View your Kindle Notes Online

Amazon has just released a new feature that allows you to view (but not edit) your notes and highlights online (click on the graphic above for a full size screenshot). There are still a few bugs: when I first logged in to my Amazon Reading List, I was only shown 13 total books from my bookshelf, but that updated when I selected to see more on a page (at which point I had pages and pages of books). Also, authors names are missing from a number of the books in the list. The list starts out claiming to be sorted by Title, but for some reason all books with no author listed sort first anyway (and not in alphabetic order, although those with authors are properly sorted) and when sorting by author, any authors whose name uses no capital letters get sorted first, before those with proper capitalization (and all after those with no author at all). You also can't sort on just those with content or do any searches, so be prepared to dig thru the list if there is something in particular you want to find. You can sort on your rating of the book (as well as the average customer rating), which means that if you rate the book as you finish it, you can at least sort the list and quickly see which ones are unread. As you can see in the above picture, any books where you have made annotations will have an entry under Content - the pencil shows you have made highlights, while the small block entry means you have notes. Click on the graphic or the book title and a page similar to this one appears:

After any notes or highlights you have made are shown (and highlights can be as brief as a blank line or as long as several paragraphs), you'll also see any customer reviews on the book (the same as those that display on the product page). If you want to view the product page for the book, click on the "See all Amazon.com Customer Reviews" link at the bottom on the screen, then on the title of the book at the top of the review page. From there, of course, you can view the original order details, if you want to see how much you paid for a particular title.

The feature is interesting, but needs quite a bit of work. First, I'd like to be able to edit the notes or remove them directly from this screen. Second, a large number of families are sharing their Kindles on a single account - there needs to be some method of letting each family member maintain their own set of notes and highlights (currently there is not) and then view/edit them individually. For those with iphones and Kindles and more than one adult, there is a need to indicate which iphone/kindle on the account should be linked for the purpose of notes, highlights and progress, while other Kindles are treated as stand-alone units. I know that every time my mother and I read the same book, the book seems to open to a "random" location each time I return -- it's where she left off, of course, not a random spot, but it is annoying, none-the-less.

To get to your Amazon Reading List, just enter http://kindle.amazon.com into your web browser address bar, then log into your account.

National Kindle & Koffee Day

First proposed on the Amazon Kindle forums and now being promoted by several other kindle boards, June 6th has been declared the "official" National Kindle & Koffee Day. Take your Kindle to your local Starbucks (or other local/national coffee shop) at 10:00AM local time and read while having a cup of coffee (or another beverage of your choice). Perhaps you'll meet up with other local Kindlers or someone wanting to see a Kindle in person. You might want to work on your home page, if you've downloaded some of the racier freebies available lately, just in case you want to give someone a demo. I will say that at my local Starbucks, this won't be any different than any other time I've been there (and so far, no one has seemed to notice my Kindle or they are all too polite to interrupt my reading).

Need a suggestion of what to read for this important day? How about It's Not About the Coffee ($9.99) by Howard Behar? Don't forget to dress up your Kindle 2 or Kindle Klassic for the occasion.

Some other suggestions with a Starbucks theme:
How Starbucks Saved My Life ($9.99)
Starbucked: A Double Tall Tale of Caffeine, Commerce, and Culture ($9.99)
Grande Expectations: A Year in the Life of Starbucks' Stock ($9.99)
The Gospel According to Starbucks: Living with a Grande Passion ($9.99)
The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary Into Extraordinary ($14.82)
Tribal Knowledge: Business Wisdom Brewed from the Grounds of Starbucks Corporate Culture ($13.77)
Starbucks SECRET Coffee Recipes ($4.79)

Or a general coffee theme:
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Starting and Running a Coffee Bar ($9.99)
The Coffee Trader: A Novel ($9.99)
Uncommon Grounds The History Of Coffee And How It Transformed Our World ($9.99)
The Various Flavors of Coffee ($13.20)

Or just coffee in the title:
Black Coffee ($4.79) by Agatha Christie
Let It Rain Coffee ($12.57)
Drinking Coffee Elsewhere ($9.99), a collection of short stories
Coffee Clutch ($1.19, a coffee length short story)

See you there....

Free Ebook: Viral Spiral (PDF)

The author of Viral Spiral: How the Commoners Built a Digital Republic of Their Own ($16.17 Hardcover; not on Kindle), David Bollier, was on BookTV over the weekend to promote his book. One theme of the book is how making your content free on the internet actually increases revenue and in keeping with that (hey, if you're going to write a book, you really have to follow the advice yourself to maintain credibility), he has put up a PDF copy of the book as a free download.

Book Description

A stunning narrative history of the emergence of electronic "free culture," from open-source software and Creative Commons licenses to remixes and Web 2.0—in the tradition of Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture.

A world organized around centralized control, strict intellectual property rights, and hierarchies of credentialed experts is under siege. A radically different order of society based on open access, decentralized creativity, collaborative intelligence, and cheap and easy sharing is ascendant. —from Viral Spiral

From free and open-source software, Creative Commons licenses, Wikipedia, remix music and video mashups, peer production, open science, open education, and open business, the world of digital media has spawned a new "sharing economy" that increasingly competes with entrenched media giants.

Reporting from the heart of this "free culture" movement, journalist and activist David Bollier provides the first comprehensive history of the attempt by a global brigade of techies, lawyers, artists, musicians, scientists, businesspeople, innovators, and geeks of all stripes to create a digital republic committed to freedom and innovation. Viral Spiral—the term Bollier coins to describe the almost-magical process by which Internet users can come together to build online commons and tools—brilliantly interweaves the disparate strands of this eclectic movement. The story describes major technological developments and pivotal legal struggles, as well as fascinating profiles of hacker Richard Stallman, copyright scholar Lawrence Lessig, and other colorful figures.

A milestone in reporting on the Internet by one of our leading media critics, Viral Spiral is for anyone seeking to take the full measure of the new digital era.

Free Audiobook - The Good Book

David Plotz, a commentator on Slate.com, has the unabridged audiobook version of The Good Book: Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible as a free download at Audible until May 29th. Those new to Audible.com can just click on the download button, then create a new account. Existing users should log in first, then return to the original page to download the book (don't use the link on the front of Audible's homepage, as this same title is $17.47 there). The book will download as two parts, so you don't take as much space on your Kindle (or ipod) if you load them there for listening.

At a time when wars are fought over scriptural interpretation, when the influence of religion on American politics has never been greater, when many Americans still believe in the Bible's literal truth, it has never been more important to get to know the Bible. Good Book is what happens when a regular guy - an average Job - actually reads the book on which his religion, his culture, and his world are based.

Along the way, he grapples with the most profound theological questions: How many commandments do we actually need? Does God prefer obedience or good deeds? And the most unexpected ones: Why are so many women in the Bible prostitutes? Why does God love bald men so much? Is Samson really that stupid? Good Book is an irreverent, enthralling journey through the world's most important work of literature.

Kindle Dollar Days Continue

If you read Shadow of the Ghost (previously $0.89, now $2.80), then you'll want to get the second book of the Lord of Chaos Trilogy, Legacy of the Ghost, which the author, Tanner Artesz, has marked at an introductory price of $0.89 for the month of June.

The Nine and The Council of Darkness begin seeking replacements for the members they had lost during the conflict with Rachk'sha. Meanwhile, Ky prepares the Inheritance Ceremony he had to deny his triplets to protect them. Not wishing to see harm come to his children again, he, with The Lady's help, plans a uniquely special gift.

Unknown to Ky, the old goblin had been absorbing residual magic by tracing the runes Ky placed on the walls of the goblin caves many years ago. Now the goblin craves magical knowledge and finds Mistress, an albino necromancer. Together, they plan to become gods in their own right. To do this, they must steal the power of one of the current gods. In the process they carve a path of deception, betrayal, and blood.

The Grove by John Rector

The last time farmer Dexter McCray went off his medication, someone wound up dead. So, after waking from an alcoholic blackout to discover his tractor stuck in a ditch and the body of a teenage girl in the cottonwood grove bordering his cornfield, things look worryingly familiar.

With no alibi and a creeping suspicion that he might indeed be guilty, Dexter decides to investigate the crime himself. He can't tell anybody. Not his friend, the sheriff, who keeps offering to help him winch his tractor out of the ditch. Nor his estranged wife, whose love he's desperate to win back. And certainly not the Tollivers, his redneck neighbors.

Fortunately, Dexter's not entirely alone. He has some help.

In the shape of the dead girl herself.

Richard Russell is hoping to pick up a few readers and maybe a few reviews for his books (both those he's written and some he's published for others). He's reduced the price on a number of them from $3.19 to 99 cents each:

California Tumbles Into the Sea is the initial book in a series about Nick Carlson and his family and friends. The rest are: On a Morning from a Bogart Movie, Dont Forget to Say Grace, Secrets are the Things We Grew and Little GTO. Nick is a journalist/writer just returned from Southeast Asia in this first book. He finds that his old girlfriend's brother has been convicted of a murder in his old hometown and a major magazine wants him to investigate. Crime/Mystery.

Modern Problems is the first book of a series by "Dorian Taylor". This first book is short stories, some of which appeared in the Blue Review and a novella all of which is pretty experimental stuff. It's followed by Top 40, a nouveau roman, also pretty experimental. Literary fiction.

The Apocryphon (Book One Corinthus) is a modern Gnostic fable that concerns a man who found the secret to living the same life, time and again and the challenges he faces doing this. Paranormal Romance.

Finally The Friends of Fu Manchu is a collection of turn of the nineteenth century villains and is actually the second such collection he has published, the first The Colleagues of Professor Van Helsing. Following these two is Sinister Sisters, which covers the distaff side of Gothic/Victorian Vampires, Lady Geraldine, through Lady Ducayne, the female vampire in the 19th century. Vintage crime.

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If you missed The Legend of Witch Bane (The Witch Bane Saga) by Kevis Hendrickson when it was on sale a couple of months back, this weekend is your chance to grab it for 99 cents once again. His Rogue Hunter (Chronicles of the Rogue Hunter) is also a bargain priced $3.19, but is set in a different world than Witch Bane.

Not under a dollar, but close, there is now a ninth book in Brendan Carroll's The Red Cross of Gold series, IX: The Queen of the Abyss. Like the rest of the series, this one is priced at $1.59 (at least, for now).