Instead of a treehouse, one father with an avid young reader built his daughter a reading nook in a tree.

We’ve embedded his photograph above–would you love a treehouse reading nook this summer? The proud parent posted about his creation on Reddit:

It’s about 7 ft off the ground. All the weight is supported by the bolts in the main trunk and the thick branch opposite the platform. I boxed around that support branch so as to minimize strain as the tree inevitably grows. The steel cables are most definitely overkill backup support, but they don’t seem to be needed even at 3x her weight … She was away at a friends for most of it. I had the joists and half the decking done when she got home. It was fun to have her sit up on the finished part if the deck and space / position the boards before I secured each one. The whole process went surprisingly quickly.

Bernard Waber, the author of The House on East 88th Street, Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile and other classic kid’s books, has passed away.

After World War II, the young artist changed his plans to study finance and took on art instead. he The House on East 88th Street captured his memories of moving to New York City as a young artist and newlywed. He shared his memories in a moving essay:

My involvement with children’s books originated with some illustrations of children I carried in my art portfolio. Several art directors suggested that my drawings seemed suited for children’s books. At the same time, I was also having read-aloud sessions with my own three children. I am afraid enthusiasm for “their” books began, in fact, to cause them occasional discomfort. “Daddy, why don’t you look at the grownups’ books?” they once chided as I trailed after them into the children’s room of our local library. Before long I was mailing out stories and ideas to publishers. Rejections followed, but after a time a cheery encouragement arrived from Houghton Mifflin Company, and to my delight, a contract was offered for Lorenzo. In one way or another, I seem to find myself thinking of children’s books most of the time.

Science fiction novelist Hugh Howey topped our Self Published Bestsellers List this week with two collections from his Wool series rising on Amazon.

To help GalleyCat readers discover self-published authors, we compile weekly lists of the top eBooks in four major marketplaces for self-published digital books: Amazon, B&N, Apple iBookstore and Smashwords. You can read all the lists below, complete with links to each book.

If you want more resources as an author, try our Free Sites to Promote Your eBook post, How To Sell Your Self-Published Book in Bookstores post and our How to Pitch Your Book to Online Outlets post.

If you are an independent author looking for support, check out our free directory of people looking for writers groups.

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I love this word so much, I had it illustrated for us. Abibliophobia: the fear of running out of reading material. twitter.com/SmartBitches/s…

— Sarah Wendell (@SmartBitches) May 20, 2013

Do you suffer from abibliophobia? I know I do.

Over at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, author Sarah Wendell posted an illustrated definition for the word that means “the fear of running out of reading material.”

Last week, we introduced you to the Japanese word “Tsundoku,” which is the “act of leaving a book unread after buying it.” Perhaps this is the dark side of abibliophobia, but I don’t want to be cured…

Following days of rumors, Yahoo has acquired Tumblr for $1.1 billion. The press release made the new relationship clear: “Per the agreement and our promise not to screw it up, Tumblr will be independently operated as a separate business.”

Tumblr has served as a source of countless book deals and many writers keep work on the site. If you want to know how to build a better page, read our Tumblr Tips for Writers post with writing advice from Tumblr literary outreach Rachel Fershleiser. Here’s more about the deal:

With more than 300 million monthly unique visitors and 120,000 signups every day, Tumblr is one of the fastest-growing media networks in the world. Tumblr sees 900 posts per second (!) and 24 billion minutes spent on site each month. On mobile, more than half of Tumblr’s users are using the mobile app and do an average of 7 sessions per day … The deal offers unique opportunities for both companies. Tumblr can deploy Yahoo!’s personalization technology and search infrastructure to help its users discover creators, bloggers, and content they’ll love. In turn, Tumblr brings 50 billion blog posts (and 75 million more arriving each day) to Yahoo!’s media network and search experiences. The two companies will also work together to create advertising opportunities that are seamless and enhance the user experience.

2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson won the Nebula Award for best novel this year.  Aliette de Bodard took the best short story award for “Immersion”–read the complete story at Clarkesworld.

Below, we’ve collected free samples of all the nominees and winners–the best science fiction books of 2012. Many of these stories are available to read for free online. These are marked “COMPLETE” among the links.  Here’s more about the awards:

The Nebula Awards are voted on, and presented by, active members of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. Founded as the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1965 by Damon Knight, the organization began with a charter membership of 78 writers; it now has over 1,500 members, among them many of the leading writers of science fiction and fantasy.

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The literary publisher and calligraphy expert Louis Strick has passed away. He was 87 years old, leaving behind a lifetime of books, art and writing scholarship.

Westport Now published an obituary about his long and varied career. Here is an excerpt:

In the late 1960s Strick began importing calligraphic art supplies, distributed through his Pentalic Company. By making special nibs, pens and instruction books widely available, Strick spearheaded a revival of the calligraphic movement in America;. He also established the Calligraphy Workshop, a school on lower Fifth Avenue. In the late 1970s, Strick purchased the Taplinger Publishing Company, bringing out works of literary fiction as well as volumes on modern art, reflecting two of his passions.

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The Doors co-founder and author Ray Manzarek has passed away. He was 74 years old.

We’ve created a Spotify playlist below, linking to his music, interviews and work with poets. The rock keyboardist wrote a few books, including The Poet in Exile: A Novel and his Light My Fire memoir. You can read Entertainment Weekly had this obituary for the rock star:

As a member of the legendary rock band that formed in 1965 in Los Angeles and effectively ended with the death of frontman Jim Morrison in 1971 … [he] wrote a best-selling memoir about his experiences, Light My Fire: My Life with The Doors, in 1998. The Doors sold more than 100 million albums worldwide on the strength of hits like ”Hello, I Love You,” “Riders on the Storm,” “Light My Fire,” and “Break On Through to the Other Side.”

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The Glossary has created a short film incorporating an abridged version of David Foster Wallace‘s “This is Water” commencement speech.

We’ve embedded the project above–what do you think? Follow this link to listen to the address in its entirety.

Wallace originally delivered this speech in 2005 during Kenyon College’s graduation ceremony. Little, Brown and Company reprinted it in a 2009 book entitled This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life.

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Do your photographs keep getting cropped when you post on Facebook? Make sure your author page has the right sized pictures.

A recent infographic from PostRocket will help you calculate the proper dimensions for link images, photographs and profile pictures on Facebook. AppNewser has more details:

PostRocket shared a long list of practical Facebook tips in an infographic, looking at how you can optimize your stories, images and posts for Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm. EdgeRank decides how many people see your posts, so you should follow all these useful tips.

(Via Alma Katsu)