All the news that’s fit to capsulize!
INTRODUCING A KINDLE, GENTLER NATION
If you’re wondering what to get BOOKGASM for Christmas, Kindle – Amazon’s brand-new wireless, portable reading device – will do quite nicely, thanks. The $399 gadget may not have the wow appeal of the iPhone, but it does hold about 200 e-books, plus has automatic delivery of newspapers and a built-in dictionary. It’s kind of fun to watch it crash to the ground in slow-motion, too, if you scroll to the bottom of that page.
SLEEP IN, SAVE ANYWAY
More Amazon news: The day after Thanksgiving, they won’t have a cold, dark parking lot to line up in while you yawn – your body still comatose from tryptophan – but they will have a bunch of great deals to help you get holiday shopping done for less. This year, they’ve created a Black Friday page to make it easy, with hourly deals from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. PST, along with thousands of products on sale for a limited time.
R.I.P. IRA LEVIN
Author Ira Levin died last week at the age of 78. We’ve never reviewed any of his books here – because our reading them far predates this site’s conception – but we strongly recommend the one for which he’s most well-known: the 1967 classic ROSEMARY’S BABY. His second-most-known isn’t bad, either: 1972’s ultra-slim THE STEPFORD WIVES. He also wrote the play that eventually became the movie DEATHTRAP, which grossed my mom out back in 1982 because Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve made out.
DEL REY GOING GRAPHIC
Fresh from a partnership with Marvel, comic book publishers Dabel Brothers have joined forces Del Rey have joined forces to distribute new graphic novels. Making an immediate splash, the first three projects announced will be full-color comic adaptations of Jim Butcher’s THE DRESDEN FILES, Dean Koontz’s FRANKENSTEIN: PRODIGAL SON, and George R.R. Martin’s WILD CARDS. (And if this in any way gets Koontz off his ass to finish his FRANKENSTEIN trilogy, it’s all good.)
I AM IRON MAN!
Speaking of Del Rey, they’ve signed a deal with Marvel to publish four IRON MAN books. With the Robert Downey Jr. film coming to theaters next May, the publisher will issue the official novelization and a behind-the-scenes book of the movie’s making. But more interesting is that two original IRON MAN novels are part of the deal as well, with details to be announced. –Rod Lott
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
The Kindle comes out as us early Sony Reader adopters sulk away quietly…
Thumbs down from me as far as the Kindle goes. Terrible design and I don’t like the fact that they are locking you into to only using books from Amazon’s service. The screen doesn’t look any better than the eBook readers of a few years ago. Plus $399? That seems ridiculous for what it does. I will admit that the free wireless EVDO is cool. I was pretty excited about this – until I saw it.
I have to admit I’m behind the times with stuff like this. What’s the point? You have to spend $400 just to be able to have something do download books into, which themselves will cost five or ten bucks? And then you have to read it on a screen? Sure, you get to pretend you’re like one of those people in Star Trek who always walk around reading and punching things into little hand-held screens, but who wants to be one of them anyway? People get called bookworms for reading regular books. Imagine how nerdy they’re going to seem if normal people catch them with this thing. Also, the entire concept is stupid.
I’d much rather have a paperback in my hands then some overgrown calculator
Believe me that I, too, would much prefer a real book to an electronic one for various reasons, not the least of which include eye strain, a sore back and little patience sitting at a computer. But I have several e-books that have not been printed, and so I haven’t been able to read them. That’s why I certainly wouldn’t turn down a Kindle. But I’m not about to rush out and pay that amount for something I wouldn’t use enough. Now, if I had a long commute on a subway, or traveled by plane a lot, it might be a different story.
I’d love to get my hands on one of these to see how it handles, but hopefully a price drop will eventually come. I long for the day when I can read a book on the train without having to turn pages. I’ve checked out Sony’s readers in the past–the e-ink display that they and the Kindle use is totally unlike traditional displays and very close to the printed page–and they were definitely two-handed affairs.
Having lived overseas in a place where real books were tough to come by, this would’ve saved me a ton of eyestrain from reading e-books on my computer–I must’ve read more than 1,000 books on my computer in 4 years.
One of the things I don’t like about Kindle – is that you can only read the books that you purchase through the Amazon service. So, it isn’t going to do you any good as far as the eBooks you currently have unless they are the right format. All the Kindle “books” you buy are encoded with DRM, so you can only read them on the Kindle. It’s a closed system. I’ll pass on this one.
I don’t have a problem with the e-ink because it looks decent, but I have a big problem with the terrible design of the Kindle. The Sony Readers are much more nicely designed.
I’m not opposed to the concept of eBooks, but it seems like they should be much more advanced by now.
My biggest complaint against the Kindle: It looks about 10 years old compared to everything Apple puts out. It’s not nearly as sexy as an iPhone. Hell, it’s not as sexy as the original iPods.
It does look like something Gil Gerrard would use to read books in the 25th century or that Logan would use to browse the news whilst on the run, but I hold out hope that soon the price will be reduced to $1.99 and books will cost a nickel. Also fora color one for which I can subscribe to comics.