books into a digital world. It looks at the strengths and weaknesses of both digital and printed literature as well as the publishing systems around them.This is a dissertation. A 2nd version of this text will be released, without a maximum word count that will be able to into deeper research and analysis.AUTHORS NOTE: About six months ago I finished my first novel (Chronicles of the Vampire Hunters: The Coalition). The finished product was well over six hundred pages long, was unedited, and had NUMEROUS grammatical and punctuation errors. Also due to its length several elements of the story had to be left out. So instead of moving on to my next project, I decided to improve upon The Coalition. So I broke the novel up into three parts, had it edited, and added previously left out scenes(including a new prologue) making it a more complete story. If you've read The Coalition before I hope that you will be happy with the new material and if not I'm confident you will enjoy this first novel following Jake and his family's adventures. So here it is, the first part of The Coalition Trilogy: Creation. They are known by many names, from Gods and Immortals to Demons and Vampires. They are whispers in the shadows, myths, and legends. They have existed alongside mankind for thousands of years, always in hiding, always feeding. They are are the top of the food chain and humanity is their only prey. Alone and outnumbered a small group of men and women stand their ground, fighting to drive back the darkness anyway they can. They are our first, last, and only line of defense against monsters that know no fear. They are the Vampire Hunters. Jake Bishop is a normal, easy going kid that spends his summer days playing with his action figures and watching cartoons. The biggest, Earth shattering problem is his life are his parent's nonstop arguments over money. That all changes one hot summer night, when a demon from his father's past comes crashing back into his life. Jake is plunged into a surreal, terrifying world beyond his worst nightmares. Jake is nearly killed, his mother kidnapped, sending his father into a mad quest for revenge. Jake learns two truths, vampires exist and the Bishops have been hunting them for hundreds of years. And they are VERY good at what they do.
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The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders

The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders

Daniel Defoe

Fiction / Politics / Nonfiction

"My true name is so well known in the records or registers at Newgate, and in the Old Bailey, and there are some things of such consequence still depending there, relating to my particular conduct, that it is not be expected I should set my name or the account of my family to this work; perhaps, after my death, it may be better known; at present it would not be proper, nor not though a general pardon should be issued, even without exceptions and reserve of persons or crimes. It is enough to tell you, that as some of my worst comrades, who are out of the way of doing me harm (having gone out of the world by the steps and the string, as I often expected to go), knew me by the name of Moll Flanders, so you may give me leave to speak of myself under that name till I dare own who I have been, as well as who I am." This book has a beautiful glossy cover and a blank page for the dedication.
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Bright-Sided

Bright-Sided

Barbara Ehrenreich

Nonfiction / Sociology / Politics

A sharp-witted knockdown of America's love affair with positive thinking and an urgent call for a new commitment to realism Americans are a "positive" people—cheerful, optimistic, and upbeat: this is our reputation as well as our self-image. But more than a temperament, being positive, we are told, is the key to success and prosperity. In this utterly original take on the American frame of mind, Barbara Ehrenreich traces the strange career of our sunny outlook from its origins as a marginal nineteenth-century healing technique to its enshrinement as a dominant, almost mandatory, cultural attitude. Evangelical mega-churches preach the good news that you only have to want something to get it, because God wants to "prosper" you. The medical profession prescribes positive thinking for its presumed health benefits. Academia has made room for new departments of "positive psychology" and the "science of happiness." Nowhere, though, has bright-siding taken firmer root than within the business community, where, as Ehrenreich shows, the refusal even to consider negative outcomes—like mortgage defaults—contributed directly to the current economic crisis. With the mythbusting powers for which she is acclaimed, Ehrenreich exposes the downside of America's penchant for positive thinking: On a personal level, it leads to self-blame and a morbid preoccupation with stamping out "negative" thoughts. On a national level, it's brought us an era of irrational optimism resulting in disaster. This is Ehrenreich at her provocative best—poking holes in conventional wisdom and faux science, and ending with a call for existential clarity and courage.
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Totalitarianism

Totalitarianism

Hannah Arendt

Philosophy / History / Politics

The great twentieth-century political philosopher examines how Hitler and Stalin gained and maintained power, and the nature of totalitarian states.   In the final volume of her classic work The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt focuses on the two genuine forms of the totalitarian state in modern history: the dictatorships of Bolshevism after 1930 and of National Socialism after 1938. Identifying terror as the very essence of this form of government, she discusses the transformation of classes into masses and the use of propaganda in dealing with the nontotalitarian world—and in her brilliant concluding chapter, she analyzes the nature of isolation and loneliness as preconditions for total domination.   “The most original and profound—therefore the most valuable—political theoretician of our times.” —Dwight Macdonald, The New Leader
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The Tryst: a modern folktale

The Tryst: a modern folktale

Benjamin Parsons

Biographies & Memoirs / Politics / History

When Kaveran meets Kayna and they fall in love, their romance seems to eerily echo that of their namesakes in a local legend. But little do they realise that their love is fated by a sinister secret.An old Cornish folktale tells of the knight Kaveran and his passionate love for the beautiful Kayna. When a modern young couple, who share these legendary names, meet and fall for each other, their romance seems to replay the old story... but hidden in the past is a sinister secret, which their overpowering desire threatens to expose, with deadly supernatural consequences.
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India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy

India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy

Ramachandra Guha

Nonfiction / History / Politics

A magisterial account of the pains, the struggles, the humiliations, and the glories of the world's largest and least likely democracy, Ramachandra Guha's India After Gandhi is a breathtaking chronicle of the brutal conflicts that have rocked a giant nation and the extraordinary factors that have held it together. An intricately researched and elegantly written epic history peopled with larger-than-life characters, it is the work of a major scholar at the peak of his abilities...
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The Overton Window

The Overton Window

Glenn Beck

Politics / Nonfiction / Literature & Fiction

A plan to destroy America, a hundred years in the making, is about to be unleashed…can it be stopped? There is a powerful technique called the Overton Window that can shape our lives, our laws, and our future. It works by manipulating public perception so that ideas previously thought of as radical begin to seem acceptable over time. Move the Window and you change the debate. Change the debate and you change the country. For Noah Gardner, a twenty-something public relations executive, it's safe to say that political theory is the furthest thing from his mind. Smart, single, handsome, and insulated from the world's problems by the wealth and power of his father, Noah is far more concerned about the future of his social life than the future of his country. But all of that changes when Noah meets Molly Ross, a woman who is consumed by the knowledge that the America we know is about to be lost forever. She and her group of patriots have vowed to remember the past and fight for the future—but Noah, convinced they're just misguided conspiracy-theorists, isn't interested in lending his considerable skills to their cause. And then the world changes. An unprecedented attack on U.S. soil shakes the country to the core and puts into motion a frightening plan, decades in the making, to transform America and demonize all those who stand in the way. Amidst the chaos, many don't know the difference between conspiracy theory and conspiracy fact—or, more important, which side to fight for. But for Noah, the choice is clear: Exposing the plan, and revealing the conspirators behind it, is the only way to save both the woman he loves and the individual freedoms he once took for granted.
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The Life of Castruccio Castracani

The Life of Castruccio Castracani

Niccolo Machiavelli

Politics / History / Nonfiction

Rising from humble beginnings as a foundling, Castruccio Castracani came to prominence as one of the most powerful and shrewd warlords in Italy. Indeed, Machiavelli argues, so great was his vigour and charisma that—had he not been prevented by his untimely death—he might have surpassed in fame the great generals of antiquity and brought all the territories of Italy under his sole dominion. Written in Machiavelli's characteristically lucid and terse style, The Life of Castruccio Castracani is not only a key text in understanding the development of the author's ideas on leadership and good statesmanship that would find fuller expression in The Prince, but also a revealing account of the political ferment and fractious factionalism of fourteenth-century Italy. This edition also includes a further version of Castruccio's exploits from Machiavelli's Florentine Histories.
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The Glass Key: A Modern Folktale

The Glass Key: A Modern Folktale

Benjamin Parsons

Biographies & Memoirs / Politics / History

For ten years Sam neither saw nor heard of his beautiful Araminta, who vanished before their wedding day - but now, suddenly she steps into his life again, with a fantastic adventure to tell: her journey to unlock the secret of the mysterious glass key.All alone on a howling night, with the fire blazing in the hearth, you hear a key turn in the lock - and see the apparition of your long-lost love enter the room...For ten years Sam neither saw nor heard of his beautiful Araminta, who vanished before their wedding day - but now, suddenly she steps into his life again, with a fantastic adventure to tell: her journey to unlock the secret of the mysterious glass key.
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The Vampire Hunter Comes To Call (The Vampire's Housekeeper Chronicles, # 2)

The Vampire Hunter Comes To Call (The Vampire's Housekeeper Chronicles, # 2)

J Bennett

Nonfiction / Politics

In this hilarious follow-up to Employment Interview With A Vampire, it’s clear to Deidre that her vampire boss, Nathaniel, needs to get a life...or at least an undead life. Unfortunately, her efforts to gain him a friend will catch the attention of a vampire hunter. Armed with a walker, a fanny pack filled with stakes and a 40-year-old quest for vengeance, Silas may just prove Nathaniel's match.Being a vampire's housekeeper definitely has its downsides. The walls bleed. The ghosts play pranks, and the boss can get murderously angry if his prune juice runs low.In this hilarious follow-up to Employment Interview With A Vampire, Deidre struggles to keep her sanity and her patience in the face of her boss's many "peculiarities". Nathaniel is unliving proof that tempers don't necessarily sweeten with age; he stubbornly clings to his gramophone, denounces the Internet as witch magic and is still fuming over the passage of the nineteenth amendment. To Deidre, one thing is clear. Nathaniel needs to get a life...or at least an undead life. When Deidre takes it upon herself to expand her curmudgeon boss's social circle, she has no way of knowing that her efforts will bring a vampire hunter calling.Armed with a walker, a fanny pack filled with stakes and a 40-year-old quest for vengeance, Silas may just prove Nathaniel's match. Will the battle between Nathaniel and the vampire hunter be a fight to the death, or will someone break a hip first? And what happens to Deidre if the prune juice runs out? Find out in this satirical short story. (Approximately 6,700 words)
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The Woman Destroyed

The Woman Destroyed

Simone de Beauvoir

Literature & Fiction / Nonfiction / Politics

In three “immensely intelligent stories about the decay of passion” (The Sunday Herald Times [London]), Simone de Beauvoir draws us into the lives of three women, all past their first youth, all facing unexpected crises. Enthralling as faction, suffused with de Beauvoir’s remarkable insights into women, The Woman Destroyed gives us a legendary writer at her best.
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The Portable Machiavelli

The Portable Machiavelli

Niccolo Machiavelli

Politics / History / Nonfiction

In the four and a half centuries since Machiavelli's death, no single and unanimously accepted interpretation of his ideas has succeeded in imposing itself upon the lively debate over the meaning of his works. Yet there has never been any doubt about the fundamental importance of Machiavelli's contribution to Western political theory. The Portable Machiavelli brings together the complete texts of The Prince, Belfagor, and Castruccio Castracani, newly translated by Peter Bondanella and Mark Musa especially for this volume. In addition, the editors include an abridged version of The Discourses; a play, The Mandrake Root, in its entirety; seven private letters; and selections from The Art of War and The History of Florence.
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The New Book

The New Book

Nikki Giovanni

Poetry / Politics / Children's Books

Nikki Giovanni's extraordinary final collection—a landmark of American literature which speaks to the fury and upheaval of our time, as well as the triumphs and delights of her remarkable creative life.For decades, Nikki Giovanni's poetry has been at the forefront of American culture. The New Book is a towering work of protest against the divisions of our time, leavened with moments of joy and reflection about her indelible legacy, her family history, and the small pleasures of her richly lived life.In The New Book, Nikki Giovanni slashes at the ridiculousness of our cultural and political climate: "We have no secrets/since the world shrunk/and the icebergs melted/and all the year books/are digitized./... and we press Like/or No Like/as if it mattered."She remembers 2020 and its cataclysmic reckoning with police brutality and white supremacy: "I do understand that republicans/Are cowards and so are those nazis/Cheering/And those kkk...
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