I'm off to Chicago for one quick night of day for KINDLE--we're going to spend the day tomorrow re-writing one section of our Policy Manual. I'm flying out of Cleveland, so it's a drive down there this afternoon and back from there tomorrow night. I need to have someone sit next to me when I make my reservations--it sounded good at the time. :-)

Sunday Night Mind Dump from Mundelein, IL tonight...

6 AM: The alarm that I forgot to turn off wakes me from a dead sleep. I curse.

8 AM: Awaken from a dream about work. Strange. Discover the cat is asleep and snoring in the laundry basket...not just asleep, but rather BURIED under all the laundry. Perhaps he was cold--wonder why. Roll over and go back to sleep.

10 AM: Drag my butt out of bed after having spent the last 45 minutes staring at the ceiling and daydreaming. Cat still in the laundry basket.

NOON: Showered and dressed, internet sufficiently surfed for the morning, I decide to get some coffee.

12:30: Arrive at Pete's Coffee by Greenlake. Order my Cuppa Joe, and settle into one of the vacant leather chairs with my Kindle. The thing I like about Pete's is that they don't have obnoxiously loud music blaring over their speakers, the CD's of which they are also trying to shove down your throat by the register. (Uh, can someone say "Starbucks"?) I read in peace for an hour.

2 PM: Back to the condo, after having sufficiently drained my wallet at the pump. Settle down for some grilled cheese (I feel 5 years old again) and a couple of episodes of the X-Files.

4 PM: Consider watching Oprah. Consider also stabbing out my eyes and ears with a sharp object. Opt for some more Internet surfing instead. Updated Facebook page, did some cyber stalking, and read the remainder of the latest Scientific American that I bought last weekend. (No I DON'T understand what they are talking about half the time. Yes, reading it DOES make me feel smarter. Sure, I'm half convinced it boosts my 'geek cred'...but whatever.)

5:30 PM: Here I am. Writing this whilst nursing a caffeine headache and wondering where the day went. And what to read next. Hmmm.....any suggestions?

But what the two returned to over and over again, and what callers seemed most interested in talking about, was the Kindle, Amazon's portable piece of hardware designed exclusively for book reading.

These aren't "books" like, say, a battered Louis L'Amour novel whose pages get creased by greasy breakfast fingers, and whose cover loosens with each successive stuffing into a jeans pocket. But it's similar: you download the text of the book (or newspaper, magazine, etc.) to the Kindle, then chip away at it when you've got a moment to burn.

Is it the "Death of the Book"? Is Jeff Bezos the next Gutenburg? I suggest you give the episode a listen for yourself. Or, if you're really feeling this Kindle thing, go ahead and plunk down the robust $360 and give it a shot. It's a pretty fun machine.

I think this digital ramp-up will take some time. On the bus this morning there were at least ten people reading newspapers, novels, and magazines, with nary a Kindle in sight. At my neighborhood library the patrons are zipping through books with a lust and intensity that makes me steer far clear of the leather chairs, which are circled up like wagons for protection.

Bezos can enthuse to his heart's content about the future of reading, but at my library he'd get the brush-off by the serious book devotees, hunched over, feverishly dog-earing pages and nodding to the rhythm of the words. There is trouble brewing.

By

Stuart F. Brown

Scientific American

More and more people are gazing at electronic-book readers—lightweight slates about the size of a thin paper­back that can store up to 200 downloaded books. Although prior generations fizzled, Sony’s Reader, introduced in 2006, and Amazon’s Kindle, which debuted last year, are both selling well. The key difference is the screen.

Interactive: View the insides of the Kindle E-Reader

Researchers had wrestled with e-book readers for decades, but most sported power-thirsty, backlit LCD screens that glared in low light or were drowned out by bright sunlight. The breakthrough this time is a screen made with “electronic paper” from E Ink Corporation in Cambridge, Mass. Sony, Amazon and other makers worldwide are using the material.

E-paper displays are reflective: ambient light bounces off them, so they look and read like ordinary paper. The screens are very energy efficient, too. “The only power used is when you turn a page,” says Isaac Yang, manager of software product development at Sony in San Jose, Calif. No current is needed to sustain the characters on a page once it has been called up. Yang says about 7,500 pages can be turned on a single battery charge. Downloading books consumes additional power.

Sony’s Reader, roughly $300, has a stated capacity of about 160 books, which are found by linking it to a computer via a USB cable and going to the company’s online bookstore. Amazon’s Kindle, $400, can hold about 200 books and can download them by connecting to Sprint’s wireless data network. Amazon also offers paid subscriptions to certain newspapers and magazines. Newly released books typically cost around $10. Enthusiasts who have posted online reviews note, however, that the software for downloading and managing files can be a bit cumbersome.

The fonts on both the Sony and Amazon handhelds can be made larger or smaller, and both can display black-and-white jpeg and gif images, Microsoft Word documents and RSS news feeds. Each item, of course, will occupy some of the roughly 190 megabytes of memory.

Market analysts remain unsure about whether e-books and readers will ever become ubiquitous. Some people are fiercely attached to the tactility—and even the smell—of paper books and periodicals, whereas others love the idea of carrying around heaps of documents in a device weighing 10 ounces. Perhaps the next frontier—color screens—might sway the masses. E Ink is working on prototype e-paper that incorporates the red, green and blue filters needed to show full-color imagery; such a surface could potentially support downloaded video and books on a screen much bigger than a cell phone but much lighter than a laptop.

Did You Know ...
RESOLVED: Reader screens made with E Ink paper have a resolution of 167 dots per inch (dpi). A typical ink-jet printer achieves 300 dpi, a Web page 72 dpi.

CHINA, FRANCE: eRead Technology’s STAReBOOK is popular in China, as is Bookeen’s Cybook in France. Les Echos, an electronic newspaper publisher in Paris, offers editions that can be downloaded over Wi-Fi connections onto the iLiad reader made by iRex in the Netherlands.

FORERUNNERS: Researchers at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center worked on an oil-filled microcapsule system named Gyricon in the 1970s. In 1971 Michael Hart, a University of Illinois student, obtained mainframe computer time to begin to digitize and archive books and other items, with the goal of someday distributing a massive digital library.

THE LAST BOOK: In 1997 Joseph Jacobson, a young professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab and an eventual founder of E Ink, published a paper called “The Last Book.” In it he envisioned a hardcover book containing several hundred blank electronic pages. Futuristic memory chips in the book’s spine would hold the entire catalogue of the Library of Congress, and a simple control would display any one of those titles on its pages.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)
Stuart F. Brown is a writer in Irvington, N.Y.

I wrote yesterday about books that support The Non-Consumer Advocate lifestyle. I received this question from "Daniel."

What is your opinion on the Kindle device? It does save quite a lot of paper and allows for less expensive distribution of books. Just wondering what your take was on this.

Since I do The Compact, (buy nothing new) I'd never even given one minute's thought to Amazon's revolutionary wireless reading device. 

My first impulse is to outright dismiss The Kindle. I'm a bit of a techno-phobe, and have repeatedly turned down my husband's offer to buy me an iPod. 

"No thank you, dear. I'm perfectly happy listening to audio books on my Discman." 

Or, maybe something far less polite.

So I clicked my way to the Amazon website, where the Kindle is featured prominently on the home page. The cost is $359, with free super-saver shipping. Hmm . . . that's a lot of moolah, folks.

I read through the description and user-reviews. Once you buy the Kindle, there's nothing further to subscribe to. You can instantly buy most any book you want for about $9.99. (That is kind of cool.) It holds around 200 books at a time, and you can store books you don't currently need on the Amazon site. The battery sounds like it holds up well and re-charges quickly. It weighs less than a regular paperback, yet holds 200 books?

I can see why people are going nutso for this Kindle thingy. 

Wait a minute?! What's going to happen to all these Kindles in two years when Amazon comes out with a newer, shinier, improved version? (Titanium for him, pink for her).

Electronic waste is a huge problem in today's world. Wired magazine had this to say:

"The refuse from discarded electronics products, also known as e-waste, often ends up in landfills or incinerators instead of being recycled. And that means toxic substances like lead, cadmium and mercury that are commonly used in these products can contaminate the land, water and air."

The Kindle takes a recyclable and virtually indestructible product - a book -- and replaces it with a fragile, toxic device that will be obsolesced in a few years. Drop a book and it can get bent pages. Drop a Kindle and you've just made a nasty piece of electronic garbage.

But are books perfect?

Not really. Publishers print too many books, many of which then get destroyed. (Recycled? I don't know.) Few books are currently published on recycled paper, and the inks are usually far from natural. The last Harry Potter book was  printed on recycled paper in the U.K. and Canada, but only partially so here in the U.S. 

And yes, they do have to be distributed to the bookstores.

What's my verdict on the Kindle?

Thumbs down.

I do see how the Kindle would be a great addition on a long vacation, or a trip to the Mir space station. But for most of us, reading an actual paper book is no burden.

I see each purchase I make as a validation of consumer ethics.

What am I supporting with this purchase?

Am I telling the manufacturers to be responsible?

For now, I'll continue with my juicy stack of old-fashioned library books, knowing there are no damaging components to poison the land.

Besides, my fancy living room shelves would look pretty stupid filled with electronics. 

Katy Wolk-Stanley

"Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without."

For information on electronics recycling in your area, click here.

Do you have a Kindle? Let me know how you like it, in the comments section below.

The screen uses this nifty e-ink stuff that reacts to artificial light sources like regular paper does, so  bright light actually adds clarity rather than glare. The device has an operating system very similar to iPod in that you load books into your computer's library and then import them to the device's flash drive. I greatly preferred this device's open format as contrasted to the closed system offered by the Amazon Kindle.

I greatly prefer dead-tree books, but I had a need for this device for business reasons: people send me e-books to peruse before publication when I'm readying publicity campaigns for their titles, and reading on my laptop is awful.

Now that I have this thing, I want e-books to fill it, and I'm wondering where to find free books of a fantasy/sf bent. It seemed like at one time I had an entire inbox full of PDFs, and now they're few and precious. So I'm looking to you for suggestions to specific sites and authors who offer downloadable editions of their books in any format.

And also, what about your own e-book consumption? Do you use them? Like them? Love them? Hate them?

Are they? I couldn’t shoot back an “Of course they are not a dying medium” or even “They are only a waning medium.” I’ve only been involved in the book industry a bit over two years, but the question of our imminent demise seems to pop up every day. I wasn’t wonderfully tech-savvy in college, and as an undergraduate who made regular visits, whether for work or fun, to one of the most comprehensive research libraries in the world, it hardly seemed possible that books might disappear. Now, I learn, Google execs are projecting a future in which all books (*all books*) are digitized.

Robert Darnton disagrees, in a bracing article, “The Library in the New Age,” published in the June 12, 2008 issue of The New York Review of Books. (Read it here: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21514.) Darnton’s broader argument is that, while the long historical view of most topics will provides a sense of continuity (plus ça change..), where the sharing of information is concerned the main continuity is “the inherent instability of texts.” First he outlines the major technological breakthroughs: written word, scroll, codex, printed book.--. The codex (along with the paragraph break and chapter divisions) was an improvement over the scroll because it allowed readers to engage with large ideas by segmenting them. I would add that with web reading we now seem to be regressing to the scroll-sensibility. Web sites and Kindles may delineate “pages,” but there’s much less of that firm sense that you’re holding in your hands the entirety of a story or argument, which you can navigate through spatially. That spatial sensibility provides useful reinforcement when working with ideas. Web reading doesn’t quite have it, and that lack must play at least some role in the tendency of online writers, particularly commentators, to fudge.

That physical interaction can be helpful in grappling with big ideas. It’s a sensory reinforcement, a comfort blanket of sorts. That reassurance may have something to do with why, as Darnton notes, marketers of the French version of Kindle attached a book-smell sticker to the devices. Charming! But that rather misses the point. Yes, there are those of us whose love of ideas is all tangled up, for better or worse, with a lust for the book-as-object (the right type-set, paper, cover design). Darnton is in that number, I am (see my galley-glorification, below), and so are many others. But we’re the minority, I know, and by laying too much stress on that aspect of the debate, we do our cause a disservice.

In trying to reach an opinion, a person must be able, at some point, to stop researching and say “here is the information—now what do I think of it?” There must be a moment and means of reckoning—otherwise intelligent discussion becomes scattershot. We need limits, because limits provide a space for independent thought, and enacting limits seems nearly impossible when you have web-link upon web-link and reader-comment upon reader-comment which may, just may, lead to that critical bit that will shake up your whole way of thinking.

This has implications for both the presentation and the volume of information available on the web. More for the presentation, though. The ability to filter information is crucial, and one of the basic skills required write research papers. Darnton talks about his own experience as a newspaper reporter and recounts the mistrustful attitude toward newspapers of British citizens who’d placed bets on the outcome of the American Revolutionary War. This is the part I found bracing. It was as if Darnton were clucking “tut, tut! Assessing information sources has always been hard work!” There is, as almost any serious person who uses the internet will tell you, a lot of fluff out there. So also in the publishing world. (See Twelve founder Jonathan Karp’s recent Washington Post op-ed, here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/27/AR2008062702868.html.”)

The question is not so much whether it’s possible, at the moment, to sift through information and arrive at a carefully thought out conclusion about, say, whether it’s possible to staunch the effects of global warming. The question is whether we are disincentivizing writers and readers to do that kind of thinking, and whether the end result of that may be an erosion of our ability, as a culture, to think critically and analytically. I’m talking not only about the book in its current format, but also about the public accountability, the acclaim, the money, and the industry resources (like a good editor), that now go hand in hand with book-writing. These things aid in the development of the ideas. If all books go online, if book publishers go out of business, if e-books take over—our best writers may retreat to the realm of professional or academic (or bad!) writing, leaving non-specialist self-propagandists to duke it out online without moderation.

Darnton doesn’t think that books will disappear, but his parries are based mainly on historical, not commercial observations. Mediums degrade, he points out. By the numbers, Google cannot possibly upload every single book. (And isn’t the proposition of entrusting *all* our books to a single corporation, er, terrifying?) Another aspect of serious research and evaluation, Darnton notes, is comparing different versions of texts to pick out incongruities—another point against e-texts.

This piece has become a sort of manifesto without a conclusion but, since this is supposed to be a blog post and not, after all, a chapter in a book or even a discreet essay or article, I’m going to rein myself in and hit the “Publish” button.

If any brave soul has made it this far, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

btw Kindle

Happy July everyone! On the way in to work this morning, I heard that the Kindle was going to be making its way to Princeton's bookstores and that many textbooks were heading into ebook format. Rather than paraphrase, I figured you guys could see for yourselves. Enjoy this goodness from C|Net.com:

Princeton University to publish Kindle textbooks
Posted by Greg Sandoval
Another prestigious school is embracing Amazon's Kindle e-reader.

Princeton University has announced that it will start printing Kindle-edition textbooks this fall, according to a story in The Christian Science Monitor.

Princeton follows Yale, Oxford, and UC Berkeley in creating textbooks for the Kindle. In the United States, there are about 2,500 four-year universities, so Amazon still has a long way to go.

But the Kindle should appeal to university students better than other demographics.

I wrote this week that I was putting off buying a Kindle until I learn whether I can read digital books on the iPhone 3G, which goes on sale July 11. If the handheld enables me to read e-books well enough, I'll probably pass on the Kindle. The reason is simple: the iPhone gives me much more for my money.

Students, on the other hand, do so much reading that they may be thankful for a device that can help save their backs. Instead of schlepping 10 pounds of textbooks, the Kindle can hold about 200 titles and it weighs only 10 ounces.

Instead of having to thumb through pages, students can find text instantly with Kindle's search feature. It also allows a user to highlight text and make notes.

It's been a long time since I was in school, but I remember those long lines to buy books in September and January. Contrast that with Kindle's wireless service and the ability to download books off the Web from almost anyplace.

Back then, I would have been glad to buy a Kindle.

Tip: At Amazon, Kindles are advertised now for $359, but it might pay to check out eBay. Ina Fried, my colleague here at CNET News.com, paid $329 at the auction site this week and used Microsoft's Live Search cashback offer to get an additional 20 percent off. Total cost: $264.

Update 12:45 p.m.: I've learned that there's a strong bond between Princeton and Amazon. The company's founder, Jeff Bezos, is an alumnus of the university, class of 1986. I obtained the information from co-worker and former Tiger Caroline McCarthy (2006).

As of this writing I'm #43 in Kindle Store > Kindle Books > Children's Chapter Books > Literature > Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery & Horror > Spine-Chilling Horror.  I'm #43!

If you have a Kindle and you buy my book, let me know, and I'll send you a 3x5 card with my signature.  Or you could send me your Kindle, and I'll sign it and send it back to you... eventually.

Let me preface this by saying that I am a crazy reader. In a normal life in a normal week I'd go through a book and two magazines (cover to cover). I don't have a normal life right now, so I squeeze all of my novels into my vacation. In this case, it was a four day trip to Colorado that included a mini-family reunion and some quality time in Vail mountain biking and whitewater rafting. In case you're wondering, that's my way of saying sorry for not posting over the past week :) ...

Anywho, what I really wanted to talk about is the Kindle reading experience. In short, I'm hooked.

I was sitting on the plane and struggled to resist the urge to physically turn the page. I honestly kept lifting my right hand to the top right hand corner of the device. That's when I realized how into it I was. I flew through the pages, learning to change the page as I reached the third to last line of the current screen so my rhythm was uninterrupted.

I'm still not thrilled with the size of the screen. I don't feel like I can skim through the text as quickly as normal because I can't leap through as much text on one page, even when I make the text size really small (and then it's too small to read easily).

The other big issue with the Kindle is that you have to turn it off during take-off and landing. I had a particularly fussy flight attendant on my flight back from Colorado who wouldn't let me keep the Kindle on my lap during take-off, I had to actually put it away...like in the back seat pocket. Of course, the woman next to me kept reading her paper book. When will the world catch up with technology?

On the other hand, Seth Godin wants to move the Kindle even further forward. He recently suggested that the Kindle should be configured as a social media tool, allowing people to share favorite passages and view tagged items.

That's a little too much for me. I agree more with Marketing Ninja who calls this polluted reading, but I admit that I will probably change my mind as I become more neurotic (or less focused) in my reading. It would be awesome to follow the comments of some of my favorite literary critics or authors, but I would have to limit the information and be able to subscribe to specific channels. Perhaps it can be optional for Kindle 2.0 (or at this rate, 3.0).

Oh, the book? Don't bother reading the second half.

Possibly the most interesting development is that of Google, who inked a deal for distribution of a new animated web series by Seth MacFarlane through its AdSense network. This strategy blurs the line of content and advertising on the web because the two minute length clips will appear in the space normally dedicated for advertising on sites. Additionally, it could provide a new distribution system for high quality produced series. I expect it will increase clicks (prior to each segment an advertisement will play), but I fear that if it is to successful we will be inundated with web series "ads." In terms of distribution, I think a better model can be seen with Hulu, though I understand Google's desperate desire to entice visitors to take a glance at the advertising ghetto portion of web pages.

Moving along, RealNetworks announced that its Rhapsody music service will now offer 5 million DRM free songs at 256k-bit rates. This means the mp3s will play on any device at a higher sound quality than those from iTunes. While this is similar to recent offerings from Amazon and Napster, Rhapsody will also provide full length streaming to Yahoo! Music, MTV.com and others.

Changing topics, Sony plans to test a new movie distribution model via its Bravia TVs. The company will allow consumers to view the movie Hancock on Bravia TVs with internet access before releasing it on DVD. This could be the precursor to the end of set top boxes and the ability to surf the web directly from your TV without a separate computer connection. Interesting. Lastly, Amazon's Kindle got a boost with news that Princeton University will begin making its textbooks available for the digital reader. It is the fourth university to do, but I still question if consumers will ever embrace reading novels and longer text on screens rather than pages. While I am a digital enthusiast, I still prefer reading off of paper.

Yes, Kindles. That would be plural. Here's how it went down: I bought Ric a Kindle for his 60th birthday. Kindle is Amazon's new wireless electronic-paper display device you use to wirelessly order books and I've heard it's a wonderful reading experience, way better than any other means of electronic reading (because it's not backlit, so not the usual eyestrain). Weighs less than a typical paperback. Can download books, magazines, newspapers, blogs, etc wirelessly. Connected to wikipedia. Not designed by Apple (as far as I know), but really easy to use.

People are calling this device a game changer, the future of reading, revolutionary, etc.

Ric's not a obsessive reader like I am, but he really enjoys reading magazine articles, and I thought he might enjoy reading books this way. And Ric is very much interested in being on the bleeding edge of technology, so I thought this would be a great fit for him.

So he opened it on his birthday and seemed quite pleased. Maybe not quite as shocked as I thought he would be, but hey, it had been a long day and he didn't open it til 8 p.m. or so. He started using it right away, and was off to the races. (Meaning he started downloading stuff right away)

So when our anniversary rolled around, he gave me a box to open, I noticed it was from Amazon, and seemed about the same size and weight as one I had hidden from him when it arrived in the mail. So I opened it, and guess what.... he had ordered me a Kindle before he opened his. (Because I am an obsessive reader of all things.) Kind of a gift of the magi thing, am I right?

No hair cutting or watch pawning involved, but it did take a while to get it all sorted out because the one I bought had automatically registered in my name and the one he bought was in his, so we had to deregister and so forth. But it's all cool now, and last night before I drifted off to sleep, I read a few chapters of The Monster of Florence on my Kindle. Pretty awesome experience, I'd say. And the convenience factor is off the hook. Excellent for traveling.

Forgot to take it to the book group meeting on Sunday to let my sistah readers give it a try, but I wouldn't be surprised if they decide to get them too, given that they are all obsessive readers and inveterate travelers.

So, the last couple of months, I have started buying audio books. It all started with me being really busy with work and traveling a lot. Reading a book on the plane gives me headache. I can't really read when I am in a cab too. I used to read 2-3 hours per night but lately, I am so tired after work, the moment my head hits the bed, I go into dreamland. Audio books became the "solution!" I convert all the tracks to MP3 and save them onto my iPods. Easy! No need to drag a pile of books with me when I travel or go for holiday and no need to bring additional "reading gadget." I can now pack 10 "books" or more with me everyday and listen to them while I am commuting or when I wait for hours at airports.

In my last post on Social Media books, a lot of those books are also available in audio cds. I did a quick check on Wikinomics and The Cluetrain Manifesto and they have the audio version!

What I also like about audio books is, it reminds me of childhood - when Mum and Dad used to read to us (my younger brother and I) before bed time. And then, they tend to stop half way into the story and insisted that we should be sleeping. I love having people read to me. Oh! I have an audio version of the NKJV Bible too. Being a church-goer and a fan of a female preacher, Joyce Meyer, I have been stocking up her audio books recently, as well as C.S Lewis's.

Maybe I am wrong, but I don't think audio books are really popular in Asia, specifically in Singapore (where I am based now). I can hardly find any audio books at the retail stores. The only few i found are from BORDERS and they are really expensive. The good thing is, iTunes has a really good selection and there is always the wonderful Amazon.

I am not saying I am giving up books (in print) or magazines (that are not available in cds), I am glad that I am enjoying the alternative to reading books!

Interesting read:-

Last year, New York Times reported on a budding author who recorded a short audiobook for her unfinished print. The audiobook climbed to the top of iTunes' best-selling books after she appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

I think all new books from now on should have the unabridged audio version!

Which is mostly what I did this weekend, pack and prepare for vacation that is.

Darren recently got me a kindle, when he went on a business trip (you see the correlation?). I have been reading from it, thinking it's cool, taking it to James' various appointments. But, it is only this weekend that I have explored the true possibilities. I converted two knitting patterns to take with me, added some podcasts, it has some reading material (and more can be added on the fly) and in one small component, I have my entertainment for 10 days (well, and some yarn). I'm positively giddy.

James had a big step this weekend; he went to the movies with a friend (and his mom) alone. Alone, without me, alone, not alone, since there was an adult and another kid. They went to see Kung Pu Panda, which he loved. He was fairly blase about the whole "out without me step" (that is, after I convinced him to go. Originally, Darren asked him if he "wanted to go with me or by himself." Umm, presentation please. After a rewording of "special time, just you and your friend," he was thrilled to go), but it was another moment of giddiness for me.

Other than that, I have been packing, arranging gifts (everyone's birthday is in the summer. How is that possible?), finishing gifts (yes, I do wait until the last minute, thank you for asking), doing the prep work for vacation. Darren has been doing yardwork. Big changes are a foot. But, the reveal will have to wait.

July 4th is the day that we Americans celebrate our country's Declaration of Independence in 1776. A lot has happened in the ensuing 232 years.  Countless numbers of men and women have given their lives in defense of what this country stands for and countless others have dedicated their lives to serving their fellow Americans in a variety of ways.  It is somewhat easy to enjoy our family outings and vacations knowing that there are numerous protections and safeguards in place that allow us to do so freely.  This July 4th, let's not forget where we have come from as a nation and the struggles and committments it has taken to get to where we are.  Let's not forget the threats that we face together to preserve the foundations of what this country stands for.  This Independence Day, based upon our beliefs and our actions, can we truly and in a heartfelt manner say "God Bless America"?

This Independence Day, our country is facing new and renewed challenges economically, militarily, socially, politically, and spiritually.  As individual citizens we face our own challenges and as retirees on potentially fixed income some of these may hit us harder than others.

As individuals, one of our biggest challenges is probably in the area of finances.  With the price of gasoline rising almost daily and the trickle down effect from that, almost everything we touch takes a greater portion of our financial resources.  Add to that the catastrophic impact of nautural disasters we are seeing throughout our country it makes one wonder how can we continue?  But Americans by nature are a resourceful people and a people with a strong desire to survive.  When I hear a news report that says a town in Missouri of 500 residents has more than 1,000 volunteers helping to sandbag the town against the flooding rivers,  I can only thank God for the spirit of these Americans.  Wildfires are burning in several Western states, earthquakes continue in northwestern Nevada, extreme heat in the Southwest, and tornadoes and flooding in the Midwest.  It is easy to become discouraged, but we as Americans will face the challenge head on.

We as individuals should be continually assessing our responsibility to ourselves, to our families, and to our neighbors.  With rising prices it may be necessary to live a more frugal lifestyle.  Frugal doesn't necessarily mean cheap.  Wikipedia defines frugality as the practice of

1. acquiring goods and services in a restrained manner, and
2. resourcefully using already owned economic goods and services, to
3. achieve a longer term goal.

Our level of spending should match our dedication to the values we have established as being important to us.  Our values should be so ingrained that every decision we make, whether or not it is a financial one, should be made through the filter of what is important to us.  If one of our life's values is to serve and to honor God, then do our actions and our spending patterns reflect that?  If I say one of my values is to honor my spouse then go and selfishly acquire something for myself, am I negating the importance of that value?

This Fourth of July, let's take time to thank God for the greatest country on this earth and to pray for a healing within our land.  Let us strive to be the best stewards of everything we have been given and to practice frugality wherever we can.  Let's identify our values and live our lives according to those values.

Rocking Chair Wisdom wishes you a safe and frugal Fourth of July celebration.

With rising costs of traveling, are you vacationing or sta-cationing this year?  Let us know at RockingChairWisdom@gmail.com .  Don't forget your KINDLE.

In addition to being able to carry around 200 or so books/textbooks, students using the Kindle version of textbooks will also be able to search the books for words as well as highlight important text and even add their own notes.

Princeton plans to publish hundreds of textbooks for the Kindle and make them available from the Kindle's online store. They won't be priced much cheaper than their hardcopy counterparts, but for the convenience of having an electronic, searchable version of textbooks that don't throw out your back when you pick up a bag full of them it's worth it.

For more info about the Kindle check out the official product page here.

[Via Engadget]

One of the often-used reason for the failure of information dissemination is that paper-based medium (e.g. books) cannot be updated.  Once published, printed, and bought, there is no way to update it.  If there is any mistake, there is no way to update it.

This is one solution: don't use paper!  Publish textbook in electronic media and use it on something like an Amazon Kindle.  If there is any update, just download a new version of the text.

My July... or is it August? No it can't be... issue of Elle greeted me in its usual cramped posture when I opened my mail box this evening. As I delighted with each page, orgasming over the marriage of style/art and marketing/product placement, the tiniest of voices inside my mind started to weep.

Despite all the developments of Web 2.0/3.0 or Twitter, Twhirl, Tumblr... whatever, the internet can't (and will likely never) mimic the tactile pleasure of flipping through magazines with the smell of recycled paper and the slight glare from the glossy pages.

I clutched the rolled up pages in my hands, while reading the interview on Christian Siriano, the latest winner of Project Runway (in case you've been in a hole or are a straight male, it's Heidi Klum and Bravo's baby- fashion design meets reality TV). While the reporter sycophantically touted Christian's wildly successful designs and neatly organized apartment turned giant closet, I poured through the Elle photoshoot. Each image of a gauze trimmed hat or hundreds of layers of ruffles reminds me of why I can never manage to save money, as I spend so much on clothes and shoes.

But the world of print is in jeopardy. Already blogs and online editions threaten the livelihood of traditional newspapers and journalism. Amazon's Kindle, a wireless reading device, may mark the death of books... well, maybe in a decade or two. Who needs magazines, when you can get instant access to all the runway shows on style.com or all your gossip from Perez?

Still, I'm going to miss today, when I can still hold what I'm reading and lift the corner as I anticipate the next page.  Here's hoping that through my lifetime, advertisers will keep catering to the old-fashioned buggers like me and keep some money in print advertising.

Models wearing Siriano, who according to Tim Gunn, has amazing tailoring and seams and is likely the Marc Jacobs of his generation. (I wonder if that's my generation.)

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I love the lines and angles created by this piece; yet, the layers and gauze soften the style and makes it feminine. It would be quite nice to have a long, angular face for the day. At least I could wear that outfit without looking like a mushroom. :oP

I believe that, in considering Mr. Jobs' statement, we must divide “readers” into three groups.

First we have those who read simply as means to an end: navigating around Facebook and MySpace, sending SMS and IM messages, and so forth. These are the people who type in all lower-case, use little (if any) punctuation — we all know the type. No doubt they will be pleased to see the demise of the written word in favor of the spoken, as it will allow them to regress from their current semi-literacy to complete illiteracy. No doubt it will permit the regression of what little critical thinking they’ve developed, as well.

Then we have those who read and write because they need to: to extract information, conduct everyday business, and as a requirement of their jobs.

Finally, we have Readers, people who read for pleasure, who are able to curl up with a book and allow the written word to engender private sounds, images and feelings tempered by their own memories, experiences and previous exposure to ideas. This, as opposed to the presentation of visual and auditory information filtered through someone else’s vision.

I believe the parties of the first part will not miss the written word — until they are, for some reason, cast into some limbo that does not support the iPods, smartphones and similar purveyors of other people’s imaginations. Those of the second may already have demurred in favor of the idiot tube and its sound bites. Readers, however — real readers — will always read, and will always need real writers with imagery skills to sustain the creation inside their own heads of those delightful circumstances that (probably) only a true reader can know.

Whaddayathink?

"I'm an avid reader of digital books and for months I had my eye on the Kindle, the digital reader from Amazon, with its high-contrast screen and PC-less book downloads. Then Apple announced that the iPhone 3G goes on sale July 11.

I'm now in second-guess hell.

I know Apple has said nothing about offering an e-reading application for the new iPhone. But what happens if Steve Jobs later surprises us or some developer turns the iPhone into a whiz-bang electronic reader? I'll tell you what happens, my Kindle ends up on eBay."

I love the idea of an amazing eReader, but the Kindle just isn't amazing.  It's cool but has so many limitations compared to the potential of a fully networked, portable device.

Check out the whole post for a great argument in favor of the iPhone as your next digital reader.