Circuit Rider for a Penny

I'll admit, I'm wasn't quite sure what this one was until I went to the author website. Circuit Rider August - September - October 2009 ($0.01), by The United Methodist Publishing House, is a quarterly magazine from the Methodist Church, produced for their clergy, put on Kindle by Abingdon Press. This particular issue is on Leadership Development.

Book Description
Welcome to CIRCUIT RIDER! This is a quarterly professional magazine for pastors. It is published by The United Methodist Publishing House for United Methodist clergy. Our mission is to address the spiritual, intellectual, and practical needs of pastors serving local churches. We are eager to know how CR can better serve you and support you in your ministries.

A more current issue (in PDF only) and other materials are on their website.

Wood-Carving Design and Workmanship

Wood-Carving Design and Workmanship ($0.80), by George Jack, is optimized for the DX screen. The listing says the print price is $17.99, but that must be the paperback - the hardcover is selling for nearly $40.00.

Book Description
This is a text book on wood-carving design and workmanship. It provides practical instructions on the design, the basic skills and the production process of the art of wood carving. The book teaches the use and maintenance of carving tools, the knowledge of carving materials; the skills in dealing with different types of woods; the methods of carving; and the pattern collection and design. The book also teaches the process of turning an idea into a finished carving project with the practice of sketching, layout and carving skills. The book contains more than 90 graphic illustrations.

Under the Dome -- ASIN Change -- Old Listing no Longer Valid

I was checking my pre-ordered books this evening and found that the listing for Under the Dome, by Stephen King (December 24, 2009), has been changed. The ASIN (the Amazon equivalent of a product number or digital ISBN) that I used earlier in the month is no longer valid. This is the second time the ASIN has changed for this title. I'd prefer to use the current ASIN, so that when I look at the book in the Kindle store, I can tell when (or if) I ordered it -- when the ASIN keeps changing, I can't do this (looking up the book from the Manage My Kindle page just gives you a "404 Document Not Found" message). I've had this happen on one or two books in the past (when the author pulled the book from the store completely; usually even books pulled by the publisher for reformatting retain the same ASIN), but I was also a bit worried that I would not get the book at all, since this one hasn't released yet and I don't know how an invalid ASIN would work - I might never get the book and the price is guaranteed to increase on the release date.

So, I canceled my pre-order (again) and re-ordered it today. The price is still $7.99, so there was no penalty for doing so. I don't know that this is necessary, but I do recommend that you check you order and see if the ASIN is still valid. To do this, first click on the Manage My Kindle page, then locate your order, under the "Open Orders" banner. Click on the link that says "View details" and then on the link for the book itself. If it shows the book info page, you are all set. If not, then you can cancel the book from the "View details" page and then click on the link above to find the new listing and order it again. In fact, you can put the order in even before you cancel the old one (but do remember to cancel), since Amazon doesn't see these as being for the same book.

Word Morph - Kindle "Game" for a Penny

Mobi Games has another of their interactive titles for the Kindle at a penny. This time, it's Word Morph Volume 1: transform the starting word one letter at a time until you spell the ending word , by Leonid Braginsky. Unlike the Sudoku game, this one doesn't appear to require the Kindle DX, so I'll be trying it on my original Kindle.

Book Description
How do you make a flip from a flop? Obviously, by changing the i to an o. This is how you play Word Morph. At each step, you can change one letter to form a new word. The task is to transform the starting word one letter at a time until you spell the ending word.

For example, here is a puzzle:

east
----
----
west

You can get from east to west like this:

east
past
pest
west

Often puzzles have more than one solution. In the east to west example, you could also do:

east
last
lest
west

or

east
vast
vest
west

Sometimes the sequences are quite long. For example, here is one way to get from teach to learn:

teach
peach
peace
place
plane
plans
plays
slays
stays
stars
sears
years
yearn
learn

Each puzzle comes with one to three solutions. For most solutions a hint is available.

The puzzles are divided into several difficulty levels, from Novice to Expert, based on the length of the solution.

Enjoy the game!

There are four more Word Morph books in the Kindle store, all of them at $0.99.

Guilty Pleasures

The first book in Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series, Guilty Pleasures is marked at a bargain price of $3.99). It's not quite as good as getting the first book free, but it's a good price on what is still one of the best books in the series. As you may know, later on the series gets quite explicit (and adds BDSM, somewhere around book ten, Narcissus in Chains), but the early books are all good reads. Several of them are also currently marked at $5.39, so it won't break the bank to pick up a few to read over the holiday, if you haven't do so already.

Book Description
Published almost ten years ago, Guilty Pleasures marked the debut of a writer who was destined to grow from cult favorite to a major bestselling author.-Readers will learn how Anita Blake started raising the dead--and killing the undead. And how she met Jean Claude, the master vampire destined to become not only her biggest nemesis, but her greatest lover.