E Books

Many companies have been making an effort to green their businesses, finding ways to use fewer resources. One way has been to convert traditional paper-based processes to electronic ones. There's really no faulting Barnes & Noble for choosing to pay its employees by direct deposit, rather than using paper payroll checks. Except that it means, in one part of its business, Barnes & Noble has gone paperless. "I find it ironic that a book retailer would go paperless," wrote a Barnes & Noble staffer on the Facebook page of journalist Lisa Napoli.

As a novelist, I am used to having complete control over the world on my computer screen. Life, death, sin, redemption: My characters' lives are in my hands. But last week, I got yet another reminder of my utter powerlessness once the book leaves home. Amazon.com took away my "buy" button. I'm not the only author I know who obsessively checks her Amazon rankings. It's not that I have any real idea what they mean: how they translate into how many books have sold or what kind of royalties I can expect.

This is a decade that ended much as it began: with anxiety over technology and a feeling that the world as we know it might be coming to an end. Remember? Ten years ago, we were dealing with Y2K anxiety, and even the most skeptical of us -- if we're honest -- must admit to having had moments of tension amid the manufactured hype. What if the computers had stopped working? What if our entire way of living had been derailed by a bit of code? If these questions seem quaint now, perhaps they offer a bit of context, a perspective on what we're facing 10 years later, especially when it comes to publishing and books.

Not that long ago, e-books were an oddity: Devices were expensive, and those who invested in them struggled to find something good to read. But the age of preferring paperbacks is starting to look like the late era of CDs — e-books are ascendant. This summer, Amazon.com announced that shoppers on its site purchased more e-books for the Kindle than hardcovers in its spring quarter. If you're not already carrying around an e-reader, you might find yourself giving one a try before the year is out. E-reader price wars When Amazon.

Radiohead has postponed part of its European tour after a stage collapse in Toronto killed the band's drum technician. A statement posted on the British band's website Thursday said they are dealing with grief from the accident and practical considerations that have forced them to postpone shows in Italy, Germany and Switzerland scheduled through July 9. Scott Johnson was killed Saturday when the stage came crashing down as the crew set...

Common as Air Revolution, Art and Ownership Lewis Hyde Farrar, Straus & Giroux: 306 pp., $26 The late Jack Valenti, who was Hollywood's ubiquitous lobbyist for four decades, fully agreed that copyright terms should be limited. The proper term, he would say, is "forever, minus a day. " As is pointed out by Lewis Hyde, a creative writing professor at Kenyon College in Ohio and expert on intellectual property issues at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Valenti's wish has become true, or true enough.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, the Rolling Stones' "Exile on Main St.," Bill Cosby's "I Started Out as a Child" comedy album and musicologist Harry Smith's widely influential "Anthology of American Folk Music" collection are among 25 new recordings selected for the 2012 Grammy Hall of Fame, the Recording Academy announced Monday. The new entries, which also include Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A. " album, Cole Porter's pop standard "Anything Goes," Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's pioneering rap single "The Message" and Tina Turner's career-rejuvenating hit single "What's Love Got to Do With It" bring the total number of recordings chosen for the Hall of Fame to 906. Other selections this year include Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs' instrumental "Foggy Mountain Breakdown," Mahalia Jackson's "Precious Lord, Take My Hand," Gloria Gaynor's anthem "I Will Survive" and the Boston Symphony Orchestra's 1940 recording of Roy Harris' Symphony No. 3. —Randy Lewis Penguin stops e-book loans Library patrons hoping to borrow e-books published by Penguin may have to wait.

Netflix's newest original series will be science fiction from the duo behind the "The Matrix" trilogy. Netflix announced Wednesday that it would stream "Sense8" late next year for subscribers. The series is the first foray into television for Andy and Lana Wachowski, the filmmaking siblings who directed "The Matrix" and last year's "Cloud Atlas. " Netflix called the 10-episode series "a gripping global tale of minds linked and souls hunted. " Netflix made its biggest splash with an original series last month with the debut of the political thriller "House of Cards," starring Kevin Spacey.

What kind of girl is Lena Dunham? A million-dollar one , if her literary agency gets its way. According to Slate, the 26-year-old writer-director-star of HBO's "Girls" is shopping a book deal this week, asking for $1 million (although they'll take more). Slate has seen the book proposal and explains that it promises "a collection of frank, autobiographical essays about sex, friendship, work, eating disorders, etc. " and is tentatively titled "Not That Kind of Girl: Advice by Lena Dunham.