Learncrest Blog

Category Archives: General

Parallel Reading With The Kids

By blueZhift | April 12th, 2011

Most parents read a lot of books to their kids when they’re young, before they can read for themselves. In due time, children grow and begin reading on their own.  And somewhere along the way, children begin reading books that their parents have not. Most of us are pretty busy once kids come along regardless […]

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Is Book Loving A Fetish?

By blueZhift | April 8th, 2011

Bibliophilia, sounds kind of dirty, doesn’t it? Well that’s how I felt, in a good way, after a pleasurable visit to Myopic Books in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood yesterday. I was in the area for a meeting and had some time to kill so I started exploring the neighborhood. I love books and bookstores, so […]

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Digital Manga Guild: Part Of The Solution!

By blueZhift | April 1st, 2011

Okay, we’ve all read scanlations at some time in our manga reading lives. And we’ve all felt, or should have felt, guilty that reading illegally scanned and translated manga does nothing to support and thank mangaka for their work. Well now you can do something about that! Join the Digital Manga Guild and become part […]

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C2E2 And The Future Of Comics

By blueZhift | March 18th, 2011

Today is the beginning of the 2nd Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (C2E2). In addition to having fun, I’m hoping to see something of the future of comics in the digital age. There are already a number of ways of reading comics on various devices, but the number of titles is limited. And right now […]

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Back To The Future: Neighborhood Bookstores

By blueZhift | March 8th, 2011

Now that winter is giving way to spring, I was eager to get back outside for my customary lunchtime walk abouts. A lot has changed since the last time I engaged in these jaunts. In particular, the Borders bookstores that used to anchor my routes downtown and in Hyde Park are no longer open. So […]

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Borders Epitath: Bad Romance

By blueZhift | March 7th, 2011

Today is the last day for the Borders bookstore in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. The kids are out of school today, so I decided to take them there to see what might be left and to say good bye to the store. Throughout the closing process, the staff had maintained a very neat and orderly […]

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Barnes & Noble’s Conquest of Space

By blueZhift | February 25th, 2011

The growing popularity of eBooks, the success of online bookseller Amazon, and the implosion of Borders would seem to argue that large bookstores are more liability than asset. But Barnes & Noble is seeking to refute that logic by hosting in-store events to promote PubIt authors. PubIt is the eBook self-publishing platform Barnes & Noble […]

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What About Borders? Let There Be Libraries!

By blueZhift | February 17th, 2011

A quick Googling of “Borders” will turn up a lot of stories about how difficult it will be to fill the building vacancies that the store closings are going to bring. Many of these buildings are two stories and on the order of 20,000 square feet. I thought some about the closing Borders in my […]

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Pump Up The Manga On The Nook!

By blueZhift | February 17th, 2011

After reading this excellent review of Sundome on the UK Anime Network site, I popped over to Barnes & Noble’s web store to see if it was available on the Nook. It was no big surprise to me that it was not available as an eBook. But I was surprised and happy to see that […]

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Rise of the Manga Entrepreneur?

By blueZhift | February 16th, 2011

Now that Borders has filed for bankruptcy and the local Borders is closing, maybe its time to dust off those plans to open a manga cafe in the neighborhood! My wife suggested this, perhaps only half seriously, in response to yesterday’s post. We started talking about the idea a few years ago. The idea was […]

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