OK, time for another commercial break - but with entertainment. The North American edition of the book is now out in paperback and, I have to say, very handsomely so, thanks to the production standards at the University of California Press. Last year I much enjoyed David Williams' idea of a virtual book tour for his wonderful book, Stories in Stone, so now, celebration of the paperback as the excuse, I'm about to embark on a similar venture.
The whole thing kicks off today with Brian Romans at Clastic Detritus (an appropriate place to start) where there will be a review and then, tomorrow, a Q&A session - I'll do my best to offset the time difference between London and California and be online for that as long as possible.
Then, for early next week, Callan Bentley's students have fired off a bunch of great questions that I will attempt to answer, followed by David Williams and Stories in Stone. On dates yet to be determined, the tour will visit Andrew Alden at About Geology and Geoff Manaugh at BLDGBLOG.
A couple of things that I should point out - first, that, depending on how Amazon.com is searched, the paperback doesn't always show up very obviously - here's the link and the page at the University of California Press site. Second, because the book was published on opposite sides of the Atlantic by two completely different publishers and with two different subtitles, there is sometimes some confusion. The American edition is "The Never-Ending Story," a reference to Michael Ende's book and the imagery of a sand grain as a symbol of rebirth, and, at the same time the ubiquity, durability and timelessness of sand as a player in our planet's processes. This subtitle has, unfortunately, been misinterpreted on occasion (the book really isn't that long) and the UK publishers, Oxford University Press, preferred to change it to "A Journey Through Science and the Imagination." It has a different format and different feel - but it's the same book, and will be, itself, out in paperback in May.
The US paperback, of course, takes advantage of the reviews that have appeared since first publication to quote the particularly juicy bits on the back cover. And so, since this post is already a flagrantly shameless act of self-promotion, I'll reproduce the quotes here. I hope that readers will find the tour events themselves entertaining, and my sincere thanks to all of the hosts.
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