The Kindle Chronicles

Creator of the Evil Genius Chronicles blog and podcast   Interview starts at 10:47 and ends at 42:22 This idea that books are exempt from the rules of hoarding, that you’re supposed to be happy that you have walls and walls lined with these things? I don’t actually feel that. I feel that if I had one of those book scanners or if there was a program, if Google had a book buy-back program where I could trade them every paper copy I have for a digital copy, I would do that in a heartbeat with almost every book in this house. I would love that. That would be the greatest thing that ever happened to me.    News“Amazon’s New Kindle Trade-In Program Includes a $20 Credit Toward a New Kindle” by Nate Hoffelder at The Digital Reader - January 7, 2016Details of Kindle Trade In program at Amazon.com“Nook holiday sales plunge 25% to $41M as Barnes & Noble falls further behind Amazon Kindle” by Todd Bishop at GeekWire - January 7, 2016 “Amazon.com, Inc.’s Best-Selling Product in 2015” by Steve Symington at the Motle

Editorial Director at Publishers Weekly   Interview starts at 16:57 and ends at 44:32   It’s far from the death of eBooks. eBooks are a permanent part of the publishing industry, for sure. But what’s the next innovation? What’s the next mover? What’s going to come along to jumpstart it again? Publishers acknowledge that all you've really done so far is to put the text into a digital format.   News “DOJ Urges Supreme Court to Deny Apple’s E-book Appeal” by Andrew Albanese at Publishers Weekly - December 31, 20115 “The Judge that Apple Hates” by David Margolick at Vanity Fair - May 31, 2014 Amazon’s 2015 holiday press release “Amazon may have up to 80 million high-spendiong Prime members worldwide” by Tricia Duryee at GeekWire - September 14, 2015 Tech Tip Thinking out loud about multi-reading Interview with Jim Milliot “PW’s Person of the Year: Jeff Bezos” by Jim Milliot at Publishers Weekly - December 8, 2008 “New Study Finds Low Levels of Digital Library Borrowing” by Jim Milliot at Publishers Weekly - Novem

Publications Specialist, Wyoming State Library   Interview starts at 20:34 and ends at 38:51   We know that libraries will continue to evolve. The technology is changing so fast. It’s kind of hard to say how they will continue to evolve. But they are going to be out there to meet the needs of their patrons.   News Jeff Bezos's address to the Academy of Achievement (video) in 2001 Interview with Susan Mark Wyoming State Library GoWYLD.net “Younger Americans’ Reading and Library Habits” by Pew Internet - October 23, 2012 Next Week’s Guest Jim Milliot, editorial director of Publishers Weekly Correction This really is episode 386, not 388 as I state in the intro. TKC regrets the error. Music for my podcast is from an original Thelonius Monk composition named "Well, You Needn't." This version is "Ra-Monk" by Eval Manigat on the "Variations in Time: A Jazz Persepctive" CD by Public Transit Recording" CD.    Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!

Vice President - Amazon Devices   Interview starts at 18:29 and ends at 37:47   We spent two days in an off-site with Jeff going through the experience, setting up little scenarios of “Ok, here’s the customer. They’ve done’ this, they’ve done this.” And then we would go off in our own corners for 15 minutes and be that customer and then come back together and discuss “What did we think worked, what didn’t work.” Two full days  dedicated to that customer experience, thinking about what it’s going to be like for a customer to use Kindle. I thought it was an amazing example of us investing in what it takes to get it right for the customer.    News “A Secretive Air Cargo Operation is Running in Ohio, and Signs Point to Amazon” by Kari Paul at Motherboard - November 23, 2015 “Amazon in talks to lease Boeing jets to launch its own air-cargo business” by Jay Greene and Dominic Gates at The Seattle Times - December 17, 2015 “Amazon’s next $400 billion opportunity” by Jilian D’Onfro at Business Insider - December 18

Founder and CEO of BeeLine Reader   Interview starts at 12:44 and ends at 32:05   They tried it out with the first graders and found that in the control classroom the students’ reading fluency went up by about 8 points in the course of a month. In the BeeLine classroom, they went up by 14 points.   News Leather covers by Oberon Design for Kindles and Fires Limited Edition Premium Leather Case for Fire HD 8 - $79.99 Fire HD 8 Reader’s Edition - $249.99 “How to use Blue Shade on your Amazon Fire - but you really don’t want to” by Paul St John Mackintosh at TeleRead - December 7, 2015 “New Fire OS Bellini 5.1.1 Update Rollling Out to Some Fire Tablets” by Nate Hoffelder at The Digital Reader - December 8, 2015 “Amazon’s Jeff Bezos: Let’s Send Donald Trump to Space” by Ryan Parker at Billboard.com - December 8, 2015 “The sweet rides of tech’s millionaires and billionaires” by Dave Smith at Tech Insider - November 27, 2015   Tech Tip The Martian by Andy Weir Being Mortal by Atul Gawande   Interview with Ni

Graphic designer, author, product developer and workshop presenter   Interview starts at 14:57 and ends at 44:47 So whatever you do, you build products that relate to the knowledge that you have, and the two can feed each other, and you can do them in the same space.   News “Take your tablet to bed: Amazon rolls out ‘blue shade’ tool for Fire” by Ellie Zolfagharifard at The Daily Mail - December 2, 2015 “Slice: Amazon grabs one-third of Black Friday online sales” by Ian P. Murphy at RetailDive - December 3, 2015 Amazon press release on holiday sales - December 1, 2015 “Amazon Puts out Hollow Holiday Metrics” by Natasha Lomos at TechCrunch - December 1, 2015 “Barnes & Noble Shares Clobbered As It Tells a Dreary Financial Story” by David Lieberman at Deadline.com - December 4, 2015. “Barnes & Noble’s Problems are Self-Inflicted” by Lutz Muller at Seeking Alpha - December 1, 2015   Tech Tip  ComiXology and Amazon accounts can now be merged - via Tom Semple and Nate Hoffelder   Interview with Bruce Jo

Author of The Selected Poems of Donald Hall   Interview starts at 12:51 and ends at 43:57   It was a house that my great-grandfather bought in 1865, and the same family’s always lived in it. I’ll be dying pretty soon, of course, in the way of things. But I have a granddaughter who’s going to take it over then. Magnificent!   News Tweet of Blue Origin landing by @JeffBezos Blue Origin rocket video - November 24, 2015 “The reusable space rocket is nearly here with Blue Origin’s first successful landing” by Loren Grush at The Verge - November 24, 2015   Tech Tip A conversation with my wife Darlene on how to share books from the same Kindle archive Interview with Donald Hall The Selected Poems of Donald Hall - available for preorder with delivery December 1, 2015 Essays After Eighty by Donald Hall White Apples and the Taste of Stone: Selected Poems 1946-2006 by Donald Hall The Best Day the Worst Day: Life with Jane Kenyon by Donald Hall Without: Poems by Donald Hall The Painted Bed: Poems by Donald Hall Web

Creator of the Cuenca Tech Life blog   Interview starts at 1:29 and ends at 21:34   I just turned 70, so growing up in Brooklyn in the 1950s was very special. Cuenca reminded me of Brooklyn in the 1950s. The word for neighborhood in Spanish is barrio, so each barrio had its own butcher and baker and church. People knew you on the street, and they were very, very friendly. It was a safe place to be.   Interview with Lenny Charnoff Cuenca Tech Life blog - Technology News in Cuenca, Ecuador Cuenca iPad Users Group apps: Pocket, Medium, Yahoo News Digest The John Russell series by David Downing Books by Jo-Ann Mapson and J.A. Jance   Conversation with Darlene and Deb about our trip Hosteria La Andaluza in Riobamba, Ecuador Overseas Adventure Travel Tren Crucero train tour of Ecuador The Devil’s Nose Ali Shungu Mountaintop Ecolodge in Otavalo Hotel Casa Ordonez in Cuenca   Next Week’s Guest: Donald Hall, author of Essays After Eighty and the forthcoming Selected Poems   Music for my podcast is from an original

This is the third of my Ecuador TKC episodes, uploaded today (Tuesday November 10, 2015) from the Ali Shungu Mountaintop Resort in Otavalo. You will hear the owners and hosts at Ali Shungu, Frank and Margaret, talk about their thirty-plus years in Ecuador, and you will hear from our birdwalk guide in Mindo, Alex Luna. Also, another roundtable conversation with Darlene and Deb on the week's highlights. You will find more coverage of our travels in Ecuador at LenEdgerly.com and photos at instagram.com/lenedgerly.

This is the second of my Ecuador TKC episodes, uploaded today (Thursday November 5, 2015) from the cloud forest in Mindo at the Sisakuna Lodge. You will hear our Overseas Adventure Travel guide, Roberto Quintana, on location in the Galapagos, telling us about sea lions, blue-footed boobies, and Galapagos hawks, as well as a conversation I recorded with Darlene and Deb aboard our ship, the Carina.  Before bringing you here to Ecuador, I will take a look at two news stories involving Amazon that reached me by the Internet. One is a report of new Kindles coming this month, and the other is of the Amazon Books store that opened for real in Seattle.  You will find more Ecuador coverage and photos at LenEdgerly.com and photos at Instagram.com/lenedgerly . Thanks for listening!

I am posting Friday's episode of the podcast very early, on Monday, this week from Quito, Ecuador, because tomorrow we leave for the Galapagos Islands where there will be little if any Internet connection. In this show you will hear two of our fellow Overseas Adventure Travel tour members talk about how they use their Kindles. Also, inspired music by a choir of disabled children at the Sinamune School in Quito, night sounds from a lagoon in the Amazon rain forest, our guide Juan's explanation of native healing and shamanistic traditions from his village, and initial impressions from Darlene, Deb, and me after our first week in Ecuador.  

Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon Highlights from my interview recorded on July 26, 2012, at Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle   The Pre-Trip Conversation  My wife Darlene, her sister Deb and I look ahead to our travels in the Galapagos Islands and Ecuador Recorded on September 28, 2015 “Portrait of a Cheetah”  - November 8, 2010 “How to Make a Cheetah Purr” YouTube video - November 8, 2010 “When the Danger is Now-Now”  - November 14, 2010 “Tourists in the Townships” - November 4, 2010 “What Nelson Mandela Learned in Prison” - October 30, 2010 “Living History at Robben Island” - October 30, 2010 “Tinted Windows on Soweto” - October 23, 2010 Darlene’s quilt, “Mr Z” inspired by the Africa trip Elephant quilt Icebreaker clothing Overseas Adventure Travel DuoLingo iOS app iTranslate app for iOS and Apple Watch Tren Crucero trip in Ecuador More media from Ecuador: My Instagram photos and my personal blog at LenEdgerly.com   Next Week’s Show Audio highlights from Amazon the rainforest instead of Amazon the ret

Creator of Kindle Nation Daily and BookGorilla   Interview starts at 9:38 and ends at 39:45   Of the top 100 bestsellers in the Kindle Store for the entire year of 2014, 91 of those books were made available by the publishers at prices that we discovered, put up and featured on BookGorilla. The average price of those 91 on their feature day was $2.92. The total price of those 91 books if you had bought them at their original prices would have been $996. If you bought them on their BookGorilla day it was $265. What’s not to like about that?   News Glenn Lurie, CEO of AT&T Mobility interviewed on the re/code replay podcast - October 12, 2015 AmazonCrossing commits $10 more to translations into English (press release) Click here to propose a book for translation by AmazonCrossing Andrew Richard Albanese’s review of court cases affecting publishing, at Publisher’s Weekly - October 15, 2015   Tech Tip   Interview with Stephen Windwalker Kindle Nation Daily BookGorilla The Post-American World: Release 2.0 by Fa

This is another test of my mobile podcasting gear, two days before we leave for Ecuador. I am hoping the photo of Claire and me shows up with RSS feeds.  For audio, I used 44:58 of recording from my visit to San Francisco to attend the Amazon new-products demonstration on September 16, 2015.  Playing with tech stuff when I should be packing, Len

The New York Times’s publishing industry reporter   Interview starts at 12:44 and ends at 32:05   For the people that are price sensitive--if you’re not somebody that reads digitally because you prefer that, because you find it more convenient--but you’re maybe a hybrid reader, you might get a paperback if it’s significantly cheaper than an eBook, if you are somebody that toggles back and forth.   News My experience with a Kindle devices customer survey First impressions of the Amazon Fire HD 10 and keyboard case  Mindjet app for mindmapping (free)   Tech Tip Overcast podcatcher app for iPhone and iPad “The best podcast app for iOS, Overcast, is now totally free” by Chris Welch at The Verge - October 9, 2015 “Overcast 2” at Marco.org - October 9, 2015   Interview with Alexandra Alter “NYTimes hires WSJ’s Alter to cover publishing” by Chris Roush at Talking Biz News - June 6, 2014 “The Plot Twist: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print is Far From Dead” by Alexandra Alter at The New York Times - September 22, 2015 The N

Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research   Interview starts at 14:38 and ends at 41:53   It’s not about Amazon Echo, it’s about putting microphones in various contexts in your life. Plug one in, like a Glade air freshener, into your bathroom, one next to your bedstand, one in the hallway, one in the laundry, and pretty soon you don’t need Dash buttons. All you have is Alexa everywhere in your home. And you can have Alexa on your phone or in your car if you want, but but most of what Amazon sells you are thinking of in your home, in specific contexts. And so long as you have that microphone sitting everywhere, listening for you to wake it up by saying “Alexa,” that gives you frictionless commerce opportunities that are astonishing, really, compared to what we think of Amazon in 1998 when they were starting to do things like single-click ordering, and you think, “Wow, that was convenient.” We are so far past that now.   News Amazon Flex “What Amazon’s Uber-like delivery service means for the s

General Manager of Amazon’s Kindle Scout   Interview starts at 16:58 and ends at 44:45   It’s really the best part of the job. There isn’t a day that goes by that I’m not either extremely proud as a publisher or really inspired as a human.   Intro Agents of Change conference on September 25, 2015, in Portland, Maine hosted by Rich Brooks of Flyte Media    Click here if you are interested in purchasing a digital pass to AOC for $199.   News Note: You can sign up as a new member for Amazon Prime membership for just $67 on Friday, September 25, 2015. The offer celebrates Amazon’s win of five Emmys for “Transparent” at the 67th Primetime Emmy Awards. The deal begins at 12 a.m. ET and ends at 11:59 p.m. PT. Press Release. “The Plot Twist: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print is Far from Dead” by Alexandra Alter at The New York Times - September 22, 2015 Author Earnings “Will the Supreme Court Take Apple’s E-Book Appeal?” by Andrew Albanese at Publishers Weekly - September 18, 2015 Mike Shatzkin’s post about the demise of

Links related to Amazon’s 2015 Fall Product Launch in San Francisco Amazon news releases on the new $50 Fire tablet, the new Fire HD 8 and Fire HD 10 tablets, new Fire Kids Edition, new Fire TV with 4K Ultra HD and Fire TV Stick with voice remote The new Fire Tablets lineup “Amazon has 6 New Devices—and an actual plan for hardware” by David Pierce at Wired - September 17, 2015 How Spritz works - February 16, 2014   My interview with Dave Limp, Amazon senior vice president for devices, starts at 25:44 and ends at 32:27   Next Week’s Guest Dina Hilal, general manager for Kindle Scout   Music for my podcast is from an original Thelonius Monk composition named "Well, You Needn't." This version is "Ra-Monk" by Eval Manigat on the "Variations in Time: A Jazz Persepctive" CD by Public Transit Recording" CD.    Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!

Author of Browsings: A Year of Reading, Collecting, and Living with Books   Interview starts at 15:46 and ends at 42:34   My main attraction to a Kindle is only age-related. If my vision deteriorates enough that I need to make the type bigger, then I could see that it’s just a wonderful tool to have. But so long as I can enjoy the books that I have, the physical books, I’ll stick with them. I have nothing against them [eReaders]. I believe that what fundamentally matters is stories, poems—people need them. The means that we access them isn’t crucial at all.    News “Amazon to Release $50 Tablet as it Struggles to Sell Pricier Devices” by Greg Bensinger at The Wall Street Journal - September 7, 2015 (Behind paywall - copy headline and paste into Google) “What’s New Tonight from Amazon—Summary of New Kindles and Fires” at The Kindle Chronicles - September 17, 2015 “Amazon Kindle Voyage 2 to be Released November 2015” by Michael Kozlowski at Good e-Reader - July 9, 2015 “Amazon’s Kindle Scout Publishing Platform

Author of The Well-Presented Manuscript   Interview starts at 12:13 and ends at 42:27   There are some wonderful stories that I just can’t enjoy, because the author has done such a poor job with the language.  One of the reasons that I wanted to write The Well-Presented Manuscript was selfishly to increase my own enjoyment of other people’s books by helping them to not make so many errors that would keep hooking my attention as I was reading them.   News “E-Book Sales Fall After New Amazon Contracts” by Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg at The Wall Street Journal - September 3, 2015 (Behind the pay wall, try Googling the reporter’s last name and the headline to get full story.) “Amazon Could be Working on These 6 New Devices” at The Motley Fool - September 2, 2015 Amazon press release on video downloads to iOS and Android devices - September 1, 2015 Amazon page on downloading Amazon Video content to iOS and Android “Amazon Prime Video now does what Netflix won’t: offline playback” by Bryan Bishop at The Verge - Septemb