Kubrick's sources

Thursday, July 26, 2007 at 7:19 PM

Posted by Greg Yano, Book Search Support Team

Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick was known to be a perfectionist, sometimes demanding up to 100 takes from his actors. But one of the lesser known facts about the eccentric director is that he was also a voracious reader, just as comfortable surrounded by a stack of books as he was behind the camera. That might explain why almost all of his films are based on novels, including A Clockwork Orange, 2001: A Space Odyssey, or my personal favorite, Barry Lyndon.

Today, in honor of Kubrick's birthday, I thought I'd share one of my latest finds on Google Book Search. Here in full text is The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq., the novel by William Makepeace Thackeray that Kubrick adapted for the screen in 1975. It tells the story of a down-and-out social climber who plays at being a British nobleman. The film version is considered legendary among film buffs for its innovative cinematography, its epic scale, and (of course) Kubrick's painstaking attention to detail.

While researching for the film, Kubrick strived to become an expert on how people lived in the 1700s, absorbing historical details like the prevalence of wig lice and the kind of toothbrushes people used. But for all his dedication to recreating the time period, Kubrick is also known for taking liberties with his source material, injecting it with his unique sense of irony and dark humor. If you're a Kubrick fan, you may want to check out the novel to discover how his vision transformed Thackeray's depiction of 18th-century British life. Read the full post 0 comments

A Muggle's remarks

Wednesday, July 25, 2007 at 10:39 AM

Posted by Roland Lange, Strategic Partner Development Manager

We at the Google Book Search blog would be remiss if we did not address the most significant event in book publishing in the last 50 years: the release of the final book in J.K. Rowling's excellent Harry Potter series. Although the full text of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows isn't searchable online, you'll find lots of information about it on our "About this Book" page, including links to book reviews and web references from diverse sources like the BBC and a host of HP fan sites. And if you want a refresher before embarking on The Hallows, we have similar pages for each Rowling's previous six books as well.

You can also use Book Search to explore books you might be interested in reading after (gasp) reaching the final page (page 608 in my copy). I came across this wonderfully helpful book I've been meaning to buy. A search for "wizards, castles and brooms" brought up other promising finds, including a book by Diana Wynne Jones called Howl's Moving Castle, which like the Harry Potter books has been made into a movie (this one created by the Japanese master of animation, Hayao Miyazaki). In the same search, I discovered The Book of Wizard Craft, aimed at helping us Muggles bring some magic into our own homes.

As for my son and me, we're still making our way through Harry Potter #5, and with all the excitement about the finale, we can't wait to get to the action in #6 and #7. And, like most fans, we can't help but wonder: What on earth will J.K. Rowling do next? We can hardly wait, but for now, we'll just keep reading! Read the full post 0 comments

A literary Tour de France

Tuesday, July 24, 2007 at 11:24 AM

Posted by Yana Ivey, Book Search Support Team

The 198.5 km stage began at 12:10 pm. There were 181 riders at the sign on. The sun shone on the Tour de France at the start of the day, the temperature was a warm 26 degrees Celsius.

That's the scene set by the Amaury Sport Organisation at this year's Tour de France. I've been religously following reports like this one ever since I got a road bike for my birthday last year. Almost overnight, road cycling became an integral part of my life. Reading about the Tour de France, I'm transported, imagining the giants of cycling competing in the world's best-known race. Each day I ponder who will be king of the mountains, who'll get the most sprint points and receive a green jersey, and which cyclist will beat the odds to win the stage.

I try to bike as much as I can here in the Bay Area, whether it's the 25-minute commute to work or a 50-mile ride to the Lighthouse at Point Reyes on a weekend. There are so many places to bike that it makes 52 weekends a year seem scant. One of my favorite rides, though, is Skyline Boulevard, a narrow, scenic highway in the heart of the Santa Cruz mountains. With its gentle climbs and fast descents, it makes me feel like I'm part of cycling culture -- almost part of the Tour de France itself.

So you can imagine my excitement when the winner of the 2006 Tour de France, Floyd Landis, recently came to give a talk at Google. Landis told us all about his book, Positively False: The Real Story of How I Won the Tour de France, his training methods, modern cycling technology, his injury, and, of course, the Tour. I even managed to get his signature on my biking helmet:


Landis's visit inspired me to dig up more books on cycling. There are dozens of books on Lance Armstrong, the winner of seven consecutive Tour de France races. Of course, names like Armstrong, Landis, and Merckx are on the tip of the tongue for many cycling fans. But what about all the extraordinary racers who came in second, or third -- or even those who raced 20, 50, or even 100 years ago? The history of the Tour de France is about more than just glamorous finishes, it's about cycling culture as a whole, with the bright sides, like the development of ultralight racing technology, and the darker ones, like doping scandals.

After five "hors category" climbs, two time trials, and who knows how many crashes, one astounding athlete will win this year's Tour. Who will it be -- Michael Rasmussen, an incredible Danish climber, Tom Boonen, an inspiring sprinter from Belgium, or one of the great cyclists from the Kazakhstan-based team Astana? We'll know for sure on Sunday, when the race finishes in Paris. In the meantime, feel free to take a tour of Google Book Search to learn more about the inside story. Read the full post 0 comments

Finding first reads with Google

Monday, July 16, 2007 at 9:38 AM

Posted by Stephanie Movahhed, Book Search Support Team

The other day I realized that I could use Google Book Search to find a piece of my past. With just a few keystrokes, I searched and found the first book I ever read, Danny and the Dinosaur. There it was -- just as I remembered it, unchanged after all these years.

I know I'm unusual in being able to identify my first book so definitively. Initially, books and I just didn't seem to mesh. It took me a little while to get up to speed, and I needed some extra help and encouragement along the way. Once I'd read my first book, though, I was so proud I decided to read it aloud to my entire first grade class. I was sharing what I knew about this reading thing in general, and the joy of Danny and the Dinosaur in particular.

There are other great books I remember from my first days of reading, like Harold and the Purple Crayon and the Magic School Bus books. It's fun to rediscover the wonderful illustrations in these books.

Lots of people use Google Book Search to find information about important people from their past. Why not use it to find the books that meant a lot to you growing up? Take a few minutes and give it a try -- you can browse the pages, and if you want, use the "Buy this Book" or "Find this book in a library" links to locate a hard copy. That way, you can reclaim your first book -- or give it to someone special to read for the very first time. Read the full post 0 comments

Keio University Joins Google's Library Project

Tuesday, July 10, 2007 at 7:04 PM

Posted by Laura DeBonis, Director, Book Search Library Partnerships

Last week, Keio University became the latest partner to join Google Books Library Project, and our first library partner in Japan. The combined collections of the Keio University libraries total more than two million printed works. Working together, Google and the Keio University Library will digitize at least 120,000 public domain books from these collections, so that readers around the world can view, browse, read, and even download public domain materials by simply searching online at books.google.co.jp. (You can also search these books by typing your search term in Japanese on books.google.com.)

"The Google project allows us to make our collections visible worldwide, allowing us to contribute to research and education on a global scale. Our university was founded in 1858 by Yukichi Fukuzawa, who was well known for his commitment to bringing information and media forward into the modern age. This makes Keio ideally suited to be the first Japanese library to participate in Google Book Search," says Professor S. Sugiyama, Director, Keio University Library.

We are glad to announce our first library partner in Japan with the Keio University Library. This is the 26th library to join the Google Books Library Project, which digitizes books from major libraries around the world and makes their collections searchable on Google Book Search. Read the full post 0 comments

Greater access to public domain works for all users

Tuesday, July 03, 2007 at 1:15 PM

Posted by Bethany Poole, Product Marketing Manager

Today we launched a new feature for Book Search to help more people access the world's great public domain works. Whenever you find an out-of-copyright book in our index, you'll see a "View plain text" link, which lets anyone access the text layer of the book. As Dr. T.V. Raman explains on the main Google blog, this opens the book to adaptive technologies such as screen readers and Braille display, allowing visually impaired users to read these books just as easily as users with sight.

This is an exciting step for us in our mission to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. To learn more about Google's efforts to make books and other digitized content more accessible to everyone, check out Dr. Raman's full post. Read the full post 0 comments