Gertrude Stein puts the “there” back in Oakland

Friday, February 03, 2012 at 9:52 AM

By Matt Werner, Technical Writer, Enterprise

Gertrude Stein. (Courtesy Oakland Public Library, Oakland History Room.)

What exactly did renowned U.S. writer and art collector Gertrude Stein mean when she said “there is no there there” about Oakland, California? In honor of Gertrude Stein’s 138th birthday today, we explore the meaning of this oft-quoted phrase.

In fall 2011, I attended the SF Museum of Modern Art’s exhibit of Stein’s groundbreaking Paris art collection. At the exhibit, a small display about her childhood in Oakland, California, sparked my interest. I was born in Oakland, and I’m currently writing a book about Oakland. I wondered what it was like for Gertrude Stein growing up there in the 1880s. I purchased The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas from the Google eBookstore to read about Stein’s experiences in Paris and San Francisco with her companion, Alice Toklas. The more I read by Stein and saw how she plays with language, the more I wondered about the meaning of her “no there there” quote.

Read the full post 0 comments

East West Bookstore: Lending a personal touch to eBooks

Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 3:03 PM

This is a guest blog post written by Graham Waldon, manager of East West Bookstore, an independent bookseller based in Mountain View, California

People are more important than things. That motto lies at the heart of what we believe at East West Bookstore, lending a certain resonance to our partnership with Google and its philosophy of "focus on the user and all else will follow."

East West is not just a business. It is above all a resource for expansive ideas, a retreat from ordinary life, and a gathering place in support of community ideals and spiritual growth. True spirituality is always current, vibrant, and applicable to daily life, not something to be hidden away or buried in the depths of history. In that spirit, East West always strives to evolve and adapt to people's current needs. One of our fun new evolutions this past year has been our integration with Google to sell Google eBooks on our website.

Our partnership has given us a complete ebookstore, with a vast selection, so that as more and more people move to ebooks, we'll be there ready for them. Since we rely heavily (like all independent bookstores) on people who love helping to support us, we're glad we can offer them this way of doing so. And when you buy a Google eBook from us, you're supporting more than just East West. You're serving our whole community by supporting an important spiritual and cultural resource that is unique in the Bay Area.

Read the full post 1 comments

Read Google eBooks Offline!

Tuesday, December 20, 2011 at 5:14 PM

Posted by Xinxing Gu, Google Books Product Manager

We’ve all been there: the Internet is suddenly down, and you can’t keep on reading your ebook to see what the character decides to do next. Or you’re about to head to the airport and want to be able to dive into a newly-purchased ebook during a long flight.

Well, here’s some much-awaited good news! Google eBooks now supports offline reading in Google Chrome. Whether you are flying through the air, backpacking through the European countryside, or simply facing intermittent network connections, you can always read your Google eBooks in your Chrome browser or on your Chromebook.

To read your Google eBooks offline, you’ll need to install the Google Books app from our Chrome Web Store and ensure your Google eBooks are available to read offline. Please see this article in our Help Center and follow the simple step-by-step process to enable offline reading for your ebooks.

We’re excited to make it easier for readers to access their Google eBooks on the go -- whether you're online or offline! Read the full post 8 comments

Flock to Google Books to Unlock Secrets in Angry Birds Seasons

Wednesday, December 14, 2011 at 6:10 PM

Posted by Oliver Chiang, Google Books Strategist

Tis the season to be... angry! We're partnering up with Angry Birds this holiday season to bring you an early gift. In the latest adventures of your favorite furious feathered friends — Angry Birds Seasons for Chrome — the birds have locked away bonus levels in the game. Being avid readers, they've hidden clues to unlock the bonus levels in the new Google Books app for Chrome.

We're not going to reveal the birds' secret here, but read on for some hints:

First, if you haven't already, download the Angry Birds Seasons app for Chrome. To do so, open your Chrome web browser, then download the game by going here in Chrome. (Don't have Chrome yet? It's a fast and free browser available for download here, with Angry Birds Seasons and Google Books app pre-installed.)

To get the bonus levels in Angry Birds Seasons, you'll need to head over to the Google Books app to find your first clue. Open your Chrome web browser, and go here to download the Google Books app. Once you've installed the Books app, open it up to find out how to unlock the bonus levels in Angry Birds Seasons.

What levels are the Angry Birds hiding? Find out with Google Books!

Read the full post 3 comments

Google Currents is hot off the press

Thursday, December 08, 2011 at 11:39 AM

Posted by Mussie Shore, Product Manager, and Sami Shalabi, Technical Lead

The following launch announcement is cross-posted from the Google Mobile blog, and comes from Google Currents, a new app that makes reading magazine and news articles on mobile devices a clean and elegant experience.

We strive to give you beautiful and simple ways to experience all the content the web has to offer, such as sharing photos on Google+, watching YouTube videos and discovering books, movies and music from Android Market. Today we’re expanding our content offering with the introduction of Google Currents, a new application for Android devices, iPads and iPhones that lets you explore online magazines and other content with the swipe of a finger.




Read the full post 3 comments

Take Note(s): Highlighting your Google eBooks

Posted by Xinxing Gu, Google Books Product Manager

Like many of you, we love to highlight and mark up our books, capturing insights, important notes to remember, or even gathering opinions to later share with our favorite authors. Starting today, you'll also be able to break out the colored highlighters and pens with Google eBooks in the Web Reader.

Read the full post 11 comments

Celebrating the life of Mark Twain with a Google Doodle and Google Books

Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 7:24 PM

Posted by Oliver Chiang, Google eBooks Strategist

Please note some images may not be available in full view to readers outside the United States

In honor of Samuel Langhorne Clemens' – better known to the world as Mark Twain – 176th birthday today, Google has prepared a special doodle evoking one the most famous scenes from one of Twain's most famous novels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. We at Google Books invite you to take a trip through this American author and humorist's life via our body of digitized works, and maybe even convince you to read a free ebook copy of one of Twain's classics.

As a child, Twain lived in Hannibal, Missouri, a town on the Mississippi River, in the early to mid-1800s. Twain describes one of his first jobs as a "printer's 'devil'" – an apprentice at his uncle's newspaper, the Weekly Hannibal Journal. "500 subscribers, and they paid in cord-wood, cabbages, and unmarketable turnips," he recalls of the experience later in his short-lived column "Memoranda" (circa 1871) for The Galaxy magazine.
Read the full post

Pre-order your favorite ebooks at the Google eBookstore

Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 1:00 PM

Posted by Stella Loh, Google eBookstore Product Manager

Excited about Michael Connelly's upcoming new book The Drop? Can't wait to get your hands on True Blue by Diana Palmer? Worried your bookstore will run out of Dean Koontz's The Moonlit Mind before you can get your copy?

Have no fear: Pre-ordering in the Google eBookstore is here!

We are excited to announce that the our eBookstore now supports pre-orders for many titles that have not yet been released. No longer must you wait outside in long lines and in the cold, or worry that you'll forget to call ahead with enough time to reserve a copy of that sequel you've been dying to read.

Simply sign into your Google Account, search for the title you want to pre-order and click on "Pre-order eBook" button.

After you’ve confirmed your pre-order, the title will appear in your purchase history. Once the title is officially released to the public, your credit card will be charged, and we'll send you an email letting you know that your book is ready to read! Read the full post

Google eBooks arrive Down Under

Monday, November 07, 2011 at 2:08 PM

Posted by Mark Tanner, eBooks Partnerships Manager, Google Australia
(Cross-posted on the Official Google Australia Blog)

Today, Google eBooks has landed in Australia, and whether you're a bookworm or casual reader, you're invited to stop by and stock up on some great reads for summer.



We've got hundreds of thousands of titles to choose from, including plenty of best sellers, and more than two million free eBooks on top of that. It's easy to find great Australian authors like Kate Grenville, Thomas Keneally, Geraldine Brooks and Christos Tsiolkas.

Google eBooks is all about choice: we're offering more titles and more ways to buy, access and read them, so that your library is literally at your fingertips. You can choose from great titles from hundreds of local publisher partners at launch, including award-winning publishers like Allen & Unwin, Scribe and Text Publishing, not to mention the many thousands of international publishers Google works with around the world. In addition, we are working with some of the best local booksellers in Australia, including Booktopia and Dymocks who are selling eBooks today, with QBD The Bookshop and The Co-op Bookshop coming soon.

Read the full post

A visit from Pulitzer Prize-winner Jennifer Egan

Friday, November 04, 2011 at 1:54 PM

Greg Sanders, Technical Writer, DoubleClick and display products

We were pleased to host Pulitzer Prize-winner Jennifer Egan, author of A Visit from the Goon Squad, for an Authors@Google event in our New York office this August. I had the pleasure of moderating the talk with Egan in front of a group of Googlers.

Although the cast of characters spanning Goon Squad is vast and raucous, Egan is most interested in the sometimes self-destructive, sometimes tender-hearted protagonists, a music producer and former punk-rocker, Bennie Salazar, and his klepto assistant, Sasha.

Read the full post