Mad Men’s back

via amazon.co.uk

In case you’ve been under a rock for the last couple of weeks, the third series of Mad Men starts this week on BBC4.

The stunning depiction of a New York advertising agency in the early 1960s has won countless awards since it was first shown on US TV for the first time in 2007.

What’s more, the focus of the show has changed since it debuted. Although women of a certain age still lust after Don Draper, in his perfect suit and slicked-back hair, complete with his twisted morals, the true stars are the women, aka Peggy Olson, Betty Draper and the wonderful Joan Holloway.

All three epitomise the struggle for women to be seen as people in their own right and not just as housewives and baby-makers, and yet all three are completely different.

In case you’re still wondering what all the fuss is about, why not take get hold of the Series 1 & 2 boxset – for under £20 – so you can catch up and then get drawn in just like everyone else.

Posted via web from Rob’s stream of web

Twitter statistics

via flickr.com

This nice infographic reveals some interesting truths about the use of Twitter.

The most obvious is the high percentage of dead accounts and the equally low number of people who create most of the noise – ie 5% create 75% of the tweets.

There’s also enough information to decipher that the best time to promote yourself is just after lunch on a Wednesday, according to this.

I’ll be keeping an eye out next week to see if it works!

Posted via web from Rob’s stream of web

When books, the web and video collide

People have been trying to get books to work online for a while. There are a variety of book social media sites, such as the Amazon-owned Shelfari, goodreads and Bookrabbit, to name just three. 

We also have the much-heralded arrival of the Kindle (Amazon again), numerous other e-readers and even iPhone apps, such as Stanza.

Then there are the TV adverts created specifically to look like a movie trailer, when they are actually a book plug – namely those of uber-author James Patterson.

There are also some authors, such as Jasper Fforde, who have tried to provide the equivalent of DVD extras, by getting readers to enter a password that’s hidden in books which then unlocks extra content around the specific title. 

But now there’s a new kid and new idea on the block. It comes in the form of mini-videos within a book that both complement and enhance your enjoyment of the material. 

Dark Origins has been created by Anthony Zuiker, the creator of the phenomenon that is CSI. Ostensibly a gruesome crime thriller about a serial killer, what raises this above the norm is the aforementioned additional material. 

To dovetail nicely with Zuiker’s own site Level 26 – a nod to the categorisation of the most heinous serial killers of all – every 26 pages, the reader is prompted to visit the site and enter a special code, which then leads directly to a relevant 3-5 minute video that ties in with the plot at that point. 

Naturally, coming from the creator of CSI, these short clips are extremely expertly and stylishly shot. They wouldn’t look out of place on CSI itself and I wouldn't mind betting that the amount of money spent on video is more than the actual book. 

Will it work? Well, it makes a book more interesting and definitely raises it above the everyday thriller, but a lot depends on how good the writing is. I’m only a short way into Dark Origins currently and the jury is out, as far as I'm concerned. 

The other issue for me still comes down to whether want to stop reading in the middle of a book to watch a video and also want someone else to show them what certain characters look like. 

One of the joys of reading a novel before it’s ever come close to the big or small screen is that you get to create your own idea of what certain characters look like. 

Even though he's been played by both John Hannah and Ken Stott, neither of them match up to my own picture of Iain Rankin's Rebus, so strong is he lodged in my imagination. 

Fair play to Zuiker for trying something different – he's got the clout and cash to do it, but I fear it will remain a gimmick, rather than become the norm.

Posted via email from Rob’s stream of web