code meets music

In a couple of days time (November 21) Amazon are launching their ‘Kindle’ e-book service in the US and it looks like it might be worth a look- if not straight away, certainly in the not too distant future.

The Kindle itself is touted as a ‘Wireless Reading Device’ but it is the service that comes with it that will be just as, if not more, important.

The device will allow you to download entire books, with free sample chapters available for most, from the service’s 88000 title collection “whether you’re in the back of a taxi, at the airport, or in bed.” The product description states that it has “EVDO”, a wireless technology used by mobile phones thus not requiring wi-fi for connectivity. If a UK version is 3G-capable, that would be a good selling point.

This continuous connectivity will also allow Amazon to offer subscriptions, both to traditional newspapers and magazines (unsurprisingly only US publications mentioned so far) and to a variety of blogs, charging $0.99 for a month’s access.

This, at first, seemed to me like a nice idea but looking at the list, it seems to consist mainly of localised versions of “Metroblogging” and “SportsBlogs” that have little appeal. In addition, one of the big trends at the moment is towards offline-access to web sites and applications. Google, with the help of their Gears project, have given people the option to enable offline-access to their (free) Reader service. The device also apparently comes with an ‘experimental’ web-browser that is free to use, so unless services like Google reader are blocked, I’m not quite sure why anyone would be willing to pay for the RSS.

Joel Johnson at Boing Boing Gadgets has posted 15 Things he Just Learned About the Amazon Kindle some good, some not so good.

I’ve heard a lot of good things about the reading-ease of some of the newer ‘E-ink’ devices and wouldn’t mind trying one out at some point but until there’s a convenient way of getting hold of things to put on it (magazines and newspapers as well as books) the cost of the devices themselves is prohibitive.

Searching amazon.co.uk for “Kindle” only brings up other e-book readers, which suggests we might not be seeing it over here any time soon, which is a shame as I think the market needs somebody like Amazon to help it take its first steps.

Release them in paperback at the same time (or instead of) hardback.

Currently, publishers initially release books only in hardback and the paperback edition will follow, sometimes up to a year later. Any publicity that the book might attract will happen at the initial release; newspapers dedicate pages and pages to reviewing new hardbacks while around a dozen new paperbacks (fiction and non-fiction) will share a single page.

I mostly buy paperback books, not only because they’re cheaper but because they take up less space and I find them easier to read. I’m not short of things that I’d like to read, so having access to a book sooner isn’t really something I’d pay extra for. It is a little annoying though, that when I’m looking for new things to read, it’s very difficult to find things that are new to paperback- I often end up adding interesting-looking hardbacks to my Amazon wishlist thinking I’ll check back later, but normally forget.

Well, it turns out I’m not alone; the publisher Picador have decided that from next year it will launch “almost every novel as a £7.99 paperback”.

The Guardian had the following to say on the matter:

Since 2001, booksellers have doubled the discounts offered on hardback novels and some have sold fewer than 100 copies. Even Graham Swift, the Booker prize-winning author of Last Orders, has sold fewer than 4,000 copies of Tomorrow, his latest novel, since its debut in April. From spring, Picador will use paperbacks to launch new books from all of its literary fiction writers, unless they have a guaranteed profitable hardback market. It estimates that 80% of its literary fiction will be published in this way.

It’s interesting that I’ll happily pay more for special editions of albums and those that come in interesting boxes, but prefer paperback books.

For a few miles, hers was the only car on the road. Then she noticed a pair of headlights in her rearview mirror. As she continued driving, she noticed the headlights were getting closer and closer, until the other car was almost touching her bumper. The other car began honking and flashing its brights. Scared, Doris sped up. The other car did so too, then changed lanes and started to pass her, but then suddenly braked and swerved behind her bumper, where the driver began honking again.

It’s an old story. Older, even, than email. Seven writers put their own twist on things, in The Morning News’ “open ended gore fest” The Backseat Killer

This is Mark Gatiss’s second novel chronicling the adventures of Lucifer Box, an Edwardian portrait-painter turned secret agent/assassin for His Majesty’s Government, tasked with saving the world.

The first, The Vesuvius Club, told the tale of how Lucifer saved Italy from the destructive intentions of the titular secret society. The second, set 20 years later with our hero starting to feel his age, takes in 1920s New York; a ‘cruise’ aboard a cargo ship and the Swiss alps as Lucifer tries to clear his name after being framed for a murder, not forgetting to save the planet from the attempts of a fascist organisation to summon the Devil.

It will come as no surprise to people familiar with The League of Gentlemen that the stories are somewhat ridiculous, with exaggerated characters and plenty of cliché. It’s a good job then that the plots contain plenty of little twists, and that the writing manages to maintain a good mix of excitement and humour.

There is a 3rd book planned, which according to an interview with Gatiss in The Guardian will be called Clawhammer and will be set in the 1950s, with Box in his 70s.

This is 2nd book by James McGee starring Matthew Hawkwood, a Bow Street Runner (think policeman, but more awesome) in Regency London, tasked by his superiors to solve the murder and face-stealing of a vicar in Bedlam, which they believe is related to a spate of bodysnatchings- noticeable even in a time when that sort of thing was fairly common.

Hawkwood is a former officer in the 95th Rifle Regiment, of ‘Sharpe’ fame, and it’s not the only thing the stories have in common. The writing style is similar, focusing on the prominent features of each character, and not delving too deep, opting for action (breadth) rather than development (depth) to keep the stories moving.

It’s the sequel to Ratcatcher (the series is subtitled “You don’t send a gentleman to catch vermin, You Send Hawkwood”) which was much the same, dealing with French espionage rather than body-snatching. It’s probably worth reading them in order, there are characters other than Hawkwood in both, but not essential- there’s not a continuing story.

It’s not the most intelligently written book, but good fun to read.

Two people I know have announced recently that they are writing books and they both look like they’re going to be really interesting and useful reads.

Rob Allen (who I know from PHPWM) is co-writing Zend Framework in Action which, after reading his tutorial and hearing him talk about the Zend Framework, is bound to be good. Ajax in Action, from the same publishers, is one of the few tech books I actually own, so this can make it a little less lonely on my bookshelf.

Elliot Smith (who I met at last year’s LugRadioLive) is also co-writing a tech book, this time Ruby on Rails Enterprise Application Development: Plan, Program, Extend which with the summary “Building a complete Ruby on Rails business application from start to finish” might inspire me to do some more with Rails than the infamous blog example. For what it’s worth, I think ‘Rails in Context’ is a better title, but what do I know?

Both guys give the warning that writing is difficult and as I’m under no illusions as to the contrary, I’m impressed by their dedication.

Maybe one day…

Just finished reading The Stranger House by Reginald Hill and I was very impressed. Hill is the creator of Dalziel and Pascoe, but this isn’t one of their books, focusing instead on the intertwined lives of a young australian woman trying to trace her family roots and a Spanish history student, who recently quit the seminary, researching old catholic families in England.

The book is full of surprises and is, in places, very tense. It’s not your typical murder-mystery novel, but given the events span 400 years, and jump regularly between the present, the 1960s and the 16th Century, the author does a good job of keeping things moving.

This is the first entry in my new ‘Books’ section, which I intend to use as a record for myself of what I’ve read.