Choose The Kindle Book Reader

I first started to read about the kindle book reader and other digital book readers about ten years ago and as a bookseller it was with some concern as to how it would affect sales in our bookshop. Probably the first customer reaction to digital book delivery here in Australia was when Steven King serialized a novel online and we had to tell customers this was the only way they could get it.

The writing was on the wall – but in Australia, it appears that it’s only just starting to come into focus. This year the company that owned Angus and Robertson has, some time after the unfortunate purchase of the Australian branch of the Borders shops, gone into receivership.

Newspaper articles have blamed this on the public changing their book buying habits to getting a kindle book reader or other digital reader and downloading digital books. Also to their increasing awareness of the possibility of buying cheaper books online.

Now with physical books requiring posting and therefore incurring postage costs, I have not found that buying an american book saves me much even if the book itself is cheaper, and although buying several books should make a difference, often its very tricky to be able to ensure that the purchase of several different books are all shipped together with one postage cost.

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Digital books are however a different story. No physical book storage with in/out of stock problems or postage costs, no waiting for book delivery – instant digital download with an internet connection, half or even less the cost of a new physical book and no waiting while the Australian publisher releases within their optimum marketing schedule which may differ from overseas releases.

Now the drawbacks of digital readers have been many in the past. Digital readers needed battery power to run them, kindles had shiny screens which tired the eyes and the screen was not good for outdoor reading due to glare. The digital format itself was also an issue, as digital book reader makers scrambled to retain their rights to new books by limiting views by the electronic reader and its format.

The copyright issue will always be an issue so choosing your first digital book reader is still a tricky question. The Sony book reader is extremely popular but my pick is the Kindle digital book reader. Amazon have been at the forefront of technology change since they began creating their online bookselling website.

Those articles I read ten years ago about readers were alongside constant other negative articles that stated pompously that Amazon would never pull off the type of database website they appeared to be aiming for, were mad to even try and would be in receivership within a year. Well look what they did!

Now look what they’ve done to their kindle book reader. One charge of the battery and you’ll be able to read non stop for 10 days. A new type of soft screen that looks like paper and isn’t affected by glare. Storage of 3,500 books ( makes you think of those stories Grandma tells of one computer taking up a whole room – her grandchildren will be calling their kindle a library and maybe her great grandchildren will relate libraries to museums!)

So the digital book reader I recommend without hesitation and when you read other customer reviews below you’ll know why is Amazons kindle book reader – version 3. All that’s left is to choose the size, the 6 inch is suitable for most people and the larger size is best used at a desk.

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The all-new Kindle has a new electronic-ink screen with 50 percent better contrast than any other e-reader, a new sleek design with a 21 percent smaller body while still keeping the same 6-inch-size reading area, and a 15 percent lighter weight at just 8.7 ounces. The new Kindle also offers 20 percent faster page turns, up to one month of battery life, double the storage to 3,500 books, built-in Wi-Fi, a graphite color option and more—all for only $189, and still with free 3G wireless—no monthly bills or annual contracts.

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The Hero Within: Six Archetypes We Live By
by Carol Pearson

Works like Joseph Campbell’s The Hero With a Thousand Faces have introduced readers to the significance of myth and archetype in our lives. Carol Pearson’s bestselling The Hero Within takes us further by combining literature, anthropology, and psychology to clearly define with insight and understanding, the six heroic archetypes that exists in all of us: the Innocent, the Orphan, the Wanderer, the Warrior, the Martyr, and the Magician.

This substantially revised edition features new chapters that illuminate these archetypes, showing how to reach our fullest potential by achieving a balance between[Read More]

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Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam translated by Edward FitzGerald and interpreted by Paramahansa Yogananda brings to light the deeper truth behind its veil of metaphor.The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam as translated by Edward FitzGerald has long been one of the most beloved, and least understood, poems in the English language. In an illuminating new interpretation, Paramahansa Yogananda, author of Autobiography of a Yogi, reveals the mystical essence of this enigmatic masterpiece, bringing to light the deeper truth and beauty behind its veil of metaphor. Commonly thought to be a celebration of wine and other worldly pleasures, these lyrical Persian quatrains find[Read More]

One of my favourites poems from Omar Khayyam is the one below. There is a fatalistic acceptance to it and it connects us to all living things, as we are all, without favour, subject to the inevitability of present actions and events being permanently written in the past.

The moving finger writes and having writ moves on

Nor all thy piety nor wit shall lure it back to cancel half a line

Nor all thy tears wash out a word of it

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