Amazon has launched an iPhone app to let users search and browse the site for products. Their big “twist” is an “experimental feature” using the built-in camera called Amazon Remembers. It’s basically another extension of the idea of using physical stores as a place to browse real products to help people decide what to buy online. You snap a photo of a product and Amazon “tries to find products similar to the ones in the photos. As soon as the customer receives the results, they can then purchase the item immediately or ‘remember it’ for later in their Amazon account.”Release […]
Shopping Obama's Campaign Manager; New Carter Mideast Book
Attorney Bob Barnett is representing Barack Obama’s campaign manager David Plouffe, shopping a proposal for THE AUDACITY TO WIN, “not only an inside look at the Obama run but a guide for how to run an organization,” the AP reports. Barnett promises, “There will be many books about the Obama campaign, but only one from the campaign itself.” It’s intended as a fall 2009 release.AP Separately, Jimmy Carter said yesterday his new book WE CAN BRING PEACE TO THE HOLY LAND will be published in late January.AP
NYT's Top Ten–A Near-Sweep for Random; USAT Gift Picks
The paper has announced their ten best books of 2008, which looks a lot like a Knopf catalog: FictionDANGEROUS LAUGHTER, by Steven Millhauser (Knopf)A MERCY, by Toni Morrison (Knopf)UNACCUSTOMED EARTH, by Jhumpa Lahiri (Knopf)NETHERLAND, by Joseph O’Neill (Pantheon)2666, by Roberto Bolano (FSG) NonfictionTHE FOREVER WAR, by Dexter Filkins (Knopf)NOTHING TO BE FRIGHTENED OF, by Julian Barnes (Knopf)THIS REPUBLIC OF SUFFERING, by Drew Gilpin Faust (Knopf)THE WORLD IS WHAT IT IS, by Patrick French (Knopf)THE DARK SIDE, by Jane Mayer (Doubleday) Separately, USA Today has a guide to holiday books in multiple categories. Among “bestsellers,” the top “critic’s pick” is Dennis […]
Will Borders Need A Reverse Stock Split?
Absent other dramatic changes, it’s possible that Borders will need to execute a reverse stock split if its shares stay below $1 as the Ann Arbor News notes. “According to the NYSE, a company is sent a delisting warning letter if its average closing stock price falls below $1 for 30 consecutive trading days. The company then has six months to get the share price above $1.” Borders Anne Roman comments: “We are of course mindful of the stock price and we are mindful of what the New York Stock Exchange rules are as it applies to stock prices. We […]
Canada's Globe and Mail Changes Book Coverage
This has to be the most artful press release I’ve ever seen about a newspaper eliminating their stand-alone book section. Toronto’s Globe and Mail says at the very end of this exuberant announcement that “the Books section will physically join The Globe’s award-winning Focus section on Saturdays, starting January 10.” Editor-in-chief Ed Greenspon gushes, “The Focus section is one of the most high-profile, best-read sections of the paper so the Books content should reach even more readers.” The main focus of the news in on a Books web site the paper is establishing. Former deputy features editor Peter Scowen, is […]
UK Prize for The Rest Is Noise
A prize a day keeps the blues away. This time last year Alex Ross’s THE REST IS NOISE was making multiple Top 10 lists in the US and now it is the “the clear and undisputed winner” of the Guardian First Book Prize in the UK. Guardian literary editor Claire Armitstead, said: “In some quarters this book has been seen as not having a popular appeal. Our prize – which, uniquely, relies on readers’ groups in the early stages of judging – proves that, on the contrary, there is a huge appetite among readers for clear, serious but accessible books.”Guardian