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Seth's Blog: Random thoughts about the Kindle

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It's for women and women are buying it.

Highlighted by tombolini

An Oprah book is #1.

Highlighted by haskin24

on 2009-02-17 by haskin24

Oprah is a pop-culture figure. She is not a novelist, she is not a writer, and I cannot imagine that reading her book makes you any "smarter" than watching her TV show. So spare yourself 300 pages and watch 30 minutes of CBS (if that's that's the station she's on).

I realized that most of the books I bought I didn't use any more (thanks to wikipedia and google) and that buying books in anticipation of giving them to someone else was generous but not actually happening in practice. For the tiny slice of readers that account for a huge pile of book sales (300 books a year adds up), moving those purchases to the Kindle is smart for Amazon and smart for the reader.

Highlighted by tombolini

(thanks to wikipedia and google)

Highlighted by haskin24

on 2009-02-17 by haskin24

Proven, by the way, to be very iffy sources of "reference" information. We shouldn't give up our edited encyclopedias just yet.

Delivery is very fast,

Highlighted by haskin24

on 2009-02-17 by haskin24

Plays well to the desires of the 21st century man. But books don't always fit into the fastest-transmission-of-information-possible category.

As a writer, this raises the bar even further in terms of keeping people with me past chapter one if they're using this device.

Highlighted by haskin24

on 2009-02-17 by haskin24

It's not a good sign if writers will have to adjust their style to the Kindle generation. Yes, thinking about your audience is a must, but the Kindle is not the audience, it's still the people reading it.

Here are three simple examples of how non-fiction books on the Kindle could be better, not just cheaper and thinner:

--Let me see the best parts of the book as highlighted by thousands of other readers.
--Let me see notes in the margin as voted up, Digg-style, by thousands of other readers.
--Let me interact with hyperlinks and smart connections not just within the book but across books

Highlighted by tombolini

--Let me see the best parts of the book as highlighted by thousands of other readers.
--Let me see notes in the margin as voted up, Digg-style, by thousands of other readers.
--Let me interact with hyperlinks and smart connections not just within the book but across books

Highlighted by haskin24

on 2009-02-17 by haskin24

This is what we do on Diigo. It's no longer reading a book; it's reading on the Internet. The two are different beasts. With books, the reader must figure out on his own what is important and worth remembering, and make connections on his own. That is a skill in itself, and we're going to lose that if we do what Seth says.

The funny thing is: I've heard from a few publishers about my comment about pricing, and they've pointed out that authors would be hurt if the price was lowered, because, they argue, the royalties would go down. This is nuts, of course, because volume would go up, and the author percentage rate would go up as well (no paper costs to pay for). The power stays with the author, because the author is not a commodity.

Highlighted by tombolini

What happens to reading habits when you can buy all the books you want for $40 a month? What happens to book consumption when books become social objects, commented upon by you and your participating friends or network?

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How does a classroom or corporate book circle or book group change when 20 or 50 people each spend a dollar or five dollars to engage in a spirited device-based/book-based discussion around a big idea?

Highlighted by haskin24

on 2009-02-17 by haskin24

This could be a plus, I won't deny that.

What's worth commenting on is how close the Kindle comes to revolutionizing the way ideas are sold and spread

Highlighted by haskin24

on 2009-02-17 by haskin24

Not sure about this one. Sounds just like he wants it to become a portable Internet device, and we already have those. How it will be anything new, besides being more widespread, is not apparent to me.