Today Amazon alerted the world that for the first time the sale of Kindle books has surpassed the sale of all printed books. In less than four years the electronic newcomer has taken a strong hold. The rise in e-books has "resulted in the fastest year-over-year growth rate for Amazon's U.S. books business" in over 10 years and even caught CEO Jeff Bezos by surprise who said "We had high hopes that this would happen eventually, but we never imagined it would happen this quickly." The announcement comes right on the heels of R. R. Bowker's release of their annual report...
The Rise of the Digital Book Cover
Tintin and The Secret of Literature—The Digital Book Cover "I went from assuming the cover might someday disappear completely, to believing that it could take on a whole new life" said Charlie Orr in a post he did back in May on the blog The Hypothetical Library.As he pondered the digital explosion of content delivery that is currently underway in the book world he "couldn't decide what was worse, the poor quality of covers when the e-books included them, or the fact that most e-books on the Kindle and other e-ink based readers didn't bother with them at all."This was enough...
Dreadful E-Books Offered Gratis By British Library
One of the Most Popular Penny Dreadfuls, Starring Dick Turpin, Highwayman. (Circa 1866.)It's a red-hot, red letter day for Amazon Kindle owners. The British Library has announced that 65,000 rare 19th century literary first editions will be offered as free downloads to owners of the device beginning in Spring of 2010. Thanks to a joint venture with Microsoft, the no-cost titles will reproduce the original type-face and illustrations from such classic works as Charles Dickens's Bleak House, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, and Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge.While having an electronic facsimile of a valuable first edition is a...