Monthly Archives: April 2014

The divorce has lasted way longer than the marriage, but finally it’s over. Enough about that.The point is that for a long time, the fact that I was divorced was the most important thing about me. And now it’s not.

Norah Ephron

From The Huffington Post Tech Blog:

Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) released analysis of Amazon Prime members and Kindle device owners from Amazon, Inc. This analysis indicates that these programs have become significant drivers of Amazon sales, even in light of the recent Amazon Prime price increase, and significant competition in the tablet computing market.

. . . .

Based on the survey data, we estimate that as of March 31, 2014 Amazon Prime as 27.8 million members in the US, and that 31.3 million Kindle Fire and Kindle e-reader devices are in consumers’ hands. Both serve as superb affinity programs for Amazon, as Kindle owners spend 30% more, and Prime members spend twice as much, as the rest of Amazon’s customers.

. . . .

[A]lmost 90% of current Amazon Prime members say they will ‘definitely’ or ‘probably’ renew their membership

Link to the rest at The Huffington Post

From AbeBooks.co.uk:

The British sense of humour is famous around the world but what kind of literature makes us laugh? It seems the ideal amusing read would be a mind-boggling combination of PG Wodehouse’s sublime wit, a liberal dose of Joseph Heller’s black humour and a slice of Douglas Adams’ galactic comedy.

AbeBooks.co.uk recently asked 555 of its customers to name the funniest book they had ever read. Right Ho, Jeeves,Catch-22 and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy were the top three.

. . . .

 Just one female author, Helen Fielding of Bridget Jones and big pants infamy, is on the top 10. Most of the main protagonists in the top 10 are also male. Three Men in a Boat still makes readers smile 120 years after publication. Three novels in the 1970s are there as well as a pair of Wodehouse books from the 1930s.

. . . .

 The alcohol-fuelled speeches made in Right Ho, Jeeves and Lucky Jim were identified as passages capable of raising more than just a smile. Wodehouse’s story features a drunken Gussie Fink-Nottle speaking at Market Snodsbury Grammar School’s prize-giving event. The Kingsley Amis novel climaxes with intoxicated Dixon’s ‘Merrie England’ lecture where he mocks his pompous boss. Clearly, there is delight in hearing inappropriate comments at the most inappropriate time – shades of the formula that has helped turn The Office‘s David Brent into comedy’s biggest name in recent times.

Link to the rest at AbeBooks.co.uk

From engadget:

An important piece of American literary history, and one of the few missing selections in digital libraries, is finally becoming an e-book. On her 88th birthday, Harper Lee agreed to let her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird to be released in electronic form.

Link to the rest at engadget and thanks to Joshua for the tip.

Amazon has just announced its Wearable Technology Store, another place where you can recycle your royalties.

From The Digital Reader:

Amazon ignited a storm of protest when they removed the in-app store from the Comixology app on Saturday, but the story isn’t over yet.

Numerous comic fans have reported on Twitter that the new Comixology app has lost many of their existing purchases. In addition to no longer being able to buy content inside the app, they are no longer able to even read some of the content they already bought!

. . . .

 If you have not checked your Comixology app yet, I suggest you do so. Based on the pattern of Comixology’s responses on Twitter I am not sure that they are aware of a systemic problem, and I don’t think they will notice until more people complain.

Link to the rest at The Digital Reader and thanks to SFR for the tip.

PG says this sounds like a misstep by Amazon.

UPDATE: PG received the following email from a Comixology person:

“Since the launch of the new Comics iOS reader application, there have been reports from a small group of customers who have purchased books from comiXolology that are seemingly not showing up in their account. This problem is occurring because customers have books tied to more than one comiXology account, and/or a separate iTunes account, and/or did not restore their purchases. If you have experienced any of these issues, please contact support@comixology.com and we will be happy to fix the problem.”

Nothing to do with books, but interesting.