Slight Construction Going On - Pardon the Dust

It looks like Google is acting up a bit and the blog was down from sometime after 6PM last night until nearly 3AM this morning. So, I'm going to move it to Wordpress. You can access the history on the Blogger website (for as long as Blogger manages to stay up).

New posts are temporarily accessible both at blog.booksontheknob.org and wpblog.booksontheknob.org; the second is just a temporary location and will disappear once it seems that all the DNS changes have propagated around the web. You may want to bookmark it for the next two days, so you make sure you get the new site (and I'm still working on the layout and colors, so don't be surprised if it changes quite a bit over the next little bit).

Quick Squidoo Note

Just a quick note - my Squidoo page has been taken down by Squidoo's automatic spambots. I've sent in a request for review by an actual person, but they don't promise any speed on replying to such requests (and they don't look at them on weekends). So, until then, you'll need to do searches on your Kindle for any free books I turn up. I'll let you know when Squidoo decides to re-enable the page (it was up to #14 on their site, so hopefully they won't keep it disabled).

Free Books Posts are Ended

In order to comply with Amazon's new policy, I won't be mentioning any free books on my blogs (at least, until their policy changes). Amazon has changed the associates policy to penalize any site whose readers buy "too many" free books in a month by forfeiting their entire income for that month.

I tried to set up the ability to post on another account, that simply would not be paid, but Amazon has said that doing so would result in my accounts being closed entirely. Although some readers have suggested that the links be posted without an affiliate tag, all this does is pushes any credit for that book to the last affiliate site you have been to. This also applies even if you go to Amazon on your own and enter the book in a search there. That Associate might be me or it may be some other hardworking associate whose site you were at earlier in the day.

Amazon Associates Support has also said that if you post links without tags, even on another site, if they can link you in any way, then they'll shut down your account. So, there will no longer be any links to free books at Amazon on any of my sites.

Tomorrow I'll be removing all older free book posts and moving them to an archive site. The Free Books page and links on the menus have already been removed.

If you are going to buy free books at Amazon, please consider clearing your browser cookies before doing so, after arriving at Amazon, in order to avoid costing this site or any other affiliate site their income at Amazon (to clear your cookies, press Ctrl-Shift-Delete, then choose Cookies from the page that is displayed).

Changes Afoot!

Some of you may have heard rumors that Amazon is making changes to the affiliate program (which is how sites like this make money, as I've mentioned in the past) in regards to how free books will affect earnings. They dropped the bomb on everyone via a midnight email a couple of days ago and many sites are scrambling, to accomodate the new rules. Any site that Amazon determines "primarily promotes free books" and has more than 20,000 free books purchased and if less than 20% of all books are paid purchases, will lose all their income for that month, starting March 1.

That sounds like a really big number, 20,000, until you break it down by day (about 670/day) and by books (on an average day, the big publishers might have 2-3 free books and the smaller publishers another half dozen; that's ignoring the probably thousand free books added in the KDP select program for indie authors). So, a site like this one that mentions 7 books a day would lose all income if 100 people bought each of the books mentioned. This can easily happen to a site with a much smaller readership than I have. Note that affiliates don't lose only the referral income due to the free books (there isn't any income from free books, of course, but sometimes there will be a small amount if someone goes on to purchase something else in the same session), but all referral income for the month (and across all of the affiliates sites: many other bloggers have multiple sites with different focuses, but share a single Amazon affiliate account).

What none of us know, right now, is how many free books are being credited to our accounts right now, because Amazon doesn't share that information with us (they hope to have reports available for this by March 1, when the new rules take effect). Another complete unknown is how many free books will get added to our accounts due to people who go on to buy more than one free book once reaching Amazon (in the above example, if 50 people went to buy those 7 free books and also bought another free one they saw on the bestseller lists or the "also bought" ad under each book, then that would be enough to hit that 700/day level; you can see how even a very small blog could end up exceeding these limits if they keep promoting free books).

I've read on some sites that they will shut down or charge for listings, as some of the large freebie only sites now do (authors pay to be featured on the site or emails, often scheduling far in advance) and a rumor of one that will charge for a daily email of free books. I've never accepted author advertising for free books and don't plan to start. But, I will have to make some changes. Right now, I am setting up a second site for free book postings (it's sort of up now, but I still need to set up the related RSS feeds, twitter, facebook, etc). If that site can continue without impacting the main site, it will keep going and the books mentioned there will be the same ones that had been mentioned here. After March 1, the main Books on the Knob site will only feature bargain books, daily deals and reviews; no free books, the same as many other sites have decided. Free MP3 music and Android Apps are not affected by the upcoming changes, so will continue to be highlighted on a daily basis, here on the website's homepage.

I don't know how this will effect those who subscribe to Books on the Knob on their Kindles - I may be able to combine the RSS feeds there, since there are no affiliate tags in the feed (and the Kindle doesn't let you click on links for blogs, anyway). There will be separate feeds for those using an RSS reader or email delivery. For the next few days, there will be no changes and I'll give you the links for the new site, just as soon as I get everything sorted out.

Outside of changes here on this blog (and across the web at other sites), I expect to see some changes in the KDP Select program, which authors use to offer free books, as well, in the next few weeks (although perhaps Amazon believes that cutting off their avenues for advertising will be enough to rein in the flood of free books and some of the resulting problems, such as Kindle Libraries that are so large they don't function well and the costs that Amazon no doubt incurs from delivery). At least one thread mentioned an author selling over 40,000 free books when mentioned on just one high traffic blog (not here! I'm nowhere near that big); that's enough to affect sales rankings at Amazon and may still be worth the advertising fees the larger sites are charging (which may go up, once they lose their Amazon earnings). A lot of indie authors are talking about leaving KDP and hope that readers will go back to paying for content, as they've run into readers who now want the entire series free, rather than just the first in a series. Of course, it isn't just the indie authors that have been gaming the system - I just read an article on how much you can pay to guarantee a #1 start on either The Wall Street Journal’s or NYT's Bestseller lists (think $70K and up) and how some agencies are gaming the sales numbers by ordering multiple singles, rather than dealing with distributors for the books for the events they arrange.

A word about my sponsors (you!)

This message is an updated version of a post that I ran a couple of years ago and again last year. Since the original post, Amazon has added Kindle eBooks to their list of referral eligible products (instead, Android Apps are now excluded) and I've actually made enough referrals from some of the non-Amazon affiliate programs to buy dinner now and then. So, I've edited the original post a bit (and fixed a few typos), but it mostly still applies as well today as it did then. I gave up posting my Book Budget some time back, as the ones I purchased were being swamped by the free books on Kindle. I still buy more books than I manage to read, what with free books, $1 KSO books and books bought for others in the household. So, here's the original, but updated post:

As the holiday season approaches, a commercial reminder/note for readers of this blog. As you may (or may not) know, Amazon pays what they now call advertising fees for referrals on Kindle books, but not subscriptions, and other purchases, such as the Kindle itself and Gift Certificates (even if used to later buy Kindle books); of course, any percentage of zero would still be zero, for free books. Using the links on these pages won't cost you anything extra, but helps support my efforts in keeping the blog updated, as does using the Amazon search box on the side menu when making non-Kindle book purchases at Amazon (for that matter, just click any link to Amazon, in any blog post and shop as you normally do). I also make a tiny amount from referrals to some other ebookstores (Barnes & Noble, for non-ebook purchases only, Kobo, and Smashwords, mostly). Many of the other bargains I post are not affiliate linked - PDF files, free books at Sony, Christian audio, eHarlequin, deals at Books on Board and so on. I post the bargains as I find them (or as you send in tips; thanks to those of you that do), regardless of where they are located.

I've had a few people ask if I've read every bargain book I post. No, I don't - there is no way I physically could do so (I haven't even read thru all the free books Amazon has given us), even if I could afford to do so. I do purchase and read some, with more being bought than I manage to read (just like with my paper library). I do post some reviews (although not for every book I read). Some of these books are provided by the publisher or author and some of them are books I've purchased myself. I have quite a stack of both and limited reading time, so make no promises on reviews for those who send them (and never guarantee a favorable review ... although if a book is one I can't get thru, I'll usually just let the author know and pass on writing a review).

Feel free to use (or not) the links in my posts or on the blog menus when making Amazon purchases; these do help support my efforts (at no additional cost to you) and are greatly appreciated. A few of you have also sent direct PayPal donations (the link is on the right sidebar); these are also very much appreciated (and are usually immediately spent on more books, especially now that Kobo takes PayPal; I will miss Fictionwise, as that was my other go-to bookstore for PayPal).

Thank you to all that read the blog, whether it's on the web site, on Kindle, the RSS feed or following on Facebook or Twitter. I hope you have a great holiday season and promise that I'll keep posting the bargains I find, to help you stretch the holiday budget. I suspect the free reads and big discounts will continue so long as there is competition amongst ereader devices (just as there was in the BluRay/HD war a few years back), even though the Apple and Agency publishers have taken a number of steps to eliminate that competition. Even as the Agency publishers have stifled competition amongst ebookstores (and withdrawn from libraries, in some instances), they have found they still have to compete for readers and for your money, both against other entertainment options (television, movies, video games, etc) and against the proliferation of other reading choices that we now have. More open e-publishing also has benefited readers and the many authors who have been able to bring their backlists in to "print", either directly or thru a number of small publishers that have sprung up in the last few years. Hopefully in the next year, we'll see the demise of most of the Agency agreements, if not all of them, and even get a bit of a refund on the purchases we made in the last few years, from these publishers.

Books on the Knob is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com, amazonsupply.com or myhabit.com.

Happy Turkey Day

That's it for today, Folks!

I'm going to enjoy Thanksgiving Dinner with family and watch some ball games. I hope you are doing the same and if you do go shopping later today, be safe (and stay warm).

Thanks for reading!

Kindle Subcriptions to the Blog

I've had one comment that the person would cancel their Kindle subscription because the Christian books are being separated. Please don't (at least, not for that reason), as I am now working on the feeds for the subscriptions.

I've already updated the existing Kindle subscription page, which is ,s>going thru re-approval now updated (unlike the Christian Books blog, which keeps resetting, for some reason), since I changed the description to make it clear that it included the Christian Books content. I have separate subscriptions set up now for the Erotica/Romance blog and the Christian Books blog (which is awaiting approval). I'll also set one up for "all", to pick up all three feeds. I don't see much point in erotica+Christian, so I think 5 total options should do it.

For now, there may be a bit of duplication, as I try out the RSS mixers out there (I found one that should let me drop duplicates, but I haven't managed to get it to work yet). Basically, all technical details you don't need to worry about, but it may take me a day or two to finish everything up.

I'll have all the subscription links up, once Amazon finishes the approval process. After that, I can iron out any problems behind the scenes, without affecting the Amazon subscriptions.

Christian Books on the Knob

The new site is up (more or less) and has a couple of post from today: Christian Books on the Knob. Twitter and Facebook are up, along with the RSS feeds and subscription options. If you are on Facebook, be sure to Like the page - I need 25 Likes to activate the username option for the page. Edit to add: Well, we made the 25 with many to spare. Hope to see all of you there!

Edit to add: I may have run into an issue with using "Christian" in the blog name, since none of my Kindle Subscription with that word in the title will publish over at Amazon. If I do need to change it, what do you suggest? Inspirational (accurate for some publishers, but not others)? Religious?

Leave me a note and I'll try to look thru them tomorrow, after Turkey dinner.

Blog News -- Comments Wanted

I've been working hard on some changes to the blog, in response to a few reader requests. I'm splitting the blog (and it's twitter/RSS feeds) into two (and eventually three) segments. The first split starts today - no more Erotica here on the main blog, so that the feeds and Kindle subscriptions are more family and work friendly. Instead, all Erotica and most LGBT fiction will appear in my new blog, Erotica Books on the Knob (I know! catchy title, right?). I'm currently thinking that I may duplicate the Romance books there (other than those from Christian publishers), but want your input: do you want zero duplication or the occasional duplicate in the Romance category?

I've flagged the new blog for Adult content, but all that means is that you have to click an extra box telling Google that you are aware of the content. I have the RSS feeds (including email subscriptions) and twitter feeds set up now and it looks like the Facebook page is now working, as well.

Speaking of Facebook, did you know that the more individual posts from a page that you "Like", the more likely the posts are to show up on your home page news feed? Facebook used to show you all the pages from Pages that you liked as a whole, but now limits who gets to see a page (when this hit, I saw my reach/audience drop from 1500+ per day to under 300, so I know a lot of you started missing posts on Facebook). So, if you miss seeing the posts on Facebook, be sure to head over to the Books on the Knob Facebook Page and "Like" a few posts.

For future plans, I am considering the same split for books from Christian publisher. These publishers have a lot of free books, with most of them repeats, and can be controversial for some readers. It is a bit of work to move, though, so I haven't started and would like your comments. Moving the posts would mean a leaner blog here (probably 8 or so posts every Monday would move, plus some others during the week) and those who specifically want Christian Fiction/Non-fiction and nothing else would have a new place to read. It would mean, though, that those who want both will need to subscribe to both sites (which is simple using Google Reader) and the same for those who get the Kindle subscription.

In the meantime, feel free to check out the new blog and let me know what you think. It's set up a lot like this one, but there may be a gadget or two on the right sidebar that isn't fully functional.

A word about my sponsors (you!)

This message is an updated version of a post that I ran a couple of years ago (has it been that long? Really?). Since the original post, Amazon has added Kindle eBooks to their list of referral eligible products (instead, Android Apps are now excluded) and I've actually made enough referrals from some of the non-Amazon affiliate programs to buy dinner now and then. So, I've edited the original post a bit(and fixed a couple of typos), but it mostly still applies as well today as it did then. I gave up posting my Book Budget some time back, as the ones I purchased were being swamped by the free books on Kindle. I still buy more books than I manage to read, what with free books, $1 KSO books and books bought for others in the household.

As the holiday season approaches, a commercial reminder/note for readers of this blog. As you may (or may not) know, Amazon pays what they now call advertising fees for referrals on Kindle books (of course, any percentage of zero would still be zero, for free books) and other purchases, such as the Kindle itself and Gift Certificates (even if used to later buy Kindle books). Using the links on this blog helps support it, as does using the Amazon search box on the side menu when making non-Kindle book purchases at Amazon. I also make a tiny amount from referrals to some other ebookstores (Barnes & Noble, Kobo, eHarlequin and Smashwords, mostly). Many of the other bargains I post are not affiliate linked - PDF files, free books at Sony, Christian audio, etc., deals at Fictionwise and so on. I post the bargains as I find them (or as you send in tips; thanks to those of you that do), regardless of where they are located.

I've had a few people ask if I've read every bargain book I post. No, I don't - there is no way I physically could do so (I haven't even read thru all the free books Amazon has given us), even if I could afford to do so. I do purchase and read some, with more being bought than I manage to read (just like with my paper library). I do post some reviews (although not for every book I read). Some of these books are provided by the publisher or author and some of them are books I've purchased myself. I have quite a stack of both and limited reading time, so make no promises on reviews for those who send them (and never guarantee a favorable review ... although if a book is one I can't get thru, I'll usually just let the author know and pass on writing a review).

Feel free to use (or not) the links in my posts or on the blog menus when making Amazon purchases; these do help support my efforts (at no additional cost to you) and are greatly appreciated. A few of you have also sent direct PayPal donations (the link is on the right sidebar); these are also very much appreciated (and are usually immediately spent on more books, especially now that Kobo takes PayPal).

Thank you to all that read the blog, whether it's on the web site, on Kindle, the RSS feed or following on Facebook or Twitter. I hope you have a great holiday season and promise that I'll keep posting the bargains I find, to help you stretch the holiday budget. I suspect the free reads and big discounts will continue so long as there is competition amongst ereader devices (just as there was in the BluRay/HD war a few years back), even though the Apple and Agency publishers have taken a number of steps to eliminate that competition. Even as the Agency publishers have stifled competition amongst ebookstores (and withdrawn from libraries, in some instances), they have found they still have to compete for readers and for your money, both against other entertainment options (television, movies, video games, etc) and against the proliferation of other reading choices that we now have. More open e-publishing also has benefited readers and the many authors who have been able to bring their backlists in to "print", either directly or thru a number of small publishers that have sprung up in the last few years.

Books on the Knob is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com, endless.com, smallparts.com or myhabit.com.

Are the links working for you?

Update: Fastest fix ever and all I did was post a complaint in the blogger boards. All of a sudden, the links are working for all the browsers here and the columns are lining up correctly again. However, send me a note if YOU are not seeing that the links are working (try a Refresh Page using F5 first).

I just received a message from a reader that all the links were not working for them (they have FireFox and Chrome). Since I test them myself, but in Firefox 3.6.x, I was a bit confused. However, some testing here shows that FireFox 5 and Chrome (which I just installed) are both having problems, FF 3.6 is not and IE9 is mostly OK. Another new issue is that the menu bar at the right of the page is being bumped to the bottom of the page in IE9, Chrome and FF5; I'll try to work on that next (unless it turns out to be the same issue), but for now, I'd like to get any of you that get a chance to let me know if the links are working for you and which browser you are using (if you click on Help/About, you can look up the version). If the links are working, just comment here. If not, you'll have to send an email - use the name of the blog, without spaces, @gmail.com. Also, if you could let me know when you noticed that they didn't work anymore, that would be helpful.

Thanks guys and I hope to get it fixed soon (in the meantime, if you can try IE or an older FF version, the links should still be working).

R.I.P. Borders Bookstores

Only a few months after their Chapter 11 re-organization, Borders has announced that they will liquidate and close all stores. Liquidation sales should start as early as this Friday, so if you want to get in on any sales (and especially if you have any outstanding gift cards there), you'll want to visit soon. I haven't seen anything about gift cards, so they should still be honoring them, at least until the liquidation starts on Friday (if the judge approves their plan this Thursday). I know when we were in ours last weekend, the coffee shop had bags of beans for B1G1F and thought they were getting a new brand of coffee shop next month, but it looks like the big sale that was planned has fallen thru (and I suspect few stores have anything but flavored coffee left, for those who have missed this sale). The stores are, though, full of books, music and movies and there should be some good bargains, as it looks like they want to clear out the stores before the end of the summer (I've seen September mentioned by some blogs, but I would not be surprised if some stores closed sooner). Looks like those who signed up on the Borders+ memberships won't see the stores last long enough to get their promised bonus Borders Bucks (even though that would make them minority creditors of the company, I would not plan on seeing anything from it). If you have a free coffee or bonus bucks on your account, I'd spend those this week, too.

If you have ebooks from the Borders, I'd also be sure to download a backup of each one as an EPUB, using Adobe ADE (you download the .ACSM and open it with ADE), not just downloaded into the app on your computer or Kobo reader, as well as make sure you have moved your library to Kobo. Although Borders did invest in Kobo, that company should not be affected by the liquidation. Then again, with Borders creditor list looking like a Who's Who in publishing, the fallout from the liquidation may be far-reaching. Will publishers raise book prices even more to make up the losses (and, no doubt, guarantee their doom even faster)? In the short run, B&N should see more customers in their stores (and Books-A-Million may try to buy a few of the stores), but in our city, this closing means 2 out of 4 stores will close (and both have much better locations than the remaining two; of those B&N is the hardest to get to).

Will you stop writing about ...? (and some free music)

I've received a few emails lately and one recent comment asking if I was going to keep writing about a particular subject that the reader didn't find interesting or helpful. These have run the gamut from Kindle books to Kindle special offers to Games (including Kindle game or just games in general), but also there are the occasional complaints about the types of books (whether Christian Fiction, LGBT erotica or just romance in general and one recently political offering, although the first two are the most often commented upon). The answer, of course, is that yes, I'll just keep writing about what I find interesting. I try to highlight all the free books in the major (and some minor) ebookstores that are either under copyright (thus, are special deals from publishers) or backlist books from authors who are still writing. Some of these will have subject matter that doesn't appeal to everyone (or even to me, in some cases).

I stumble across free music or game deals now and then and I write about them because I find them interesting (and I know that some of you do, also). Audiobooks are "books" for some, so are included (even though I greatly prefer the printed word) and some movies might get mentioned (if there is a great deal on one that is also in print or just because Amazon wants to give us all some free credit to try out their store). A few of the deals won't be available to those outside the USA (this seems to be the case with Kindle games/apps and all the movie/tv/music downloads), while I also may mention sales or that are only applicable to those outside the US -- I have readers in several countries, with the US comprising the greatest portion, of course, but which includes Canada, Australia, India, the UK and more. Those outside the US do often see different prices (and miss out on the US deals), so the small portion of non-US deals that those in the US see seems like a fair trade-off.

I hate to lose readers because I mention subjects they don't find appealing, but if I stripped out everything that at least one person objected to, there would not be much left. Those with only a nook don't much care about the Kindle posts, while those with only a Kindle can't enjoy some of the DRM'd EPUBs that get mentioned (although both could read the other format on their PC's, I do understand not wanting to do so ... it's one reason I eventually caved in and bought a couple of EPUB based readers for our family).

In the end, though, I will write for myself and hope that those of you along for the ride find most of the content enjoyable. I can suggest that you consider using an RSS reader or follow on twitter, if you don't want to read directly on the website - both will let you see the post titles, so you can decide if the subject is interesting before you click thru to read the post. Twitter can even be configured to notify you via text message on you phone, every time a new post goes up and there are some RSS readers that will let you set up filters, if you want to strip out posts with certain tags or words in the subject. I always try to add appropriate tags/labels to every post and include a title that lets you know generally what a post is about: "KSO" for Kindle Special Offers, "Game" or "App" on the Kindle, Android or other games/apps, "Free Book" if that is what is contained (along with platform, at least at the point the post goes up, such as Kindle, nook, EPUB, noDRM, etc) or "Bargain" if I am writing about Kindle books.

Thanks for reading and here are some more free samplers at Amazon, to listen while you read (here or on your Kindle). I can guarantee that at least some of it I like and some I don't, but that least a few of you would have differing opinions on which was which!

• Bloodshot Indie-Pendants Sampler
• Carpark Records 2011 Sampler
• Vagrant Summer Sampler 2011
• Merge Records 2011 Sampler
• Stockholm Belongs To Us - A Labrador Records Compilation
• Luaka Bop Presents Xingu
• Summer Fun with Giovanni
• Dangerbird Summer Sampler 2011 [Explicit]
• Barsuk Records Summer 2011 Amazon MP3 Sampler
• Your Mom is a Sportman's Paradise
• A Touch and Go Records Digital Sampler
• Secretly Canadian Summer Sampler 2011
• Frenchkiss Records Amazon MP3 Sampler
• Mexican Summer Vol. 2
• Hopeless Amazon Summer Sampler
• Dead Oceans Summer Sampler 2011
• Hardly Art Amazon Sampler 2011
• Paw Tracks Sampler 2011
• Karaoke - 4th of July - American Independence Day Classics
• White Swan Records 20th Anniversary Digital Sampler
• shàngtian stage version

This month is also the big music iTunes festival in London. Even if I could win free tickets, I couldn't get over there to attend, but I don't have to - click the link below and you can listen free each night on your PC/Mac or download the app for your iPad or iPhone, which not only gets you the live stream, but access to all the past performances, as well.

My Hometown: One of Most Well-Read Cities in the US

I know I buy a lot of ebooks, but I can't really take credit (alone) for my hometown making it to #11 on the list. In fact, we beat out a number of cities much larger than we are. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. We managed to escape the recent round of Borders closures and have an ever-busy large used bookstore, as well as having 4 large chain bookstores, at least one University bookstore (and press) and numerous small bookstores.  And, I see a number of Kindles and even nookColors when out in town, in addition to paperbacks and hardcovers being read at the solo tables in restaurants.

So, tell me: did your town make the list?

Amazon.com Reveals the Most Well-Read Cities in America

Cambridge, Mass., tops the list with the most books, magazines and newspapers purchased per capita of any city in the United States

SEATTLE, May 26, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) --

(NASDAQ: AMZN)--Just in time for the summer reading season, Amazon.com announced its list of the Top 20 Most Well-Read Cities in America. After compiling sales data of all book, magazine and newspaper sales in both print and Kindle format since Jan. 1, 2011, on a per capita basis in cities with more than 100,000 residents, the Top 20 Most Well-Read Cities are:

1. Cambridge, Mass.
2. Alexandria, Va.
3. Berkeley, Calif.
4. Ann Arbor, Mich.
5. Boulder, Colo.
6. Miami
7. Salt Lake City
8. Gainesville, Fla.
9. Seattle
10. Arlington, Va.
11. Knoxville, Tenn.
12. Orlando, Fla.
13. Pittsburgh
14. Washington, D.C.
15. Bellevue, Wash.
16. Columbia, S.C.
17. St. Louis, Mo.
18. Cincinnati
19. Portland, Ore.
20. Atlanta

In taking a closer look at the data, Amazon.com also found that:

• Not only do they like to read, but they like to know the facts: Cambridge, Mass.--home to the prestigious Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology--also topped the list of cities that ordered the most nonfiction books.
• Boulder, Colo., lives up to its reputation as a healthy city by topping the list of cities that order the most books in the Cooking, Food & Wine category.
• Alexandria, Va., residents must be reading a lot of bedtime stories - they topped the list of the city that orders the most children's books.
• Summer reading weather all year long? Florida was the state with the most cities in the Top 20, with Miami, Gainesville and Orlando making the list.

"In anticipation of the summer reading season--one of our favorite times to catch up on pleasure reading and unwind with the new titles being published this season--we're excited to reveal the Most Well-Read City list," said Mari Malcolm, managing editor of Books, Amazon.com. "We hope book lovers across the country enjoy this fun look at where the most voracious readers reside, and that everyone gets the chance to relax with some great summer reads."

For summer reading suggestions for adults, teens and kids, please visit:

• Adults -- www.amazon.com/summerbooks
• Teens -- www.amazon.com/summerbooksforteens
• Kids -- www.amazon.com/summerbooksforkids

Blogger has been having issues again...

If you've been having problems seeing the blog today, please try clearing CACHE and all Cookies (at the very least, all those for blogspot.com, blogger.com and booksontheknob.org), then reload the blog. This should fix any problems you may have had with not being able to enter comments.

If you have a blog on blogger, try the above, then go to http://www.blogger.com/home and you should find blogger has been fixed (don't try to get to the admin page for your blog using a saved link, as it seems to cause a redirecting loop, with whatever it is they did to "fix" the login issue earlier today.

Blog is back online

Some of you may have noticed that I haven't posted in the last day or so and that some posts are missing from the blog. This was due to a glitch with Google Blogger, which has been down for over a day. The service is back up, but it looks like I'll need to re-enter a few of the posts. The good news is, there are more free books today in the Kindle store (which I was able to tell those on twitter about, but not the rest of you, until now).

Update:I restored the missing posts from my backup, but it looks like a few comments were lost by Google. You can find more info on what happened on the Google Blogger Blog.

BooksOnTheKnob has a new Address!

Books on the Knob is moving ... sort of. I have a new domain name and the blog can now be found at blog.booksontheknob.org. However, your old bookmarks will keep working and simply redirect you to the new location - just click Yes to get there. You'll want to update your bookmarks, though, to make it easier to get to the blog (for those using it as a home page, make sure you update that as well).

Otherwise, there should not be any changes needed at your end. The RSS, Twitter, email (on the Subscribe / About / Contact page), Facebook and Kindle subscriptions should all still work as they did before. If you run into any problems, be sure to let me know (there were quite a few places I had to update in order to get everything linked back up, but I think I got them all). If you do have a problem, you might want to try clearing your browser cache first (in FireFox, Ctrl-Shift-DEL, then pick Cache on the menu and click OK), as that was causing me problem too, at first).

Blog Format Update

Apologies to those who stopped by earlier today. I've been working on the formatting, to make the blog more readable on older, non-wide format screens. In the process, there have been some rather, interesting, shall we say, formats shown on and off today.  If anyone cares to comment on the new format, leave me a note, below.

Web Site Update - Free Books in the Kindle Store

Blogger now supports multiple "pages" on a blog, so I've updated the web site's appearance, re-arranging a few elements and adding a new Navigation Menu (located at the top/left of the web page) that includes a quick link to a new Free Books in the Kindle Store page. So far, I have this page divided only between the older books that are free from Harlequin (no longer the Harlequin 16, as the numbers have dwindled) and the more recent books (27 currently). All chapters and samples have been excluded. Clicking on a book will take you to a product detail page that includes customer reviews (from there you can click to get to the Amazon product page, where the book can be ordered).

Let me know what you think - is this handy and/or useful to you?

Would you prefer to have the books arranged more by category/genre?

I've been considering arranging these by Scifi/Fantasy, Paranormal/Romance, Fiction and Non-Fiction. I don't want too many categories, but I also don't want overlap (a book should be listed only once). It's true there are some Paranormal genre books that are not Romance, but it seems to be very few that fit into that category that have been offered as free downloads. That that are will fit into the SciFi/Fantasy category.

Help Victims of the Haiti Earthquake

Amazon has organized a program for giving to the relief effort for the victims of the Haiti earthquake, the Mercy Corps. The links here will take you directly to the Amazon web page to make your donation, so you will be sure that any donations wind up in the proper hands. It's sad to say, but the scam sites are already being set up and scam emails are sure to be flooding our mailboxes soon, as they have with every disaster over the last few years. I would suggest you be wary of any donation efforts on individual web sites and stick with either the larger retailers who have set up donation campaigns for their customers or donate directly to the relief organizations, such as the Red Cross (just be careful to make sure you are on the correct websites and that a smaller organization really is involved; many are, but are government funded or collect in local churches, so may not have web donation efforts).

I've added a link to the Mercy Corps donation page at the top of the menu on the left side of the page and will leave it up as long as Amazon is accepting donations. Thank you for making a donation in this time of great need.