How Amazon is Destroying the Bookstore World

(OR could also be aptly titled: How Espresso Book Machines could Save the Bookstore World)

People love shopping online. I get it. It's easy, convienient, and it doesn't involve going out in 40 below weather right during Christmas season.

But honestly, Amazon is a big part of the reason that bookstores are dying, and I also believe that it also may have a hand in the destruction of movie rental stores, but in that case, it's not as significant of an influence.

I understand the appeal. I really do. I mean, why would you order a book from McNally when it may take 2 weeks to get to the store, when you could order it from amazon, pay nothing for shipping and get it sent to your house in 3 days? Having hundreds of warehouses at your disposal really does make everything happen way faster.

But Amazon is the Walmart of the book industry. They can sell books to you for cheap and they are a big bully to be reckoned with.

An example of this bully activity is in regards to Print On Demand machines, such as the Espresso Book Machine (EBM) made by Xerox (seen below).

The EBM mostly prints Public Domain and Self published books at the request of the author. But in 2009, Xerox had approached Harper Collins (HC) to see if they would be willing to add their titles to their "menu". HC would still get a significant portion of the profits and would save on shipping costs. Clearly, this makes total sense for the publishing company. But as soon as Amazon heard that HC was in talks with Xerox, they called up HC, pointed out how the majority of their book sales were done through Amazon, and stated that if they went through with this deal, Amazon would no longer sell their books. SO, the deal fell apart. And everyone suffered except Amazon. Just imagine! If HC hadn't been bullied out of the deal, it would be WAY less likely that you would ever go into a bookstore and come out empty handed. The bookstore would benefit, because if they didn't have your nice beautiful commonly printed copy on hand, they could just direct you to the Espresso Book Machine, you pop in your creditcard, wait 5 minutes and leave with the book you came for, instead of leaving the store empty handed and disappointed. Win for the customer. Win for the bookstore. Win for the publisher. and Win for Xerox. But no. Big bully Amazon shut that down. THEN Amazon had the audacity to create their own print on demand system and asked several major publishing companies to SELL their low print titles to them so that they could print them on demand. At this point, none of them have done so, thank goodness. It would be just one more step toward world bookstore domination for Amazon.

The industry has progessed to the point where Xerox is allowed to print certain publisher's low print rate books, but that is a far stretch from ANY book you could possibly want. It would be great if it could also be used for HIGH demand books. It would cut down on distribution costs, and environmental costs of shipping, and I'm pretty sure that currently, more people leave bookstores disappointed when their Bestseller book is sold out rather than their obscure title from 1930 or a book about the psychology of Galapagos Turtles or something.

It is my belief that this is why companies such as McNally can't justify getting one of these machines. The problem with Public Domain books is that ANYONE can publish them, so granted, William Shakespeare and Bram Stoker are public domain, but every large publishing house in the world prints copies of Hamlet and Dracula, so how likely is it that a bookstore would be sold out? Pretty slim. Publishing low print rate books is great, but how often would they get printed? Obviously, not often. And it's a great opportunity for self published authors, but once again, their audience tends to be limited, generally geographically I would think, so it may not be worth their while unless there is a EBM in their area.

I would love to see an EBM at the McNally in Saskatoon, but I can understand how the $100,000 price tag is just not in the budget when they seem to be struggling to make ends meet as is... stupid Amazon...

eReader

I got pretty spoiled this Christmas. Due to the forgotten Anniversary (He still claims he just didn't know we were doing gifts), I got a lot of stuff I asked for. THIS /\ is a Sony eReader Pottermore edition. For those Harry Potter geeks out there, you may have noticed that the first chapter of Philosopher's Stone is in the picture there.

And yes, I did ask for an ereader... but hear me out!

I know I said "never" to an ereader, but when Erin was here for 6 weeks, she told me about how she gets library books on hers, and how much more convenient it is for her when she is ferrying back and forth between Vancouver and Victoria.... and this got me thinking....

I haven't been friendly with any library since university, and while I was in Education, I only went and got a new card for the Saskatoon Public Library so that I could use a Dr Seuss book in a lesson I presented (and only because I procrastinated and it was too late to order it from McNally at that point). But the more I was thinking about the library, the more I realized that this ereader thing has a definite advantage there. Some people like "well read" books and the smell of libraries, but I hate both of those things. I prefer my book pages to be crisp and perfect, and I prefer my books to NOT be scented by age and body odor... or whatever it is that makes library books smell that way (gross). But digital copies can't be dog eared or have pages entirely ripped out, and they will only smell like my very own ereader. PLUS this is financially ideal, because now I can read books from the library and only go out and buy them if I LIKE them. I've read quite a few duds lately and it would have been nice if I had never bought them... not that they don't look good on my bookshelf.

The other part, about travelling on the ferry, made me think about how I ALWAYS bring a second book with me to ANY road trip, it doesn't matter if it's only a weekend, I *might* end up finishing that book I'm 2 chapters in to and I would lose my mind if I couldn't start another one. When I went to London for 3 weeks I brought 3 extra books and then bought another 4 while I was there. I did not even finish the one I had started before I left Canada. (I mean, SERIOUSLY! Who goes to London to just READ when there are a million things to see? I should have known better) With an ereader, I could take that many extra books (MORE, in fact) and not have to worry about the extra space, or getting damaged in my bag (for the record, I do pack them as though they were breakable objects) Not to mention when on road trips, or on a plane or anything, you don't always have the room to stretch out and properly read a book, and an ereader is smaller, so that's a plus too.

So yes, I have relented to say that ereaders have their place in my life, but they will never replace an actual book in my hand. This one has a specific purpose to (in theory) save me money. But if an author I like publishes a book, it's off to McNally I go! to get my own copy. This is just for the iffy ones... and Harry Potter... cuz apparently I can't have enough copies of those books :)

"Merry Xmas" without much of the "Merry"

There have been two topic in the news within the last week that have really gotten my attention, and made me consider “faith” and the effect it has on our society. It's interesting because I find myself disagreeing with a lot of the statements that are being made on facebook and other media forums. It's funny because the first is kinda stating “Religion (or more specifically christianity) is the root of all of our society's problems” and the other is “If we allowed God in our schools, this wouldn't have happened”. I agree with neither of these statements.

I consider myself an agnostic person. On a scale of 1 to 10 how much I feel religion is important to my life it's probably sitting at a -2. If all religion disappeared tomorrow, my life would be effected very little. That being said I HATE when religion is pushed on me like some kind of drug. I am always polite when those door knockers come to my door to try to convert me to whatever, but I really do have the urge to roll my eyes, say “UGH!” and slam the door in their faces. I also react similarly when people are posting their bible passages all over facebook...But everyone is entitled to their opinions. I don't need to be rude because I don't agree with theirs. If you want to be part of some religion, go nuts. Just don't try to shove it down my throat.

Ok, so the first of two topics is something that everyone who lives is Saskatoon has heard about to death. There was a complaint filed against Saskatoon Transit because many of their busses have the scrolling text “Merry Christmas” running right now. This guy gave them 10 days to remove the scrolling text or he would file a complaint with the Human Rights commission.

I think this is stupid. In my opinion, wishing someone a Merry Christmas is a good sentiment, someone wishing you well. Not someone trying to convert you to their religion, or pressuring you to celebrate christmas, or trying to make you feel ostracized because you don't celebrate it. To me, complaining about someone wishing you a Merry Christmas because you don't celebrate it is like someone saying “Good Morning” to you and complaining about it because the place that you call home it is currently nighttime and you are offended because it's not morning everywhere! As if that is so inconsiderate.

Now, I realize that I do celebrate Christmas, so that makes me somewhat bias, but I don't celebrate it in a christian type way. In fact, this year, I am making a point of spelling it “Xmas” at every opportunity. My bestie told me that when she was working at a Catholic School daycare, she had it written this way in her dayplanner and one of the kids came up to her and said that by writing it that way you are Xing the “Christ” out of Christmas. I completely agree. So I am taking him outta there! My christmas has nothing to do with him, so I guess I celebrate Xmas, not Christmas. My Xmas is about spending time with my family, appreciating the winter weather, and having a few days off. So there.

And for the record if anyone wishes me a Merry Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Holidays... whatever, I will not be offended. I will appreciate that you were wishing me well.

The second topic is an international story that has devistated so many and reminded us all about the evil that there is in this world. What precicely is the root of that evil you can determine for yourself, but it is undeniably there.

I cuddled Rosalie so tight on Friday. I couldn't imagine what pain those families must be in. Those poor little innocent lives taken so early, and those brave staff members that did everything they could to try and save them, and successfully save so many others. They have my thoughts, and they have my heart.

When horrible events like this happen we all jump to blame something or someone. I myself jumped to complain about gun control in the United States. This was probably erroneous, especially since the investigation proved that the firearms used were obtained legally and were registered. Mental Health Care, poor parenting, among many other factors have been blamed on my facebook feed the last few days.

The one that drives me up the wall is the opinion that removing religion from schools is to blame. I have seen the following picture posted several times on facebook....

And then there was this other post, claiming to be a statement made by the father of Rachel Scott, one of the victims of the Columbine Massacre in 1999 stating that it was the lack of god in our schools that caused the massacre, that if there were prayer in schools this wouldn't have happened. This is such clearly flawed logic that it makes me SO MAD! Is that saying that this will never happen in a catholic school? That religion in schools would somehow work better than metal detectors? That putting crosses up around the school would change some mentally ill person's mind? That christian people would never go kill others? I think there are about 1000 years worth of wars to say otherwise. People may take comfort in religion after the fact, but it is ludicrous to think that it could have prevented it. That's like saying if those little 6 and 7 year olds had prayed a little harder maybe they wouldn't be dead. That's bullshit. And it makes me SO MAD that people can just dismiss everything that happened as justification for blaming the removal of religion from public schools. Don't bother looking at the REAL issues, just put jesus back in our schools.... makes me SO MAD!  

I know this is just another finger pointing at someone to blame, but I read a statement that was supposedly from Morgan Freeman, it wasn't (It was actually from a guy named Mark in Vancouver, but it went viral because someone took it and claimed that Morgan Freeman said it), but it made a lot of sense, and I will try to remember this in the future.

“You want to know why. This may sound cynical, but here's why.

It's because of the way the media reports it. Flip on the news and watch how we treat the Batman theatre shooter and the Oregon mall shooter like celebrities. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris are household names, but do you know the name of a single *victim* of Columbine? (I do, Rachel Scott. Her dad makes me crazy)

Disturbed people who would otherwise just off themselves in their basements see the news and want to top it by doing something worse, and going out in a memorable way. Why a grade school? Why children? Because he'll be remembered as a horrible monster, instead of a sad nobody.

CNN's article says that if the body count "holds up", this will rank as the second deadliest shooting behind Virginia Tech, as if statistics somehow make one shooting worse than another. Then they post a video interview of third-graders for all the details of what they saw and heard while the shootings were happening. Fox News has plastered the killer's face on all their reports for hours. Any articles or news stories yet that focus on the victims and ignore the killer's identity? None that I've seen yet. Because they don't sell. So congratulations, sensationalist media, you've just lit the fire for someone to top this and knock off a day care centre or a maternity ward next.

You can help by forgetting you ever read this man's name, and remembering the name of at least one victim. You can help by donating to mental health research instead of pointing to gun control as the problem. You can help by turning off the news.”

I am doing my best to forget the guy's name that did this. I am doing my best to try to remember every name of the little angels that had the great misfortune of being in the wrong classroom on a bad day, or the teachers and other staff members that when above and beyond their job description to try to save as many of the students as possible.

I'm doing my best to choose love, and not hate. I just get a little ranty sometimes...

Addicted...

I think it's pretty safe to say I have an addictive personality.

I've talked about my book collection, and while it is better to be addicted to the written word rather than, say, heroine, it's still an addiction. And it doesn't just stop at books, I have addictions to many things. Sweets are another problem. DVDs... I don't really want to list them all, but you get the idea...

Right now I am completely addicted to the television show Dexter. There are a couple of interesting little factoids about this show and me... 1) I'm pretty sure the person that convinced me to watch the show, because he said it was SOOO good, no longer watches it. I don't think he watched past the second season. 2) I had the first two seasons on DVD for quite a while before my husband watched them, because he didn't think it looked interesting. Now he's more addicted than I am. And 3) Dexter is based on the book Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay, and it's not nearly as good as the television series. I consider that an anomaly...

I read this book quite a while ago, probably about 4 years ago. I really could have skipped it and I would have saved about 2 nights of my time. But I felt I needed to read the book first, as is my forte. It was an easy read and really nothing special. After reading it and watching the first season of the TV series, I found out that the second season completely deviates from the books, so I quit and didn't read any more of the books. I've never looked back.

The TV series on the other hand... oh my gosh. EVERY season I am left dying to know what happens next. There have been many nights where I am seriously torn between watching another episode or going to bed in order to NOT be exhausted the next morning. Often I have to tell myself several times that the episode will still be there in the morning, and I don't need to watch it right now... sometimes logic wins, and sometimes it doesn't. Yeesh.

But really, who knew a serial killer could be so lovable? :)

~*~

 

Meet Dexter Morgan, a polite wolf in sheep's clothing. He's handsome and charming, but something in his past has made him abide by a different set of rules. He's a serial killer whose one golden rule makes him immensely likeable: he only kills bad people. And his job as a blood splatter expert for the Miami police department puts him in the perfect position to identify his victims. But when a series of brutal murders bearing a striking similarity to his own style start turning up, Dexter is caught between being flattered and being frightened -- of himself or some other fiend.

I did write a review of this one on my visual bookshelf, but it was only two sentences... "Skip the books, just watch the TV series. It has a way stronger plot and better character development."

Quick and simple. This book really didn't need to take up any more of my time.

Cotton Anniversary

Happy 2nd Anniversary to us!

This anniversary date passed rather unceremoniously. No big night out or anything, but I was a little surprised that the only person to remember it, other than myself, was my sister. Hmm... interesting.

Yes, for those that caught on, that includes my husband. Technically, he didn't entirely forget, he just turned to me last night at about 8:30pm and said "You didn't get me a gift for tomorrow, did you?" Translation: "Crap, I forgot until 8:30pm on the eve of my anniversary!" So he got a Fox Hoodie and I got... wait for it... 2 scratch and win tickets and a card. And for the record, I didn't win anything on the scratch and wins....

Anywhoo, that's fine. Rosalie's at a funny stage where I don't think she would do well if we went out for dinner and left her with someone. She's making strange on occasion when I'm not around or am out of sight for a few minutes.

Maybe we'll plan something bigger for next year. Nothing says big anniversary party like leather...

Cosleeping Naps (and Love and Other Impossible Pursuits)

I've become quite dependent on having a nap in the afternoon. Now that Rosalie is more active, she has become more exhausting and, unfortunately, less of a fan of napping. For the past month or so, I have been unable to get her to sleep on her own, outside of when she falls asleep in her carseat. The moment I try to put her down in her crib after she falls asleep nursing, she wakes up. And I mean, like, WIDE awake. This was becoming quite a problem, because when Rosalie doesn't nap, she's not happy... and the whole house becomes unhappy. Even Boca starts avoiding her.

So when I vented my frustrations to Erin while she was living here, she said her cousin had the same problem and she just naps with her son and then they both get to have a few extra Zzzs. This is completely genius. Best advice I'd ever been given. It is now a staple in our daily routine.

I had heard that cosleeping was good for you, your baby and your relationship, but I always thought of it in the context of sleeping at night, so you don't have to get out of bed to feed your baby and you both get a better night sleep. This doesn't really work for us because, considering how much Roland kicks and punches me in the middle of the night, I couldn't trust my husband's sleeping routine to not harm Rosalie. If we had a cosleeper that clipped onto the side of the bed I would have been all for it. But alas, the crib was a must.

Now, I can guarantee that SOMEONE is thinking: “I heard that cosleeping is dangerous”. But it is SO not true. Granted, you can't be an idiot about it. Just like leaving your child on the floor in the middle of the livingroom is generally safe, unless you decide to shatter a bunch of glass around them. Clearly, when cosleeping you shouldn't use a bunch of super fluffy pillows all around your baby and you shouldn't put them in a place where they can roll off the bed. To remedy these things, Rosalie doesn't get any pillows at all (obviously), and I fold our flat sheet in half and Rosalie's in the crook of the fold, and I lie on both ends of the sheet so she can't roll away. I lie on my side and the bottom arm goes on the mattress right overtop of her head, then when I nurse her, and we fall asleep, my arm works like a kick-stand so I won't roll over on her. Not that I would anyway, I don't think that you can just forget about your infant lying next to you. Which also makes me believe that you are your own best SIDS detector. If Rosalie's breathing changes at all, I always wake up. She's had a bit of a cold lately, and when she sniffles in her sleep it wakes me up. I think that becomes genetic when you become a mom. Also, I can't remember the exact statistic, but it's something like 98% of infant deaths that resulted from cosleeping were because drugs or alcohol was involved. This makes sense because if you pass-out or OD you aren't going to have the mental capacity to think about your child, especially subconsciously.

Another “pro” for cosleeping is that it's really not natural for your baby to sleep on their own anyway. Because of the “4^th Trimester” (and yes, I know, it doesn't make sense that a TRI-mester has a 4^th part, but that's what people call it), in the first 9 months of their lives, where your baby continues to develop so much outside the womb, your baby is completely dependent on you, so they are more comfortable if you are near them ALL the time.

So that's my 2 cents, I know that others may have opinions differing from mine, but I would always recommend it now. Sleeping issues? Have a cosleep nap. Good for you + good for baby = everybody wins.

~*~

In this moving, wry, and candid novel, widely acclaimed novelist Ayelet Waldman takes us through one woman’s passage through love, loss, and the strange absurdities of modern life.

Emilia Greenleaf believed that she had found her soulmate, the man she was meant to spend her life with. But life seems a lot less rosy when Emilia has to deal with the most neurotic and sheltered five-year-old in New York City: her new stepson William. Now Emilia finds herself trying to flag down taxis with a giant, industrial-strength car seat, looking for perfect, strawberry-flavored, lactose-free cupcakes, receiving corrections on her French pronunciation from her supercilious stepson – and attempting to find balance in a new family that’s both larger, and smaller, than she bargained for. In Love and Other Impossible Pursuits Ayelet Waldman has created a novel rich with humour and truth, perfectly characterizing one woman’s search for answers in a crazily uncertain world.

This is the best book I have read in a really long time. I can't even tell you how much I would recommend it. That being said, I am it's target audience. I would probably not recommend it to men necessarily, but if I describe it, and they like it, I would say go for it! But no pressure.

First, I'll give a little background of how I discovered this book. While I was still working nights at the jail, and I was watching movies to pass the time, I watched Thor. As I have said in previous posts, I often look up the cast of movies after I watch them to see what they are up to, or to see if I've seen them in anything else. Natalie Portman (whom I love), is in Thor, and also made a movie called The Other Woman. I then found out that Love and Other Impossible Pursuits is the book that The Other Woman is based on. I read the above description, I figured it was a must read. I had never read a book where Step-parenting was an important theme. As I am a step-parent myself, I figured I could relate and I was excited for this one, but it got bumped a few times by books that I borrowed from people, or movies that were coming out that I thought I might go to in the theatre... so I just got to it now, after owning it for about a year.

Wow. Waldman totally nailed it. All of the difficulties of being a step-parent, all of the expectations and stereotypes that people have of you, all of the things that you hate to admit to yourself, let alone say outloud, all of the things that you want to avoid, but end up succumbing to... everything was in this book. It was so liberating for me to know that at least one other person in the world feels the way about step-parenting that I do, and I'm guessing that there are more than just the two of us. Just for the record, my relationship with my stepson isn't (and never was) nearly as difficult as the one in this book.

There is also another theme in this book that I was totally not expecting. It is not mentioned in the description above, but it was mentioned on the back of my book. However, I didn't read the back once I bought it (I had to special order it in from McNally, so I bought a bunch of books at the same time, put them on my shelf and didn't look at them again until I wanted to read them). I looked at it after I was midway through because I was kinda thinking “how could they not have mentioned this in the description on the back?” Then I noticed they did, so I thought “How could I have missed that?” Then I checked goodreads. I missed it because it's different.

Ok. So. Now I am gunna mention what the other theme is, but if you want to be surprised, like I was, then read do not read the next paragraph. Skip to the one after... the one about the movie. I liked being surprised by this part, but I could see how it could devastate and be very painful for some people to have it sprung on them. Consider yourself warned....

This book also deals with pregnancy and/or infant loss (I won't tell you which, so you might still be a little surprised). This is an issue that I have not been dealing with personally, but I have several friends who have had to deal with pregnancy losses and it has become a topic that is very close to my heart. In this book you find out very early that the main character has been pregnant, but that child is no longer on this earth. Little tiny bits of information are given throughout the entire book and it makes it very enticing. At first you know that more information is coming soon, but once you think you have all of the info, you keep getting little bits more, and every time your heart breaks a little bit more. Because I read before bed almost every night, when I got these little bits of heartbreak, I had the urge to go and scoop Rosalie out of be and cuddle her and just appreciate holding her in my arms, and be thankful I have her company every day. Of course, I didn't. It wasn't worth waking her. But it made me go check on her to make sure she was OK, because I couldn't bear to lose her the way others have lost their babies while pregnant or afterwards. Then when she did wake up to eat, I gave her extra cuddles and didn't rush to put her back in her crib. Another thing, kinda on the same line of being pregnant and stuff, it is also mentioned in the book the “post-baby body” dilemma that I am having right now, as mentioned in THIS previous post. Dropped the weight but have a very squishy middle right now. Sometimes knowing you aren't alone makes you feel all that much better... still won't be wearing a bikini any time soon though...

The movie adaptation was not too bad; the book was way better (no surprise). It was extremely loyal to the book, and that is one of the most important aspects of a movie adaptation in my humble opinion. The problem with 3^rd person perspective books is that they lose something in the movie without narration, but narration would make the movie seem cheesy and awful. This book/movie is no different. Something is lost when you don't know Emilia's thoughts and you can't know the drastic internal change she goes through during the novel. I believe this movie was made with the best intentions, it's such a great story, and one that does a great job of entertaining while educating people on the complexities of step-parenting, among other things, but the book still does these things better.

See the movie if you must, but don't skip the book. :)