Slate just posted an article speculating that e-readers like Amazon's Kindle will soon be costing less than one hundred dollars. While this is certainly more reasonable than the 2009 price of roughly $300, I'm still not sold.

Fifty bucks, guys. It's as high as I'm goin'.

Labels: Amazon, ebooks

According to The New York Times, Amazon.com announced on Monday that they've been selling more titles for its Kindle e-readers than hardcover books during the last three months—143 e-books for every 100 hardcovers, to be exact. I don't quite see these numbers as a death knell for the printed book format (as the article mentions, hardcover sales are also up 22% over last year), but it's certainly a culture shift in the world of book-buying.

Labels: Amazon, ebooks

As most of you probably know, Amazon purchased J.K. Rowling’s The Tales of Beedle the Bard at a Sotheby’s auction. The purchase price (of £1,950,000!!!) was donated to The Children's Voice campaign, a charity Rowling co-founded to help improve the lives of institutionalized children across Europe.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard is a collection of five wizarding fairy tales, and is referenced in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It's 157 pages long, illustrated and handwritten by Rowling, bound in Moroccan leather, and embellished with sterling silver ornaments and moonstones. Amazon's copy is one of only seven in existence. Amazon has created a website to share images of the book and detailed summaries of the short stories: click here to see more.

Labels: Amazon, Charity, J.K. Rowling