click to enlargeRandall Monroe recently posted this comic strip over at xkcd. Hysterical and foreboding.
Is the E-Reader Price War Next?
The way the current online price war between Wal-Mart, Amazon, Sears and Target is shaping up there is a chance one of them might be paying me to read one of their featured books by Christmas.It started as a shot off the bow by Wal-Mart to wake up the populace to their online life. Pre-order the top upcoming releases for $10 and free shipping but before you could click the buy button Amazon joined the party and matched the deal. Soon after Target joined the fray. Now less than a week later the price sits at $8.98 at Walmart, $8.99...
A sign of hope in the latest "last chapter for bookshops" saga
The Kindle was released into the world today.In anticipation of the event the UK magazine Retail Week published the piece: As e-readers launch, is it the last chapter for bookshops? by George MacDonald.Surprisingly, before the yawn and the customary filing in the 'end of the bookshop is near' file the story balances itself out. It actually ponders "if the world of print will prove resilient" and offers some nuggets of sanity from Tim Waterstone, founder of the Waterstone’s, the UK's largest chain bookseller.While Waterstone admits that the e-book revolution will have an effect he also is quite convinced that books...
Free Kindle For Tweeters
To promote the release of her new book, Perseverance: True Voices of Cancer Survivors, author Carolyn Rubenstein and publisher Forge Books, a division of Macmillan, are giving away a Kindle wireless ebook reading device on Twitter each day from August 18 through August 21 to four lucky tweeters.This will be an interesting exercise in marketing books, using an ebook reader to promote the sale of an actual book and whether the strategy will cannibalize sales of physical copies of the book. Ms. Rubenbstein’s website page for the promotion has a link to Amazon which is offering both the hardcover and...
Kindle in a Book
"Love your Kindle but miss the feel of holding a real book?"BustedTypewriter has the perfect solution. An altered book that holds your Kindle. Mind you, it's not just any book but a copy of “Buying In:The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are” by Rob Walker. A perfect fit. For the more sensitive among us; also available is a copy of “Compassion and Self-Hate” by Theodore Isaac Rubin M.D.These Kindleized books, along with other altered books to carry your various technologies, are available here. Kindle not included.Thanks to Design Observer for the lead.