Light My Kindle

Amazon had a very special announcement for today, the birthday of fictional character Harry Potter and his creator J.K. Rowling. On December 4th, fans will be able to buy the story-within-a-story The Tales of Beedle the Bard. The book of fairy tales is featured as part of the storyline of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Rowling hand-wrote a handful of copies to be auctioned off for charity back in December 2007 (Amazon purchased one of the original copies.). Fans were thrilled that she had actually thought about the content of the fairy tales, but sorely disappointed that few would ever have the chance to read them.

On December 4th, 2008, fans will be able to purchase either the Standard Edition or the Amazon-Exclusive Collector’s Edition of The Tales of Beedle the Bard.

The Standard Edition of The Tales of Beedle the Bard includes:

• All five fairy tales from the original The Tales of Beedle the Bard
• A new introduction by J.K. Rowling
• Illustrations reproduced from the original handcrafted book
• Commentary on each of the tales by Professor Albus Dumbledore

The absolutely gorgeous Amazon-Exclusive Collector’s Edition of The Tales of Beedle the Bard (seen above) includes:

• All five fairy tales from the original The Tales of Beedle the Bard
• Outer case disguised as a wizarding textbook from the Hogwarts library
• Exclusive reproduction of J.K. Rowling’s handwritten introduction
• 10 new illustrations by J.K. Rowling not included in the Standard Edition or the original handcrafted edition
• Velvet bag embroidered with J.K. Rowling’s signature
• Metal skull, corners, and clasp
• Replica gemstones
• Emerald ribbon

The Standard Edition is only $8, and the beautiful Collector’s Edition is a fairly reasonable $100. Both are available for preorder now. You can get them on Amazon. No mention has been made of a Kindle version, but for a book with illustrations and such a beautiful collector’s edition, I doubt many would buy a Kindle version.

Julia Keller of The Chicago Tribune wrote a fantastic article about the connection readers feel with books, and why it’s so hard to abandon an unfinished book. She points out that turning off a TV show, walking out of a movie theater, and walking out of a play somehow make you feel less guilty than abandoning a book you just can’t get into.

I know exactly what she means. I have been trying to get into The Ruins on and off for about four months now. I never finished reading Stephen King’s The Stand because I read it when I was eleven-years-old and I was bored. I also never finished King’s short story The Sun Dog (from Four Past Midnight) because I was eleven-years-old and too scared to turn the next page. I never finished The Great Gatsby, even though it was assigned for my tenth-grade English class. And I have a biography of Dave Grohl (lead singer of Foo Fighters) that I put down three years ago and never bothered to pick back up.

All of them make me feel guilty. The author has her own list included in the article, and I’d bet every avid reader has a similar list of books they just couldn’t finish. She points out,

To abandon a book feels all wrong. If you do it, you look around warily, half-expecting to see your middle-school English teacher in the corner, giving you a gravely disappointed glare.

That’s only the half of it, really. While you do feel guilty in that “I didn’t do my homework” kind of way, not being able to finish a book has a stronger effect, at least on me. You know that elated feeling you get when you finish a good book? I get the exact opposite when I think of the books I never finished - I feel like I let myself down. The author seems to feel similarly:

Certain books just don’t grab you. So you let them go. But they never really go away, those cast-aside books, because their forlorn covers haunt your sleep. And sometimes, late at night, you could swear you hear them offering a sad little plea: “Can’t we try it just one more time?”

I have a hope that the Try a Sample feature of the Kindle Store will prevent me from starting books I don’t want to finish. At least I’ll be able to sample the writer’s style and a little of the story before spending money on a book.

You can read the entire article (which mentions the Kindle) on ChicagoTribune.com.

As an avid reader, I’m constantly finding books I’m interested in reading but don’t have time for right now. Pre-Kindle this would frequently result in me leaving Barnes & Noble with a pile of books that would sit in the corner until I got around to reading them. Thanks to the Kindle, I no longer have to spend the money upfront. Using the Save for Later List built into the Kindle, I can add hundreds of titles to my to-be-read list without buying them and letting them gather dust in the corner of my apartment.

[Yes, I realize I also could have written down titles while browsing B&N to save money. However, these lists tend to get lost and don't provide the same satisfaction as a physical pile of books. The Save for Later list, however, feels similar to a pile of books. I can browse it when I want to (and even see the book covers and prices) and when I decide to read it, I can even Try a Sample to make sure I like it before buying. And when I am finally ready to buy, all it takes is a few clicks and the book appears in my hands.]

Here’s how I make sure I get the most out of my Save for Later List:

1. Keep the Kindle nearby when reading the Sunday paper, Entertainment Weekly’s book section, or other book review-type materials. As I browse the weekly Ideas & Books section of The Boston Globe or the Books section of Entertainment Weekly, I keep the Kindle in sleep mode nearby, ready to jump to the Kindle Store at a moment’s notice to add a book to my Save for Later List.

2. Bring the Kindle with you to bookstores. This is easy if you always have your Kindle with you, as I do. A little harder to remember for spontaneous shopping trips, though. While I’m browsing Barnes & Noble, Waldenbooks, Borders, etc., I keep my Kindle handy, again in sleep mode, in case I see a book that would typically be an impulse buy for me. Within seconds I can look it up in the Kindle Store and add it to my Save for Later list.

3. Browse the new releases and best-sellers in the Kindle Store. You never know what you might find to add to your list. Plus, they may be $9.99 now, but in a few months the price might drop once the book is out of the spotlight.

4. Be prepared to not find your book in the Kindle Store. Sometimes, despite a stock of over 140,000 titles, your book might not be in the Kindle Store. Either the publisher hasn’t made it available yet, or it won’t ever be available. I like to keep a list of these books separately and check the Kindle store for them once in a while.

5. Have a system for checking your Save for Later list. If you don’t check it often, it can get out of hand. I prefer to browse through mine every time I finish a book, that way I have a chance to start a new one from the list if it’s more interesting that the ones I have already downloaded. You may prefer a weekly check, or monthly - use whatever works best for you so that the Save for Later list doesn’t become where your to-read list goes to die.

That’s how I manage my Save for Later list. If you have any tips to add, please share them in the comments.

The Kindle comes with a perfectly good leather case that protects it from damage. If you’re looking for an alternative, however, you might want to check out M-Edge’s Genuine Leather Executive Kindle Case.

It’s similar to the case that comes packaged with the Kindle, with a few added bonuses. It has four corner holders (compared to the two on the included case) to hold the Kindle in place while reading. It also comes in four different colors (light brown, dark brown, red, and black) and has small pockets on the inside front cover to hold SD cards, business cards, notes, etc.

At $55, it’s not quite that improved over the included cover, but for some it might be worth it.

Looking for a specific e-book and can’t find it on Amazon’s Kindle store? You can now use eBdb.net to find what you’re looking for. It searches across multiple e-book sites to bring you results.

I’m always wary of cleaning electronic products, fearing a spill naturally. Unfortunately for my Kindle, I frequently read while eating. Often I’ll find little spots on my Kindle screen (and on my laptop) from splashed foods (Cheerios falling back into the milk are the most frequent culprit). While on the train recently I realized the little spots had taken over and I needed to clean the Kindle. But how to do so?

I took the tactic I use with cleaning my laptop screen, my television screen, and my cell phone screen - spray some Windex on a paper towel (NOT on the device - you don’t want the liquid to drip into crevices) and simply wipe clean. It does no damage to the device and gets those little spots (as well as fingerprints and general dust) out without any problems.

Craigslist.org founder Craig Newmark has a Kindle, and really enjoys it. In a recent interview with The Seattle Times, the interviewer asks some interesting questions about Craig’s Kindle:

Q: I hear you have an Amazon Kindle.
A: I do have a Kindle, I like it a lot. It does have flaws, but it is a good device and I’m on my 23rd book and I have several more lined up. On a trip, typically I’ll have at least three books and on a long trip probably four; now I just have a Kindle. My life is a little easier.
Q: That’s interesting, because one thing about Kindle is the digital rights attached to the Kindle version of books. Unlike a physical copy, when you’re done, you can’t give the books to a friend or sell them on Craigslist.
A: I am painfully aware of the plight, particularly of independent bookstores, and I want to help and I don’t know what to do about it. I could use some advice from Jeff Bezos, because I know he’s concerned.
Q: Have you talked to him much?
A: I met him a year ago, that’s it. I like his hair.

The interviewer brings up one of the very few things I think is a drawback for the Kindle - not being able to resell a book after reading it. I’m used to passing books on to family members and friends, selling them (on Amazon, of course), or trading them on PaperBackSwap.com. With the Kindle, however, you have a digital copy and it’s attached to your specific Kindle. I’ve gotten around this so far by purchasing Kindle books that I think I’ll read again at some point.

You can click here to read the full interview, which discusses politics, Wal-Mart’s classified ads that compete with Craigslist, and the future of Craigslist.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos spoke at a conference sponsored by Fortune and gushed about the wonders of the Kindle. When asked what Amazon will do when Google and Wikipedia create a digital database of books that can be downloaded and printed in minutes, Bezos replied, “I don’t know why anyone would wait five minutes for a book.”

Ouch. Fine point.

He continues to say, “Our vision for Kindle is we want to have every book in print or out of print, all available in less than 60 seconds. The medium time to download a book [on the Kindle] is 23 seconds.”

Currently there are over 140,000 titles available for download on the Kindle. When shopping from the built-in Kindle store, the titles download faster than I can even get back to the home screen. Sending an item wirelessly from Amazon.com takes slightly longer, but never five minutes.

Best-seller Mitch Albom (Tuesdays With Morrie, The Five People You Meet In Heaven) has released a piece of material exclusively for the Kindle. Albom delivered the commencement speech at his nephew’s high school graduation recently and has made the entire speech available for download on the Kindle. All the proceeds from the speech will go to a charity to help the homeless started by Albom.

Amazon has more information, as well as a Q&A with the author, available on their site. The speech itself is available for only 99 cents. You can download the commencement speech from the Kindle Store. Albom’s other books are also available for the Kindle.

Mitch’s agent David Black explains the choice to make the speech available on the Kindle saying, “We thought doing it through the Kindle would be an exciting way to bring readers to Mitch and to his work. I think that Amazon has been wonderfully creative in developing new means of reaching readers and that’s an incredibly important element of the book business as it is evolving.” (You can read more about what this tactic could mean for the Kindle and publishers here.)

I downloaded the speech just a second ago, and will be reviewing it for this site soon.

I absolutely love the show How I Met Your Mother which tells the tale of how Ted Mosby meets his future wife and the mother of his children. The show stars Josh Radnor as Ted, but the scene-stealer is Neil Patrick Harris as Barney Stinson, Ted’s best friend (according to Barney).

Barney is a womanizer and kind of a jerk, but the fans love him. He’s entertaining and perfectly played by Neil Patrick Harris. He’s such a fan favorite, he even has a blog (written by show writer Matthew Kuhn).

Throughout several episodes Barney mentions a sacred “Bro Code” - the code by which bros (guy friends) live by. It includes the timeless “Bros before hos” as well as “A Bro may never pursue the mom of another Bro.” Well, the Bro Code is about to be published as a real book, currently being written by show creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, as well as the aformentioned Matthew Kuhn. The Chicago Tribune spoke to the creators who verified that the book was in the works and should be available in late November.

The important question to me, of course, is will there be a Kindle version? Secondary question, do you think Barney Stinson would own a Kindle?