Round up #298: Geeking out over books, well read cities
The ILMK Round ups are short pieces which may or may not be expanded later.
Amazon’s Most Well-Read Cities in America
I’m happy for a lot of reasons to live in the San Francisco Bay Area…not least because it is such a book-loving place. We have a rich literary history, there are still lots of brick-and-mortar bookstores (including specialty ones), and, well, you see a lot of people reading. :)
In Amazon’s fifth annual “Most Well-Read Cities in America”:
two cities in the area are in the top twenty: San Francisco at #7 and San Jose at #16. San Diego, also in California, comes in at #13.
What was #1?
Seattle, where Amazon is headquartered. That might be a coincidence, but it isn’t entirely clear to me how they developed the ranking (despite what they say in the press release…it just isn’t enough information about their methodology).
They also do some pull outs of more data…most interesting to me was that Washington, D.C. bought the most p-books (paperbooks)…more than Seattle. Has having Amazon in the city made them more likely to use Kindle books…or is D.C. just slow to adapt (which they can certainly be in other areas of life)?
“Just yell through the door!”
I just thought you might enjoy this one.
We had some people doing yard clean-up (ivy removal, tree trimming, and so on). I told the person in charge about our
I told them to just yell through the patio door to ask “Alexa” for any music they want. :) They thought that was so cool! They started a Prime playlist, and it was loud enough to hear as they worked. I made sure they knew how to make it stop when they left, though. ;)
Summer time…and the reading is easy
Amazon has set up their summer recommendation section:
http://www.amazon.com/summerreading (at AmazonSmile*)
It’s a pretty interesting selection, with some target marketing (by age group, for example), some sales (50% off some books), and 7,849 books overall!
They seem to be mostly new releases (at least the featured ones), and I’m not seeing featured indies (independently published books). Still, it’s nice to have a listing of some of the newer titles.
Get a mass market paperback with free shipping…without Prime
Amazon keeps doing all kinds of interesting things.
They are now offering free shipping on items under ten ounces and under $10. Many mass market paperbacks are going to fit those criteria.
It may take a while, which is one of the reasons Prime still has an advantage, and of course, it’s not like getting an e-book in sixty seconds. :)
I actually think this may have a bigger impact on people who sell vitamins, but still…intriguing.
They haven’t abandoned the physical world, of course, where profit margins can be considerably higher than digital items. They are delivering same day now, in many cities, within an hour in some places, and now this free shipping…Amazon certainly isn’t killing the physical goods market!
Why should people read more books?
I like this
They asked attendees of Book Expo America, and you can see pictures of people holding paper (fascinating to me that they all had paper on which to write…I suppose tablets might not have photographed well, but if I had been attending and they had asked me, I wouldn’t have had any paper ;) ) on which they have written their answers.
As a quick answer, I suppose I might say, “It is the most intimate experience you can have with another person’s intellect, which will make you more empathetic.”
The Kindle app is eating up your battery charge
Why in the world would this be true? The Amazon Kindle app is one of
The apps that drain your phone’s battery the most
according to the above CNN/Money article by Hope King.
Not just in, say, the top 100…in the top four!
Well, in the top four of apps that only drain your battery when you are using them, but more than GPS? In the same category as Netflix?
Sure, an app on a SmartPhone (that’s what this covers) is going to use a lot more battery charge than reading on EBR E-Book Reader) which is not backlit.
Still, outside of maybe look-up and syncing, I just don’t see what makes it that much of a charge-hog.
BookCon: proving reading has a future
This is a great
about young, enthusiastic readers attending BookCon.
Yes, making books exciting and worthy of a con like San Diego Comic Con is the point of BookCon. Authors as celebrities? Check. Celebrities as authors? Check. Fans waiting in line, geeking out over books? Check.
Nice to see… :)
What do you think? Does it cheapen literature to have a glossy, loud, event? What makes your city a great literary city? Is reading p-books old fashioned? Feel free to tell me and my readers what you think by commenting on this post.
Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!
* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get. 
Shop ’til you help!
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.
