Just as Engadget was hitting publish on its first posts, I was putting a freshly minted English degree to use working at an indie bookshop in Los Angeles. In seemingly unrelated news, Amazon had just reported its first profitable year after switching from selling books to selling “everything” four years before. (It still sold a lot of books.) Our bookstore did a good job keeping shelves stocked with a balance of the more worthy popular hits and smaller, better fare. But we couldn’t have every book a customer might want, so we offered to order any in-print title. If a distributor had it, it’d take about a week to get in, longer if we had to go through the publisher. That seemed fine for most customers. But sometimes “about a week” was too long. A few people came right out and said, “Nah, I’ll order it on Amazon.” In 2005, Amazon launched Prime, the membership program that, for $79 a year, gave customers unlimited two-day shipping on most orders. At launch, CEO Jeff Bezos called it “‘all-you-can-eat’ express shipping.” No one knew at the time how hungry the world was for Amazon’s brand of convenience. And now, nearly two decades later, we’ve seen the shifts that accommodate that buffet — in labor, retail and the entire customer experience. Prime wasn’t an overnight success. It’s estimated that six years after launch, just four million households paid for the service. But 10 years later, in 2021, Bezos claimed it had accrued 200 million members worldwide. Outside of that... Continue reading at 'Engadget'
[ Engadget | 2024-03-08 14:15:57 UTC ]
Book Reviews Photo by Dominik Scythe / Unsplash A new book by a Nobel laureate and Booker award-winning author always brings with it a sense of trepidation. Will the new novel live up to the already established high expectations? Klara and the... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2022-03-01 21:50:34 UTC ]
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Essay “Literature was a vast minefield occupied by enemies,” Roberto Bolaño, who enjoyed accruing enemies in the pantheon of Latin American letters, writes in the short story “Meeting with Enrique Lihn” (New Yorker, December 22, 2008): except for a few... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2022-02-28 21:05:10 UTC ]
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Today's edition of Daily Deals is sponsored by SecondSale, Your Neighborhood Bookstore Online!`SecondSale, Your Neighborhood Bookstore... Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2022-02-25 12:37:57 UTC ]
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News and Events Laura and Bunmi celebrate 41 books by Black authors. From Black joy to history to empowerment, the books on this list provide affirming messages for children and young adults with a special shout-out to NSK Neustadt Prize finalist Jason... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2022-02-24 19:13:40 UTC ]
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Today's edition of Daily Deals is sponsored by SecondSale, Your Neighborhood Bookstore Online!`SecondSale, Your Neighborhood Bookstore... Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2022-02-21 15:42:22 UTC ]
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In this excerpt from his new book, Daniel Pink writes about choices that seem irresistible at first, but morph into powerful regrets later in life. For a guy whom antiquity scholars say might never have existed, Aesop has enjoyed a pretty good run as an author. The fables that bear his name (but... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2022-02-18 09:00:06 UTC ]
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Anti-racism activist and co-founder of New Beacon Books, Britain’s first specialist black bookshop and publishing companyThe veteran activist Sarah White, who has died aged 80, was for more than half a century a stalwart of initiatives dedicated to anti-colonialism, anti-racism and... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2022-02-16 19:10:04 UTC ]
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A brief but happy update: The Bookseller has reported that Samir Mansour Bookshop, the largest bookstore in Gaza, will reopen next week after being destroyed by an Israeli airstrike last May. The reopening was made possible by a GoFundMe campaign led by human rights lawyers Mahvish Rukhsana and... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-02-07 16:07:29 UTC ]
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On February 2, 1922, Sylvia Beach, through her legendary bookstore and occasional imprint Shakespeare and Company, published James Joyce’s modernist novel, Ulysses, in its entirety for the very first time. (It was also Joyce’s 40th birthday.) Since then, it has been banned and celebrated,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-02-02 09:55:38 UTC ]
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Works by writers like bell hooks, Damon Young and James Baldwin that will educate and make an impact on everyone. Continue reading at HuffPost
[ HuffPost | 2022-01-31 16:37:38 UTC ]
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I have a terrible habit of going on the internet and looking at properties I can’t afford. (A hobby many of my fellow millennials share, I’m sure.) From my cramped Brooklyn apartment with pots of spaghetti piled haphazardly in the kitchen, I like to criticize the design choices of millionaires... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-01-28 19:45:49 UTC ]
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To mark its second anniversary, Bookshop.org, has started what it is calling the Golden Bookmark Sweepstakes, which will award one person $600 in Bookshop.org gift cards each year for life, as well as a one-time prize of $500 to donate to a bookstore of their choice. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-01-28 05:00:00 UTC ]
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From reads about lexicographers and bookshop employees to librarians, these books about books, including The Sentence, are for serious bibliophiles only. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2022-01-21 11:36:00 UTC ]
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More than 100 writers, artists, comedians and musicians will voice James Joyce’s seminal novel in celebration of its publication a century agoOne hundred years ago, in February 1922, Sylvia Beach, owner of the Paris bookshop Shakespeare and Company, published James Joyce’s Ulysses, in full, for... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2022-01-20 09:30:55 UTC ]
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Kerri Maher’s novel “The Paris Bookseller” celebrates the life of American Sylvia Beach, a bookstore owner who saw promise in James Joyce’s “Ulysses.” Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2022-01-11 20:01:10 UTC ]
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The number of independent bookshops in the UK and Ireland has grown for the fifth consecutive year despite challenges brought by the pandemic, the Booksellers Association says. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-07 22:34:12 UTC ]
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Danny Caine, the owner of the Raven Book Store in Lawrence, Kans., has sold a 49% stake in the 35-year-old bookstore to a group of seven employees. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-01-04 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Regardless of how 2021 went for you, 2022 is another chance for all of us to make the new year better than those that came before it. We set New Year’s resolutions with the best of intentions, but it’s no wonder that so many people fail after just a few weeks – old habits die hard. Just as it’s... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2022-01-01 14:34:42 UTC ]
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The UK's first Black specialist bookshop is to shut its doors and move entirely online, as financial constraints jeopardise its future. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-12-28 16:05:54 UTC ]
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Independent book shop McNally Jackson staged a public protest with a melodic twist in New York this week, reworking classic seasonal songs and sending carolers to perform in front of the Amazon four-star store in the SoHo neighborhood. The newly written lyrics, from agency DCX Growth... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2021-12-23 20:20:41 UTC ]
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