In 2011 I completed the reading of 41 books. Approximately 75% of them were conventional paper books, while the other 25% or so were digital books (Kindle).
Books
Amazon – Missing Sort Type – Kindle Format
Odd, there is no clear way to just display an authors books as available by format. In this case I was hoping to only see books that are available as Kindle ebooks.
Ebooks in Education – Amazon Kindle
Below is a screenshot of a webpage Amazon.com has for a finance book that presumably is used in colleges and universities.
There are more sections of highlighted text on the page that are not shown in the screenshot. The Public Notes section has no notes. The readers, students, could write in notes for a section of text and their notes would be easy to see on their own Notes page on the Amazon site. Notes they make public would presumably appear in this text box.
What would be interesting is if it would be possible to join a group, think class or book club, to read and share notes with. This could engage students and readers more. If half the class highlighted some text it would probably be worth talking about in class. The notes people write would enable a better discussion because reader recall would presumably be faster when text the person wrote was presented. The internal database of the mind would be faster for searching and synthesizing the thoughts and ideas of the book and passages.
Notes:
Link to the page for the book screenshot above. Perhaps more passages will be highlighted by the time you visit.
Amazon Kindle Social Network?
Public Notes – See image above. 4 people have this feature enabled
People can share their highlighted passages and written notes in the Kindle version of the book. This might be part of a reading club / social network.
- Read book together.
- Meet with other readers (people in your organized or not organized book club)
- Discuss meaningful passages, notes and lessons.
There is a webpage where one can see all the highlighting one made in the book. There is also a page where some of the top highlighted passages are available. Here is the page for the book Content Rules. NOTE: This is an https URL. You might need to be logged in to Amazon to see it.
Pricing: Book + Ebook
For just $4 more one gets the Ebook. Buy both and it’s like getting a $6 discount. You could also look at it as Buy the Ebook and for just $10 more getting a physical copy of the book. Shipping is $5. Special Priority shipping is $10.
$6 discount / $25 discounted cost = a savings of 24% for buying both.
For $25 I ordered both the book and Ebook. It is unclear how one gets the Ebook. There was no download included at checkout. That part of the story is to be continued.
Book Retail Market Share
Borders had an estimated 8.1% of retail sales of new printed books in 2010, compared to 22.5% for Amazon.com Inc., and 17.3% for Barnes & Noble, according to estimates from the Institute for Publishing Research, run by Fordham University Prof. Albert N. Greco.
via Borders Wants Suppliers to Accept Longer-Term IOUs – WSJ.com.
What go my attention in the section above is that Barnes and Noble is only 5.2% behind Amazon.com in market share for new printed books. Would have thought Amazon would have 30-40% market share and hacve a significant lead over other retailers.
Snippet on Reading: Article | Is Reading Really at Risk?
“Reading at Risk” breaks down its readers into Light (reading 1-5 books a year), Moderate (6-11 books a year), Frequent (12-49 books a year), and Avid (50 or more books)
Came across the article and snippet above while researching how many books a person reads per year. The average is around three or four. Depending on if you count the people who read zero books.
Currently I’m a frequent reader (completed 30 in 2010). Would really like to be an avid reader. Shooting for 60 books completed this year.
Books Completed in 2010
This year I completed the reading of thirty books. They are on the bottom shelf of a bookcase in the order they were completed from left to right.
- The Art of The Start
- Getting Real
- Unleashing The Ideavirus
- Radical Careering
- The 1% Windfall
- Linchpin
- The 22 Irrefutable Laws of Branding
- Borrowing Brilliance
- Thought Leaders: Insights on The Future of Business
- The Open Brand
- Hackers & Painters
- Drive
- Built to Last
- Valley Boy
- Free Prize inside
- Small Giants
- Delivering Happiness
- Swim With The Sharks
- Whale Done
- The Long Tail
- The Art of Non-Conformity
- Unmarketing
- Project 50
- American Steel
- Bo’s Lasting Lessons
- Angel Customers & Demon Customers
- Rework
- Serious Play
- Mirror Worlds
- The New Rules of marketing & PR
One of the things I realized in the past few days is that the number of books to be read is at about 60. These are books I’ve bought and want to read. More books are on the way too. A soft target of 60 books for 2011 seems unreasonable, but I’d like to go for it. If 52 are read that will be a win. 39 or fewer completed would be a disappointment. It will probably be a good idea to start reading the next book tomorrow, Saturday January 1, 2011.
D.L. Damore 