Finishing Cristo

Read to the end for a post about boarding positions. This past weekend I was traveling and found myself nose-deep in my Kindle. I am still reading The Count of Monte Cristo, which I’ve already dubbed “The longest book” because, well, it is. It’s 1200+ pages. It’s over 110 chapters long. And I’m 98% done with it. Back in June when I wrote about this endeavor, I estimated I would finish it last year. That didn’t happen. Between life and other things occupying my free time, I did not read as much as I would’ve liked. As such, it’s only…

Fake Narration

In this ever-evolving world of AI drawing and chat and who knows what else, we find a new realm for computer-generated text-to-voice to apply its skills: audiobook narration. Leyland Cecco at The Guardian has more about how Apple is playing with fire in this experiment. The popularity of the audiobook market has exploded in recent years, with technology companies scrambling to gain a foothold. Sales last year jumped 25%, bringing in more than $1.5bn. Industry insiders believe the global market could be worth more than $35bn by 2030. Apple was due to launch the project in mid-November, but delayed it as layoffs…

Book On A Bench

We’ve seen a boom in the availability of tiny libraries across the world. These small structures can be found in parks, outside people’s homes and in other public spaces. Often they have clear doors on the front and are stuffed with books to take. The idea is great and it’s also a wonderful way to leave some books you wish to pass onto other readers. A new idea called BookCrossing aims to add to this by becoming a way to share and track your passed-on books. The idea was brought to my attention a while back on Twitter when I…

Barnes & Noble is a Success Again

In the late 90s and early aughts, it was thought that print was dead and the Internet would replace everything physical. That hasn’t happened and one company has stuck around to this day: Barnes & Noble. The bookseller has outlasted Borders, Waldenbooks, and B. Dalton Booksellers to be the last chain store standing. In the past decade, B&N has felt like it’s teetering on the edge, but recently something amazing has happened: Not only is Barnes & Noble profitable again but they actually plan to open new stores. Sounds crazy, right? Ted Gioia writes about it at The Honest Broker.…

I’m Sorry I Got Caught

Autographs and original works of art are always collectible. For fans of Bob Dylan, his new book The Philosophy of Modern Song had a special edition: For $600 you could buy an autographed copy complete with a certificate of authenticity from the publisher Simon & Schuster. So imagine people’s ire when they found the autographs were not signed by Dylan but by an Autopen machine. Yeah, I’d be pissed too. Daniel Kreps at Rolling Stone has more. After initially rejecting requests for a refund, earlier this week, publishers Simon & Schuster said in a statement that they learned “the limited edition…

What’s The Late Fee on 109,500 days?

There’s the saying “Better late than never” but this definitely takes it to a whole new level. At the Sheffield Cathedral, a building that is 800 years old, now has finally received back its 300-year book loan from a patron. David Kessen has more over at The Star. Now the book, The Faith and Practice of a Church of England Man, is set to go on display at the church, which was well known for its library until Geogian times. The Reverend Canon Keith Farrow, vice dean and canon missioner at the cathedral, said when it was still a church it…

TikTok Book Scamming

Leave it to “trends” on TikTok to come up with terrible ideas. The latest viral trend, on the social network that’s definitely not funneling data to China (we promise!), is to buy Kindle books on Amazon, then return them within the allowed window for a full refund. Claire Woodcock at Vice has more of this awful idea. The #ReadAndReturn challenge drew attention to Amazon’s Kindle return policy, which states that readers can “cancel an accidental book order within seven days.” But what’s been presented as a literary community “life hack” is hurting romance-fantasy authors like Lisa Kessler’s bottom line. Vice As…

B&N Remembers eBooks Exist

Books are in a weird resurgence right now. Barnes & Noble, once the villain of the bookseller world, is seen now as a refuge where books can be given space. Let’s face it, they’re the only bookseller with space large enough to house all these books. Finally, B&N has decided to give the old Nook eReader another try. But they mean it for real this time. Alex Cranz at The Verge has more. The Nook GlowLight 4e charges via USB-C and has 8GB of built-in storage, which is standard for an e-reader at this price. It also has a 6-inch…

ePub Sorta Comes to Kindle

The Kindle is one of the best single-use products on the market. To me, it’s everything a dedicated device should be. It does one thing and excels at it. In fact, anything else the Kindle tries to do (audio, web browsing, etc) is laughably bad. One part of the Kindle that’s been different than other eReaders out there was the lack of support for the common ePub file format. Now, Amazon seems to be finally adopting it. In an Amazon kind of way. Alex Cranz has more. What this has meant in practice is that, for the last 15 years,…

Ban This

It’s a tale as old as time: books being banned for Reason X that Group Y feels threatened by its contents. However, an idea is something that cannot be contained. Books are one of the oldest forms of communication and to censor books goes against human knowledge. Fighting the good fight, The New York Public Library has announced four banned books are available nationwide to anyone without any wait times. A. Khalid has the details. The New York Public Library made four banned books available nationwide on SimplyE, its free-reader app. The titles include Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, King and the Dragonflies by…

Sanderson Time

For many, many years the Pebble Time has been the top project ever on Kickstarter. The revolutionary smartwatch was a smash hit on Pebble’s second trip to Kickstarter. I was an early backer and loved the product. After so many years though, it was only a matter of when someone overtook Pebble to claim the #1 slot. Leave it to prolific author Brandon Sanderson to be that person. Chaim Gartenberg at The Verge has more. The project’s original goal was to raise $1,000,000 in 30 days; Sanderson hit that number in around 35 minutes, according to The New York Times.…