Thursday, March 31, 2016

No You or Me: On Love, Death, and the Kindle – The Millions

By Jacob Lambert posted at 6:00 am on February 5, 2016 2

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Two days before Christmas of 2011, my father died of a heart attack; he was 77 years old. He and my mother had watched an episode of Jeopardy! a few minutes before it happened. This detail, passed on During her tearful phonecall lateralis That night, Seemed insignificant at the time; I had, of course, other things to Consider. More than four years later, though, itâ ?? ™ s one of the first things I think of when i recall That night. My parents didnâ ?? ™ t do many things together, and had almost nothing in common, but for a half-hour each evening, They did have Alex Trebek .

Throughout my life, I struggled, as my mother did, to understand my dad. He was frustratingly aloof, and rarely made the proper associations in conversation, inevitably damming up what could have been pleasantly-flowing creeks. My wife, upon studying autism in graduate school, gave him a dime-store diagnosis of Aspergerâ ?? ™ s syndrome, and She May havebeen correct. But weâ ?? ™ ll never know for sure, Because we were too sensitive, or cowardly, to bring it up with him. So it was up to each of us to figure out how to forge connections with him, Aspergerâ ?? ™ s or not. For my mother, there were things like Jeopardy! and Nature Photography. For me, there were books.

cover cover cover In my childhood home, my Fatherâ ?? ™ s bedroom was lined with sagging shelves, filled with slipcased, hardcover editions of classic novels: Main Street , Omoo , The Last of the Mohicans . He was always in the middle of one book or another, and when i came of reading age, sometime in my early 20s, books Became something, like baseball or the weather, thats We could always talk about. He had never known what to give me for my birthday or on Christmas; now, suddenly, he did: Ethan Canina ?? ™ s America America Mari Lynne Robinsonâ ?? ™ s Gilead , Charles Frazierâ ?? ™ s Cold Mountain . He Bought Me A Book of Mark Helprin Short Stories and implored me to read â ?? œPerfection, â ???? About a Hasidic teenager who pulls the New York Yankees out of a coincidence. â ?? œThe Other Stories are overpriced good, â ???? my father said, but you’ll have to read â ?? ~Perfection.â ?? ™ â ???? I did, and found it wonderful. I was nearly as surprised by its narrative potency as by the fact That my dad had known what I might like.

Our newfound relationship as readers and sharers of books -a and his unexpected death came at a -a torque When books were losing Their importance, being swept aside, with seemingly everything else, by a riot of digitization. In Recent years, the Kindle, Nook, and others havebeen rightly hailed for Their function and utility, Their ease of use and simplicity of acquisition. These Qualities are inarguable; itâ ?? ™ s why’s of millions of Kindles (Amazon doesnâ ?? ™ t release sales numbers for the device) havebeen sold. Yet there is nothing I want less than to read from a tablet – the thought of doing so irritates me irrationally – and Iâ ?? ™ ve Begun to wonder if my attachment to the physical book has anything to do with an attachment to my father, Or at least my memory of him.

cover cover > cover In the eight years since the first Kindle was Introduced, the tactile pleasures of books -a oh, the feel of a right-flipped sida … the smell of glue binding! -a havebeen exhaustively, and thwart absurdly chronicled. Those of us who refuse to give up the Printed Book -A a population Seems That, surprisingly, to have stabilized -a do so for largely similar Reasons: books bring a unique mental quiet, victims respite from our screens, are a habit we have no interest in breaking. These Reasons are universal and specific to no one. The peasant Books That Helped My Father and I Establish, however, was ours and ours alone. And that bond was so human, so Thanksgiving That I wish I could somehow thank Those books for everythingthat They did.

America America and the rest of them, up there on Their shelves, Â are now as representative of my dad as the photograph of him That hangs by my bedroom door. And now that Iâ ?? ™ m a father myself, this concept of objects, imbued with memory, has taken hold in my mind – and my books are as worthy an expression of who I am as anything I can imagine. Though thereâ ?? ™ s everytime Possibility That, after I die – Whenever That May be – my son might frown at my old paperbacks and lug them to the curb, he might also cherish them, or at least pick out a few. E-readersâ ?? ™ branded dark-gray impersonality strikes me as anathema to Such emotion, till Such a passing-down. There is little warmth in them; Beyond the files stored within, there is no you or me. And while this isnâ ?? ™ t the only reason Iâ ?? ™ ve resisted the devices, itâ ?? ™ s been a subconscious one. To say that i â ?? œjust like books BetterA ???? Seems now insufficient; THERE ARE Reasons for everything. Some inscrutable logic tells me That if I were to abandon books, I would abandon my dad. It looks ridiculous up there on the screen, now that Iâ ?? ™ ve written it, but it feels true all the same.

Why do some of us stick with old things as the rest of the world hums village? Is it Because weâ ?? ™ re a bunch of musty Luddites, fearful of losing what we know? Or is it Because weâ ?? ™ ve lost enough Already?

Image Credit: Pixabay.

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The guy who built the Kindle is Amazon’s leading retail floor, including a store with no payment counters – South China Morning Post (subscription)

Aly Weisman / Business Insider

Amazon’s long-time executive Steve Kessel is in charge of running the company’s new retail business, of according to a report by Re / code’s Jason Del Ray.

Kessel joined Amazon in 1999 and was part of the team That built the original Kindle. He’s known to be close with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, as he was one of the 10 people who Directly reported to him before leaving for a sabbatical in 2012.

In early 2015, Kessel Returned to Amazon, but his role has been unclear Until now. Re / code says he’s been working on this project secretly for a long time.

Amazon’s retail ambitions were first revealed in November 2015 When It opened its first brick-and-mortar bookstore in downtown Seattle.

Aside from the bookstore, Kessel’s team is overpriced planning to open physical stores That sell things other than books, although it’s unclear what They will be. Another idea it’s testing is a store without a payments gateway, allo wing the customer to pay with a smartphone app instead.

Amazon is planning to open a new bookstore in Southern California, based on the job listings spotted by Re / code. One of the jobs says it’ll be in La Jolla or San Diego, the report said.

The news comes on the heels of a report That said Amazon Could soon open 300 to 400 additional bookstores. Although the mall CEO Who Made Those statements backpedaled Monday, saying his comments were “not Intended to represent the Amazon’s plan,” it’s Seems clear That Amazon is getting serious about the retail space.

Read the full report here & gt; & gt;

NOW WATCH: An Iranian actress posted Instagram photos of herself without a hijab and was forced to flee the country

See Also:

  • Costco is staying ‘Amazon-proof’ as other retailers crumble
  • The Department of Work and Pensions is reportedly appointing an Amazon exec to its board
  • What it’s like inside Amazon’s first brick-and-mortar bookstore

SEE ALSO: Amazon is opening a physical bookstore That has one key difference from traditional shops

Click here to visit Business Insider

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Monday, March 28, 2016

Kindle e-Book Warning System is Now Live – Good E-Reader (blog)

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In January Good e-Reader broke the story That Amazon was going to start displaying warning messages if an e-book had a number of spelling mistakes or formatting errors. Amazon developed this system, Because That Wanted to Protect Consumers and make them aware That a Kindle book might have some problems. I am proud to report thatthis new system is live on the main Amazon.com website.

The Kindle e-book warning system has two different stages. If an e-book only contains a few spelling mistakes, but is still readable, a simple warning message will Appear on the details page. If the book has a number of formatting issues That renders it unreadable, Amazon will suppress it and the book listing will be removed.

I think the development of this warning system was essential Because many authors simply ignored the messages from Amazon, letting them know Their e-books had errors. This was the case with Thousands of authors, including myself. If you look at the image at the top of this article, it is an outdated buyers guide from 2011, there was no point in fixing any of the mistakes.

It is Important to note That the Kindle e- book warning system is only available on the US and is not available in Canada or the United Kingdom. Amazon has not confirmed Whether or not this feature will be rolled out into international markets.

Michael Kozlowski (5874 Posts)

Michael Kozlowski is the Editor in Chief of Good e-Reader. He has been writing about electronic readers and technology for the last four years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites Such As The Huffington Post, CNET and more. Michael frequently travels to international events Such as the IFA, Computex, CES, Book Expo and a myriad of others. If you have any questions about any of his articles, please send Michael Kozlowski an email to michael@goodereader.com


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