In July, the San Francisco company woke up to find that Amazon.com had imitated one of its core services, introducing an all-you-can-read book subscription service that rivaled the “Netflix for books” model pioneered by Scribd and fellow competitor Oyster. With “Kindle Unlimited,” the Seattle retailer made it a selling point that it had more titles than the little guys, as well as something the others didn’t have: more than 2,000 audiobooks.
On Thursday, that distinction is no more as Scribd launched its own audiobook vertical, a collection that will feature 30,000 titles at no extra charge to subscribers. For the 7-year-old company, the new service is an opportunity to tap into more than $1 billion audiobook market that lacks a dominant player, and challenge Amazon as the tech giant faces a host of problems in the digital publishing space.
“Audiobooks are just a good fit for your iPhone or your Android phone, while you’re driving or if you’re going to sleep,” said Scribd CEO Trip Adler. “They’re a very good use case [for reading] and we think it’s a big, growing market.”
This adds a new dynamic to these subscription plans. The ball is now in Amazon's court.
November 2014 MobileRead Book Club Vote
November
Help us choose a book as the November 2014 eBook for the MobileRead Book Club. The poll will be open for 5 days. There will be no runoff vote unless the voting results a tie, in which case there will be a 3 day run-off poll. This is a visible poll: others can see how you voted. It is You may cast a vote for each book that appeals to you.
We will start the discussion thread for this book on November 20th. Select from the following Official Choices with three nominations each:
They are the "Others," an ancient race of supernatural beings—magicians, shape-shifters, vampires, and healers—who live among us. Human born, they must choose a side to swear allegiance to—the Dark or the Light—when they come of age.
For a millennium, these opponents have coexisted in an uneasy peace, enforced by defenders like the Night Watch, forces of the Light who guard against the Dark. But prophecy decrees that one supreme "Other" will arise to spark a cataclysmic war. ...
Inspector Harry Hole of the Oslo Crime Squad is dispatched to Sydney to observe a murder case. Harry is free to offer assistance, but he has firm instructions to stay out of trouble. The victim is a twenty-three year old Norwegian woman who is a minor celebrity back home. Never one to sit on the sidelines, Harry befriends one of the lead detectives, and one of the witnesses, as he is drawn deeper into the case. Together, they discover that this is only the latest in a string of unsolved murders, and the pattern points toward a psychopath working his way across the country. As they circle closer and closer to the killer, Harry begins to fear that no one is safe, least of all those investigating the case.
• Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami Amazon US / Overdrive
Spoiler:
From Amazon:
In this hyperkinetic and relentlessly inventive novel, Japan’s most popular (and controversial) fiction writer hurtles into the consciousness of the West. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World draws readers into a narrative particle accelerator in which a split-brained data processor, a deranged scientist, his shockingly undemure granddaughter, Lauren Bacall, Bob Dylan, and various thugs, librarians, and subterranean monsters collide to dazzling effect. What emerges is simultaneously cooler than zero and unaffectedly affecting, a hilariously funny and deeply serious meditation on the nature and uses of the mind.
The Iron King – Philip the Fair – is as cold and silent, as handsome and unblinking as a statue. He governs his realm with an iron hand, but he cannot rule his own family: his sons are weak and their wives adulterous; while his red-blooded daughter Isabella is unhappily married to an English king who prefers the company of men.
A web of scandal, murder and intrigue is weaving itself around the Iron King; but his downfall will come from an unexpected quarter. Bent on the persecution of the rich and powerful Knights Templar, Philip sentences Grand Master Jacques de Molay to be burned at the stake, thus drawing down upon himself a curse that will destroy his entire dynasty
In the midst of the freezing Arctic winter, seventeen-year-old Lumikki Andersson walks into her school’s dark room and finds a stash of wet, crimson-colored money. Thousands of Euros left to dry—splattered with someone’s blood.
Lumikki lives alone in a studio apartment far from her parents and the past she left behind. She transferred into a prestigious art school, and she’s singularly focused on studying and graduating. Lumikki ignores the cliques, the gossip, and the parties held by the school’s most popular and beautiful boys and girls.
But finding the blood-stained money changes everything. Suddenly, Lumikki is swept into a whirlpool of events as she finds herself helping to trace the origins of the money. Events turn even more deadly when evidence points to dirty cops and a notorious drug kingpin best known for the brutality with which he runs his business.
As Lumikki loses control of her carefully constructed world, she discovers that she’s been blind to the forces swirling around her—and she’s running out of time to set them right. When she sees the stark red of blood on snow, it may be too late to save her friends or herself.
• How to Make Love To a Negro Without Getting Tired by Dany Laferriere No links provided.
Spoiler:
From Goodreads:
Racial and sexual politics collide in this cult classic that launched Laferrière as one of North America’s finest literary provocateurs.
Brilliant and tense, Dany Laferrière’s first novel, How to Make Love to a Negro without Getting Tired, is as fresh and relevant today as when it was first published in 1985. With raunchy humor and a working-class intellectualism, Laferrière’s narrator wanders the slums of Montreal, has sex with white women, and writes a book to save his life.
With this novel, Laferrière began a series of internationally acclaimed social and political novels about the love of the world, and the world of sex, including Heading South and I Am a Japanese Writer.
AKA The Lost Estate or The Lost Domain or Big Meaulnes (the title "Le Grand Meaulnes" literally translates to "Meaulnes the Great")
This is his only novel, he having died fighting in WWI in 1914 at age 27.
From Goodreads:
When Meaulnes first arrives in Sologne, everyone is captivated by his good looks, daring, and charisma. But when he attends a strange party at a mysterious house with a beautiful girl hidden inside, he is changed forever. This evocative novel has at its center both a Peter Pan in provincial France-a kid who refuses to grow up-and a Parsifal, pursuing his love to the ends of the earth. Poised between youthful admiration and adult resignation, Alain-Fournier's narrator compellingly carries the reader through this indelible portrait of desperate friendship and vanished adolescence.
I just noticed there is a new preview option available on the Kobo website. I can preview a book in a popup window in my browser, I don't need to be logged in or download the preview to a Kobo app or device.
This is from the New Zealand site, it might not be everywhere, so I've added some screenshots of what I see:
Copyright law has been amended regarding "orphan" works, such that a lot are now free of copyright problems.
A kind of arcane area, but of interest to some, especially if those that can, start to be made available digitally. Some look very interesting indeed.
Here's the link to the article in today's Independent - hope it works, and is of interest.
After rolling out the 7-inch Galaxy Tab 4 Nook earlier this year, Samsung and Barnes & Noble have announced that they're launching a larger variant based on the 10.1-inch Galaxy Tab 4.
The hardware on the Galaxy Tab 4 Nook 10.1 is exactly the same as that as what Samsung offers with the standard Galaxy Tab 4. The difference is in the software, with the tablet eschewing Samsung's TouchWiz skin for Barnes & Noble's Nook software, which is "optimized for reading and entertainment."
From Publisher's Weekly. It kinda sounds like the current situation, agency with discounting to a point.
The multi-year agreement moves the e-book discount policy back towards the original agency plan, and will let S&S set the e-book prices while giving Amazon room for some discounting. The deal is believed to keep the amount of money authors earn from the sale of e-books at current levels.
I'm sure this isn't going to help Hachette's position.