NEON GODS

Confessions of a Prairie Bitch

You've watched Little House on the Prairie.  Come on admit it.  It ran for 9 seasons, from 1974  to 1983, and has been in syndication forever after it seems. Just try clicking through the channels this instant and I'll bet you find it.

LHOP was entertaining, uplifting, and probably something I would want to watch if I was seriously depressed (like after the 2010 elections).  Who wouldn't want to live in Walnut Grove, where the skies are always blue, adults act like responsible adults (unlike real life), and the kids are wise beyond their years?   Everyone except Nellie, that is. 

Nellie Oleson was a spoiled brat, and if you were a kid who had to deal with Nellies in school, half the fun of the program was seeing her slapped down at the end. Everyone hated her.

No doubt you've occasionally wondered whatever happened to the little actress who played Nellie, right?  Me either.  But if you think of her at all you probably assume playing such a despicable, hated, creature at such a young age left the poor girl, Alison Arngrim to be exact, scarred for life, and if not suicidal at least living a troubled life like so many other child actors. 

Well, I am pleased to put your mind at ease - she grew up pretty normal and has even written a book about the fame/shame of playing Nellie called, "Confessions of a Prairie Bitch - How I Survived Nellie Oleson and learned to Love Being Hated."  I found it on Amazon and downloaded the free teaser to my Kindle. 

I found that Alison's parents were interesting enough to warrant their own book...gay father, raised in an orphanage in Canada, adopted by Icelanders to work their farm, ran away at 15 to join the theater and marry Alison's mom who was raised in a wealthy Canadian home, found it stifling and left to join Alison's father in the theater, and eventually ended up doing the voices of Gumby, Casper the Friendly Ghost and a host of other kids cartoon shows in the 60s.

That's where I'm at right now - at the end of the free material and deciding whether to spring for $12.99 to read the rest of the book or not. I almost always refuse to pay more than $9.99 for an ebook because there are so many other good books for less, but a look at "Confessions ..." table of contents is making my decision harder.  It's tought to pass up chapters like,

Melissa and Me...or "To Pee or Not to Pee"

Boobs, Boys, and Satan

Being Sold Into Marriage: ...

Fighting for Children...and Larry "F-ing" King

If I was a big fan of LHOP or if I wasn't living on a fixed income the choice would be easy, but alas, a $3 here and a $3 there adds up to real money (where have I heard that before?).  But since I'm a liberal and "like to spend other people's money" I guess I'll see if it's available in the library.  On the other hand, do I want to be seen reading this book, with it's bright pink cover and pictures of Nellie on the cover, in my favorite coffee house?  I do have some pride.  That's one of the great things about the Kindle - when hidden inside it's classy brown leather cover - you can put on a pair of glasses and look really smart in public while reading some of the trashiest novels imaginable.

--Trakker

Sure, buy the Kindle ebook - if you want to be ripped off!

I understand why book publishers want to keep ebook versions of popular hardback books off the market for a month or so.  And I understand why when they do release the ebook version that they price it high for the next few months.  Publishing hardcopy books is expensive and economies of scale are crucial right now to profits.

But how do you explain the price structure of the childhood classic, Winnie the Pooh?  If you want to buy the book in hardback it will cost you $8.00 at Amazon.  If you want it in paperback, it will cost you just $6.99.  So why does the Kindle version cost $16.99???  Even the audiobook CD of Winnie the Pooh only costs $16.50, and in that version a person has to actually read every word of the book out loud!

Amazon's website says the $16.99 Kindle price was set by the publisher, Penguin Publishing.  Why so high?  I can't figure it out.  If the book is available as a Kindle ebook, all the work has already been done, so why set the price so high that anyone wanting to buy it would feel so insulted by the price (more than twice the price of the hardback) that they would just say "screw it!"

Winnie the Pooh is such an enduring classic that I find it hard to believe that ebook sales would impact sales of the hardback or even the paperback significantly. 

But check this out.  On amazon.co.uk, the Kindle ebook of Winnie the Pooh is just £4.27 vs. £6.79 for the hardback ($6.85 vs. $10.90).  Wow, much cheaper!  So I bought it from the UK site!

Well, no.  I tried to but was blocked because amazon.co.uk is only for UK customers (even though the website said "Welcome [Trakker]" when their site opened).  Hey, what about globalism?  What about competition?  If we can ship our jobs overseas why can't I buy an ebook from overseas? 

Crap.

--Trakker

Tweens discover ebook readers.

You probably know I own a Kindle ebook reader.  I've had one for three years and still use it almost everyday.  I have a Kindle 3 now.  It fits in my coat pocket, and I whip it out whenever I have to wait somewhere or have a few minutes to relax - and of course at night before going to sleep.

When the Kindle was first released, many predicted it was too radical to attract many customers, or that it would evolve into a kind of niche product for upscale, avid readers.  As it turned out the Kindle sold well and has grown in popularity and now, acceptance.  Its popularity has increased this year largely because the Kindle's price has dropped reasonable levels (even as the cost of its ebooks has increased).  Also the Kindle now has some solid competition.

I feel pretty confident that ebooks will be the way a great many of us will read books in the future.  I also think the ease of publishng will make it possible for exceptional young writers to get an audiance without the expense of printing.

But I digress. Here's what triggered this post: evidently young people have started asking for ebook readers as presents - and they are now cheap enough for many parents to afford.  Here is the NYTimes article that caught my eye (the article is accompanied by one of the greatest cat pictures I've ever seen in a newspaper.  Sorry, I'm a sucker for cats who read books).

  

Something extraordinary happened after Eliana Litos received an e-reader for a Hanukkah gift in December.

“Some weeks I completely forgot about TV,” said Eliana, 11. “I went two weeks with only watching one show, or no shows at all. I was just reading every day.”

Ever since the holidays, publishers have noticed that some unusual titles have spiked in e-book sales. The “Chronicles of Narnia” series. “Hush, Hush.” The “Dork Diaries” series.

At HarperCollins, for example, e-books made up 25 percent of all young-adult sales in January, up from about 6 percent a year before — a boom in sales that quickly got the attention of publishers there.

It remains to be seen if kids will continue to use their readers throughout the year or if they will end up on a shelf with other forgotten gifts, but I suspect a certain cohort of teens will add it in their backpacks to read while waiting for the bus or at lunch.  It will be interesting to see how sales of young adult ebook titles do in the coming year.

--Trakker

I want a new Kindle, but the old one won't break.

It's time to write about my Kindle again because 1) I still use it almost every day, and 2) I keep finding more reasons why I do.

I don't know how many version 1 Kindle owners are still using their original Kindle.  Every new version has had upgrades that I drooled over and I have to admit this third version is very tempting indeed, especially because the lower prices make it hard to pass up!  Hard to believe my version 1 cost over three times what the version 3 with wi-fi only costs today.  There are times I wish my version 1 would break or die or something so I could justify a new Kindle, but alas, the damn thing looks and acts just like it did when it came out of the box!

I recently started re-reading all my Michael Connelly books in preparation for his latest release, The Reversal, coming out next week.  While I have his last three books on my Kindle, the rest are at the cabin in West Virginia...but I'm not.  I drove back home to Maryland this morning and decided it wasn't worth carrying the ones I haven't read yet home with me.  If only they were all stored on my Kindle...

I did read his first six books before leaving, however when I got to The Poet, I found that the binding (paperback) had broken and a number of the pages where loose and kept falling out of the book.  That will never happen on a Kindle, and I solved the problem by downloading The Poet to the Kindle and read it with ease.  Granted, because I'm using the version 1 (which requires a 3G cell signal which is not available in our part of West Virginia), I first had to download it to my PC and then port it to the Kindle (another reason to get the newer Kindle).

I hope I can hold out until version 4 comes out.  I assume it will have a touch screen for many of the commands instead of buttons and cursors.  In the meantime, if you happen to see my Kindle laying around you're welcome to sit on it or drop it in the toilet or smash it with a hammer.  I'm aching for one of the new ones...

--Trakker

The iPad vs. Kindle business model

An interesting column by Steven Pearlstein in today's WaPost about Amazon's business model for their Kindle and Apple's business model for their new iPad.

Amazon's business model was, in fact, the reverse of the one used so successfully by Gillette, selling razors at little or no profit but making it up on high-margin razor blades. In this case, the $9.99 retail price for the books (the blades) was actually less than the $12 to $14 "wholesale" price Amazon paid to publishers. That loss, however, was made up for by the high profit margins on the Kindles (the razors), which sell for $260 to $490. [...]

And then Steve Jobs showed up with the iPad. Apple's new $500 tablet computer can do almost everything a Kindle can, and much more. And to the delight of publishers, he was offering not only 25 million new potential customers but also a new business model in which Apple would serve merely as a distribution agent for the publishers, rather than a wholesaler. Under this arrangement, publishers are free to set retail prices as high as $15 per book and pay Apple a flat fee of 30 percent of the price.

With a higher price for both the tablet and the books, you wouldn't expect this new model to pose much of a challenge to Amazon's dominance in digital books. But then over the weekend, Macmillan told Amazon that if it didn't agree to the same terms it had hammered out with Apple, Amazon would no longer have access to new books from the publishing house until several months after they were released through bookstores and Apple. Amazon's initial response was to prevent users from buying Macmillan books on its Web site. By late Sunday, however, Amazon had raised the white flag and announced that it would go along with the new arrangement. Other publishers are now expected to follow Macmillan's lead.

Interesting.  I had assumed Amazon sold their Kindle's at cost and assumed they would make their profit on the books, magazines, newspapers and blogs Kindle owners would pay for.  Evidently that's not the case.

Obviously if Kindle book prices rise from the current $10* to $15, I will buy fewer books.  Bad news for me.  But if Amazon raises their prices they will make more money on each book they sell, so they can adopt Apple's business model and drop the prices for Kindles.  That's bad news for Apple because their iPad already costs significantly more than the current Kindle.

I have yet to see an actual iPad, but they look large to me.  Too large to carry unless you have a backpack to stick it in.  My Kindle fits in all of my coats' pockets.  Sweet!

It will be interesting to see how this all shakes out.

*I recently bought the Kindle edition of the NYTimes #1 bestseller, The Help, for just $8.55!  [I highly recommend the book].

--Trakker

Kindle: the good news and the bad

Most of my friends - and my family - love reading. They love books.  No, they LOVE books.  They are, almost without exception, fascinated but fearful of the Kindle and what it might do to the future of books.  They all love REAL books, they like having a book in their hands when they read, and they love looking at their books on their bookshelves.  Who doesn't?  They know that anything that diminishes the demand for hard copy books increases the cost to publish each book, which means the price for the book will have to go up or the publisher will have reduce it's profit (or both).

So you can imagine how this news has been received by book lovers:

Amazon released its annual post-Christmas statement and announced that more Kindle books were sold than real books through Amazon on Christmas day.

This from a company that sells a LOT of hard copy books (case in point: in my family nearly 30 books were given as C'mas gifts, all hard copy, all from Amazon).  What we don't know is how many of the Kindle books that were purchased were books that would have been purchased in hard copy instead. Based on my own experience I suspect that about half the Kindle books sold last year would not have been purchased in hard copy. 

When I reviewed my Kindle book purchases for the past two years (since I've had my Kindle), I found that I probably wouldn't have purchased about 60% of those books if I didn't have a Kindle.

Here' why. In the past when I heard about a really good book I would have to remember it's title and the next time I visited Borders I would leaf through the book and read a few pages.  Or I might go online and search for reviews for the book.  Even then I probably wouldn't buy it. I have a lot of books laying around that had very good reviews but didn't hold my interest.

With a Kindle, when you hear of a good book, you pick up your Kindle, click on "Shop in Kindle Store", find the book and download the first few chapters for free.  You can read it at your leisure, and if you like it enough to buy it, the free file has a link the says something like "Buy this book now".  Click on it and within two minutes you have the entire book on your Kindle (and your purchase is charged to your credit card).

So the bottom line isn't quite as bad as book lovers and authors might think.  Yes, 40% of my Kindle book purchases supplanted a hard copy purchase, but some publishers and authors also benefited.  Also, the free download has allowed me to sample new authors without any risk (something I could also do in the library), and have found some I like and will be buying their books in the future.

I still think that in the long run, book readers like the Kindle will severely impact hard copy book sales in the future and it will probably mean publishers will have to switch to print-on-demand technology for the diminished demand for hard copy books.

For traditionalists like me, the Internet and solid state technology is spelling the doom of much of what I grown up loving: newspapers, magazines and journals, hard copy books, and even many brick-and-mortar stores (my entire family did 95% of our C'mas shopping online this year, I even purchased 4 new Michelin tires online). 

Some of the changes were seeing is like a 3-ton boulder rolling down a mountain.  Once in motion, it is almost impossible to stop no matter how hard we cry and yell.  I don't like the impact of all these change's on society, but I love how they have made my life simpler and more enjoyable.  What's a Luddite to do?

--Trakker

Bill Clinton: He may have been one of the best.

I've been reading Taylor Branch's fascinating book about Bill Clinton, The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History With The President.

Soon after Clinton was elected President he summoned his pal Taylor Branch, noted author of a Martin Luther King trilogy, and asked him to periodically come to the White House and record Clinton's recollections of recent issues.  While Clinton now has possession of the tapes, Taylor took notes and recorded his recollections of the conversations on his drive back home in Baltimore.

Taylor Branch is of those graceful writers whose words don't get in the way of his story.  It is a book that flows like a stream.  I can't do the book justice, so I'll defer to Joe Klein's review in the NYTimes:

There are, as Clinton might say, a blue jillion...anecdotes in “The Clinton Tapes.” ... The rowdy, discursive intellectual brilliance of the man is evident on almost every page, and so is the self-­indulgence, self-pity and self-­destructiveness — the magisterial excessiveness of every sort. Compared with the buttoned-up cool of the Oval Office’s current occupant, Bill Clinton is a one-man carnival — a magician, tightrope walker, juggler, mesmerist, hot-dog-eating contestant and burlesque show. You kind of miss the guy. [...]

Branch’s friendship with Clinton does have significant advantages, though. It makes possible a remarkable portrait of White House life. Clinton’s relationship with the first lady seems incredibly strong (Branch even interrupts them when they are smooching, as I did once). And the president is a wildly devoted father, even to the point of having a screaming fight with Al Gore: the vice president wants Clinton to go to Japan to smooth a crisis, but Clinton re­fuses because Chelsea needs his help studying for high school midterms. [...]

In the end, though, “The Clinton Tapes” will stand as an important work about American political life because of two dominant themes that emerge gradually — one about the man himself and the other about the nature of the current era. Clinton was a president who believed that government could help people live happier, more satisfying lives, and that America could help solve intractable issues like the Middle East crisis. He immersed himself in these issues, worked hard at them. His grasp of details — and his insights into the motivations of others — is breathtaking. As president, he proved a rare combination of fervent politician and devoted policy wonk. [...]

And that is the other great theme of this book: the struggle of a president mostly interested in policy against an opposition party obsessed with regaining power. The Republican efforts to undermine Clinton were rarely substantive and often unscrupulous. The president was impeached not because he committed anything resembling a high crime, but because the effort would cripple him at a moment when he might have gotten something accomplished — his popularity was running at 60 percent or so, the economy was booming. During the Clinton presidency, the Republicans accelerated their slide from a party of responsible conservatives to a party of antigovernment talk-show nihilists. [...]

The Bill Clinton who emerges here is a master practitioner of an art that is routinely derided — foolishly — these days: he’s an unabashed, unapologetic politician. To the extent that Branch’s portrait of the president rescues politics from ignominy, he has done a real public service; that he has done this while vividly portraying an exuberant American original is cause for joy. [emphasis mine]

Not long ago I thought that Barak Obama had the potential to go down in history as one of our great Presidents, and he may yet prove me right.  Others, mostly on the right, are certain that Ronald Reagan will be crowned as the greatest President of the 20th century...but the more I think about it, the more I suspect it may be Bill Clinton that future historians will place in the list of Top Ten Presidents.  Considering that he was under attack by the right almost from the day he was inaugurated and culminating in his humiliating impeachment, he accomplished more than most of us realize. If nothing else he left us with a budget surplus (quite an accomplishment, and one that grows even larger in hindsight).

I recommend you read Joe Klein's full review and consider getting a copy of this book, keeping in mind that the author is a close friend of Bill's (grain of salt required), but Branch's descriptions of everyday life in the White House is well worth the price of the book alone.  You will be startled at the similarities between what the Clinton's endured in their attempt to get a health care bill passed and what we just went through. I also came away with a renewed appreciation for Hillary and how much Bill respected her opinions (he should have taken her advice more often!).

--Trakker

My Kindle: two years later.

One of the gifts I put on my c'mas wish list, distributed to the rest of the family, was a replacement battery for my Kindle.  I've had it two years and this is the first time I've had to replace it.

After two years I still read on it almost every day.  Besides the books I have stored on it, I subscribe to the Associated Press news update and the New York Times latest news feeds, both of which get updated frequently throughout the day.

Most of my friends are book lovers.  Only one, to my knowledge, has made the leap to a Kindle.  The rest seem bemused, if not totally baffled, by my fondness for my Kindle.  I can tell many would love to see the Kindle turn into a small niche product, like another once popular appliance - counter-top bread makers, and fade from view.  I can tell this by the articles they forward to me, many of which are not that complementary of the Kindle.  I know their hearts are in the right place.  They just don't want to see me cheer-leading for a fad that, when it finally passes and people realize the many advantages of real books again, could make me look foolish.  I mean, who talks about all the features of the latest bread makers, right?

Actually, the Kindle has surprised me.  I never expected to still be enthusiastic about it two years after buying it - especially since it was a first generation version of the product.  No one ever gets it right the first time (and, yes, there are some flaws in the first Kindles, but they are merely annoying, not fatal).

Evidently, the Kindle has surpassed even Amazon.com's founder, Jeff Bezos' expectations.  He was interviewed in a recent issue of Newsweek and had this to say about the Kindle:

Newsweek: Have you been surprised by the Kindle's success? 

Astonished. Two years ago, none of us expected what has happened so far. It is [our] No. 1 bestselling product. It's the No. 1 most-wished-for product as measured by people putting it on their wish list. It's the No. 1 most-gifted item on Amazon. And I'm not just talking in electronics—that's true across all product categories. We've spent years working on our physical books business, and today, for titles that have a Kindle edition, Kindle book sales are 48 percent of the physical sales. That's up from 35 percent in May. The business is growing very quickly.

I'll be the first to admit that the Kindle is only good for certain media, mostly books that rely on words and not graphics.  I got an atlas of early civilizations for C'mas and a Kindle version of it would be worthless.  Also, magazines like Newsweek that rely on color photos, graphs, and tables to enhance their articles are not nearly as effective on a Kindle.  But I think all of this will be worked out in future versions of eBook readers, if not be Amazon, then by Sony or Apple, or some other innovative company.

Many critics of the Kindle predicted a quick failure for the Kindle, not because of the technology, but because they believe Americans don't read anymore.  Don't believe them.  I like to drop by a Borders bookstore nearby (I still love bookstores).  I'm often astonished by the number of high school students I find in the the non-fiction sections browsing history, technology, math, social sciences, and other topics, often sitting on the floor and reading parts of the books.  Americans still read, and don't be surprised if eBook readers like the Kindle, which sell books cheaper, allow for the first few chapters of books to be downloaded free, and permit a person to carry hundreds of books on one small device that be taken almost anywhere, doesn't encourage more reading.

--Trakker

Some things never change

I finished David McCullough's book about John Adams (usually I don't like to give away book endings, but both John and Abigail die).

The book was quite interesting because I knew very little about Adams considering that he was possibly the most ardent supporter of immediate independence from Great Britain (rather than conciliation) and was recognized by many as the force behind our independence.

One passage in the book really grabbed me.  I'm not sure if McCullough meant it as a snarky joke, but it had me chuckling.  Here's the background.  John and Abigail had a daughter, Abigail (Nabby), who married a William Smith.  Evidently William gave the appearance of intelligence and even managed to obtain the rank of Colonel somehow but had an amazing record of failing at nearly everything he attempted.  That record didn't hold him back however.  When Nabby returned to he father's home in Massachusetts McCullough explains why her husband didn't accompany her: "Colonel Smith was in Washington. Having failed at nearly everything he ever tried, he had been elected to Congress."

Even in back in 1813, competence wasn't a prerequisite for election to Congress.

McCullough's book is an in depth description of the famous Americans we learned to admire in our childhood: Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, Washington, Hamilton and more.  What I found interesting is how flawed each of these great men were.  Yes, they were human just like us, and they had quirks just like us, quirks that actually impacted the creation of our country.  They were geniuses, but not the gods that our school books often made them out to be. It's refreshing to know that.

--Trakker

The Uprising

Check this out.  It's a short interview by Laura Flanders of David Sirota, author of "The Uprising: An Unauthorized Tour of the Populist Revolt Scaring Wall Street and Washington."

In his book he claims we are in the midst of a popular uprising, an uprising that is simultaneously occurring on both the right and the left.  In fact it's an exciting movement that has yet to coalesce enough to know if it will ultimately swing left or right.

Sirota makes some great points in the interview and I'm going to check out his book (has anyone read it yet?).  He claims the current political establishment is designed to stop this movement.

Any liberal who reads Glenn Greenwald, for example, and some of the more enlightened conservative blogs like The Daily Dish or Balloon Juice recognize that there is an uprising on the left and the right, and in fact there is a lot of overlap between the two. Both sides decry torture, both sides oppose the way this administration bulldozed us into invading Iraq, etc.  It's actually a movement for better and more accountable government.  I think anyone who has had much contact with our political system lately also recognizes that the current political establishment (and the MSM) is fighting this uprising tooth and nail.

I have to admit that the idea that the lack of response by our politicians to the people's will is not a sign that the government is now completely owned by the corporations, but may be signs of a frightened and confused political elite who realize their known world is coming apart and are now fighting with all their might to hold on to the status quo and their power against an angry people fed up with their incompetence.  I certainly hope so!

--Trakker