Book stuff!

   Well hello. It's been a while, hasn't it? This will be a very brief posting on some book news I found this morning. First and foremost, JK Rowling's new book now has a name! I'll admit, I was more than a bit excited at the idea of any new reading material coming from her, but if you click here you'll get a bit more details on the plot of The Casual Vacancy (talk about an intriguing title!). Also important, it will be sold in ebook format!
     Which leads me to my second little article. You see, the Justice Dept filed suit against Apple and a number of book publishers accusing them of collusion to drive up the prices of ebooks. Some of the publishers have settled, but the decision raises some questions about how the relationship between publishers and Amazon, in particular, has evolved. There are more details in this NYT article, but I think it's curious that the immediate fears are that in punishing Apple and several publishers for driving up prices, the Justice Dept may have just created the perfect environment on the ground for Amazon to develop a monopoly on the ebook market. I've already shared just how much Amazon has changed my reading habits, even before I got a physical kindle to carry around with me EVERYWHERE, but just a thought. One thing's for sure, I will continue to be loyal to Amazon until they decide to restrict my free kindle content (the horror). However, for many people immersed in the Kindle culture (that's how I've begun to think about it in my head), Amazon may just be playing a long-term bait and switch campaign. Wireless delivery may be free on Amazon Whispernet, but I can easily envision a future where Amazon starts charging for that  - so that even my free ebooks will come with a price tag. My collection of more than 150 free ebooks at $.10 per delivery would be $15- $20 extra dollars for them...not much in the grand scheme of things, but considering how ebooks sales continue to grow, it could be a lot of many in the bank for them. This is all speculation, of course, but it's thought-provoking (to me at least).
     That's all for now. But my next post will be coming soon-ish (less than a week I hope), so stay tuned for that.