Gabrielle DouglasRaising the BarMonday May 06, 2013 7:00 PM
Barnes & Noble
The Americana at Brand
210 Americana Way
Glendale, CA 91210
event page |
purchase from bn.com Special InstructionsThis will be a wristbanded event. Wristbands will be distributed with purchase of Raising the Bar starting on May 6 at 9:00 am. She will not be signing any other memorabilia.
About the authorGabrielle Douglas is a two-time Olympic gold medalist. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, she made history, becoming the first US gymnast to take home a team and an individual gold medal in the same Olympics.
Gabrielle began her training at age six, and became the Virginia State Champion only two years later. When she was fourteen, she left her family in Virginia Beach to train with coach Liang Chow in Des Moines, Iowa. Under Chow's guidance, and with tremendous faith in God's plan for her, Gabrielle competed in the Olympic Trials and walked away with the only guaranteed spot on the team. Since her Olympic triumph, Gabrielle has used her platform to inspire millions with a powerful message: With hard work and persistence, any dream is possible.
Visit her online at www.gabrielledouglas.com
So I don't know if you know this about me, but I love gymnastics. I don't follow it as closely nowadays (the drama gets to me--ick, drama!) as I used to when I was 12 and still trying to do cartwheels in the back yard. However, I still admire and aspire to the kind of discipline and dedication that gymnasts (like my cousin Tash, who is a
member of the cheer team
Team Pilipinas Coed) need to keep their minds and bodies in shape.
I'll be giving away a signed copy of Gabby's book to a lucky winner in the US or Canada. Good luck!
Giveaway Rules:
- Open to US/Canada only.
- We are not responsible for items lost in the mail.
- One set of entries per household, please.
- If you are under 13, please get a parent or guardian's permission to enter, as you will be sharing personal info such as an email address.
- Winner will be chosen randomly via Rafflecopter widget a day or two after the contest ends.
- Winner will have 48 hours to respond to to the email, otherwise we will pick a new winner.
- If you have any questions, feel free to email us. You can review our full contest policy here.
- PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE ANY PERSONAL INFO IN THE COMMENTS. Sorry for the caps but we always get people leaving their email in the comments. Rafflecopter will collect all that without having personal info in the comments for all the world (and spambots) to find.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
As I mentioned in my publishing news blog on Writermarket.com this morning, B&N has launched a new e-book store as well as its own e-book reader.
Being a huge fan of both e-books and e-book readers for the iPhone, I immediately downloaded the app. I read e-books on my iPhone all the time and am constantly checking out the updated versions of e-book reader apps. Originally my favourite was Fictionwise’s eReader but now I like Lexcycle’s Stanza the best.
Although B&N’s e-reader app for the iPhone basically does what it’s supposed to, I don’t think I’m going to be switching away from Stanza anytime soon. Here’s my review:
QUICK SUMMARY:
- B&N’s e-book reader app needs huge improvements in user interface and user experience.
- B&N’s app only lets you get e-books from the B&N site. Other e-reader apps are far more flexible.
- B&N’s e-book files are in .pdb and .prc format which theoretically means other e-reader apps SHOULD be able to read them, but the mechanics may not be intuitive for the average e-book reader.
- B&N’s e-books appear (at least at first glance) to be cheaper than at Fictionwise.com. Ironic, since B&N owns the latter.
- I’m not buying any e-books from the B&N e-book site until they improve their app.
MY LONG-ISH REVIEW:
To read any e-books with the app (even free e-books), you have to sign up for a B&N account. If I was just checking out the app out of idle curiosity, just this would have turned me off. Why force potential new users, especially users who are probably already using another e-reader, into signing up for something they haven’t had a chance to try yet? Bad marketing move.
The app comes with a few free titles, most of which are already available for free elsewhere.
When you click on the “Shop For E-books” button, your browser opens and you’re taken to a very primitive search page with one search field for book info. No choice of categories or topic or other info. A larger part of the screen was devoted to a B&N store locator.
Frustrated with the iPhone interface for the app, I went to my laptop to look through B&N’s new e-book store.
Living in Canada, I haven’t paid much attention to B&N’s Web presence except for publishing news. Their new e-book store was decently designed, and the e-book store tab easy to find in the top navigation bar.
B&N appears to have a flat US$9.99 price tag for most of their bestsellers. I buy most of my e-books at Fictionwise.com, so I was curious if there was much price difference. Stephanie Meyer’s Eclipse cost US$16.99 at Fictionwise but only US$9.99 at the B&N store. Since B&N owns Fictionwise.com, I was pretty shocked at the price difference.
I checked a title I recently purchased: King Dork by Frank Portman. I paid US$7.26 (as a Fictionwise club member, plus taking their “micro-rebate” into account) but B&N still had it on sale for less at US$7.19.
According to their the B&N e-reader FAQ, the e-books they sell are packaged to be read with the B&N e-reader.
The Barnes & Noble eReader is built primarily to support eBook files sold at BN.com. These text files end in either .pdb or prc and have been specifically packaged for use on a handheld using the Barnes & Noble eReader.
Hm…
My current favourite e-book reader, Stanza, does support both .pdb and .prc files, but it’s not immediately obvious how I’d go about using Stanza to read books purchased on the B&N website. Until I figure this out, I’m leery about buying any e-books from B&N. If any of you have done it successfully, please let me know!
I’m also not crazy about the fact that the B&N e-reader app currently only lets you get e-books from their site. Stanza and other e-book readers like eReader and Bookshelf are more flexible, enabling users to download e-books from a wide variety of sources.
In appearance, here’s a comparison of the first pages of Little Women using screenshots from my iPhone.
Using B&N’s e-reader, from their Classics series ($4.99 in their store, free with their e-reader):
Using Stanza e-reader (free copy of Little Women obtained using their Online Catalog, which access a wide variety of free and commercial e-books from different sources):
With Amazon owning Stanza and B&N owning Fictionwise, what does this means for e-books and e-book readers in general? With B&N also planning to come out with a rival to the Kindle, it’s clear that B&N isn’t going to let Amazon get away with the biggest toy in the e-book industry sandbox that easily. But will it succeed?
I’m not hugely impressed by the first version of B&N’s e-reader; they have a lot to improve in terms of user experience before I’d consider switching over. The other e-reader apps have already been through many iterations and improvements. I’ll be curious to see whether B&N can catch up.
I’ll be covering a comparison of specific e-book reader features of the top e-books readers in a future post.
.jpeg?picon=3655)
I totally had no idea you were into gymnastics. I suck at that stuff mut admire those who can do it.
I do enjoy watching gymnastics and other sports on television, but the other aspects of the book are also interesting. Thanks for the giveaway.
I love the Olympics and Gabby is just adorable. I was so happy she did so well.
Yes we follow gymnastics during the olympics