Amazon's bookstores should be celebrated, not feared

The web giant’s move into bricks-and-mortar bookselling has upset many in the books community – but there is much to praise in this innovationYou could describe it as a troubling development in publishing: someone comes along with no real knowledge of the book business, a brash salesman who sells books cheaply, undercuts established rivals, drives them out of business. Then he moves into publishing as well, and allows people to publish themselves without recourse to the gatekeeping taste-makers.But I’m not talking about Jeff Bezos and Amazon. I’m talking about James Lackington, who turned the book business upside down – at the end of the 18th century. His London bookshop accepted cash only, so he could slash prices, and he used his accumulated wealth to buy whole libraries and pounce on publishers’ remaindered stock to sell dirt cheap. One of the books his company subsequently published in exchange for a payment from the author’s husband was Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2016-02-26 00:00:00 UTC ]

Other news stories related to: "Amazon's bookstores should be celebrated, not feared"


This Bookstore Historian Sees Bookselling as Activism

In The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore, history professor Evan Friss explores how bookstores have shaped reading, publishing, politics, and community, beginning in the 18th century. I talked with Friss about the value of indie bookstores, the bygone dominance of Barnes & Noble,... Continue reading at The Millions

[ The Millions | 2024-10-22 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Publishers Are Increasingly Irked at Perplexity Bots Circumventing Blocks

Publisher frustration is mounting at AI search startup Perplexity, which is backed by Jeff Bezos and other tech titans, for circumventing attempts to block its crawlers from accessing and serving up media content, potentially cutting publishers out of billions in ad... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2024-06-21 17:04:46 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Your Next Book Based on Your Relationship Status

Ah yes. Literature. The vehicle through which we may explore faraway lives we would have otherwise never imagined. From my little, rugged armchair, I can witness forbidden love in the 18th century. Peek into a bustling kitchen in New York City. Discover the dramatic betrayal that fractured the... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-02-14 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


The Morning After: Is Call of Duty losing its grip on gamers?

A Call of Duty game sells. That’s what it does. And it usually tops the sales charts, almost every year since 2009. However, last year was a bit different: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III landed in second place. To convey the gravitational pull of CoD, when Microsoft was fighting to buy... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2024-01-19 12:15:26 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Amazon hardware VP Dave Limp set to retire after almost 14 years

Dave Limp, Amazon’s Senior Vice President of Devices and Services, has announced his pending retirement from the company. Limp has been with the company for nearly 14 years and, as his title suggests, oversaw Amazon’s transition into dedicated hardware devices like Kindle e-readers,... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-08-15 18:23:15 UTC ]
More news stories like this


This is definitive proof that Jeff Bezos is building an army of robot ants.

It’s a tale as old as time: a Brazilian writer sets her Kindle aside for a few weeks to work on her own novel, and when she goes back to get a little reading done, finds that the device has been infested with a horde of tiny white ants. “My virtual library had become a […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-08-04 13:07:23 UTC ]
More news stories like this


How Costumes and Conventions Brought Sci-Fi Fans Together in the Early 20th Century

Science fiction has a deep, rich past—one that sees its roots stretch back to ancient times. Fans and scholars often point to Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus as its most recognizable origin point, followed by the works of authors like Jules Verne, H. G. Wells,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-06-29 08:57:17 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Leonard Kessler, Colorful Children’s Book Author, Dies at 101

He crafted tales of everyday life for early readers. His “Mr. Pine’s Purple House,” first published in 1965, later inspired a new publishing company — and Jeff Bezos. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2022-02-24 23:32:36 UTC ]
More news stories like this


You can now buy Mary Shelley’s old address—though you’ll have to bring your own goth.

News for Frankenstein fans, or just fans of the monster: according to Mansion Global, a two-bedroom Bloomsbury apartment at the address of Mary Shelley’s former home is on the market for $1.36 million. If you saved $1.17 million from not buying the first edition of Frankenstein that went up for... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-12-01 18:01:36 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Proof goth is not dead: A first edition of Frankenstein just set a world auction record.

Mary Shelley was goth before it was cool. She wrote Frankenstein—sometimes described as the world’s first science fiction novel—as part of a horror story writing game. She lost her virginity to Percy Shelley on top of her mother’s grave. (To be fair, it was one of her main leisure spots, but... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-09-17 16:41:12 UTC ]
More news stories like this


It can’t match ‘Wolf Hall,’ but ‘Love and Fury’ captures an English figure with bravura

Samantha Silva’s novel brings to life Mary Wollstonecraft: feminist, novelist and mother of Mary Shelley Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2021-07-17 13:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Downloading our thoughts to the mainframe may be the stuff of science fiction — but humans have been imagining it for centuries

Leaving our earthly bodies and living forever as a machine isn't just a thing of modern science fiction. These transhumanist ideas date back to the 18th century. Continue reading at The Conversation

[ The Conversation | 2021-05-17 05:22:55 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Jeff Bezos to Step Down as Amazon CEO in Q3

After 27 years, Jeff Bezos, the entrepreneur who turned an online bookstore into one of the most powerful companies in the world, announced his plans to step down as Amazon CEO. In an email to employees on Tuesday, Bezos said the transition will come in Q3, at which point he will become... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2021-02-02 21:43:59 UTC ]
More news stories like this


As Revenue Tops $380 Billion, Bezos to Step Down as Amazon CEO

Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, will hand over the CEO duties to Andy Jassy, head of Amazon Web Services, this summer. The company reported that sales in the year jumped 38% over 2019, to $386.1 million, and earnings skyrocketed 84%. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-02-02 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Jeff Bezos’s thoughts on Big Business, outer space and The Washington Post

An anthology of writings provides a glimpse into the mind of the Amazon founder. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-11-20 13:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


RPG? Puzzle? Parlor Game? Escape Room? This Game Is All Four and More

A new creative endeavor from Hatch Escapes and director Arvind Ethan David turns the life story of Mary Shelley into a hybrid tabletop gaming experience rooted in serious storytelling. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-10-21 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Four-year-old lands book deal for his 'astonishing' poetry

Nadim Shamma-Sourgen’s words, evoking a ‘whole world full of hugs’, were spotted by the writer Kate Clanchy and will be published next summerKeats’s first book of poetry was published when he was 21; Mary Shelley was 18 when she started writing Frankenstein. But both of their youthful... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-07-22 11:17:39 UTC ]
More news stories like this


A great Bigfoot novel may be lurking out there. Max Brooks’s ‘Devolution’ isn’t it.

Given monster stories by Mary Shelley, Stephen King and other masters of the macabre, Brooks is trying to fill some awfully big shoes here. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-06-09 15:19:49 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Some lessons from the MIT Media Lab controversy

When the news first broke that the MIT Media Lab had a close relationship with deceased billionaire and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, some saw it as a momentary lapse in judgment, and there was widespread support for Media Lab director Joi Ito. But then New Yorker writer Ronan Farrow... Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review

[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2019-10-03 10:50:57 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Amazon’s influence felt larger in small cities

In just a quarter-century of existence, Amazon has grown from an online bookseller to a company valued at $1 trillion and sells pretty much anything that can be imagined. With such a hefty inventory, Amazon has had to grow beyond Jeff Bezos' garage in Bellevue to a huge headquarters in... Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal

[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2019-06-25 11:18:10 UTC ]
More news stories like this