I’m quite excited to see all of the advances in ebook technology being shown off at CES this week, especially since they stand to move us a lot further down the path of a paperless society. Personally, I wouldn’t mind never using paper again. I get bummed evry time I shop and am handed a receipt.

While I think Amazon has done an admirable job coming at the problem of digital reading from the purpose-built device side of the equation, it’s clear that current Kindle displays are inadequate for certain types of reading – comic books, textbooks, interactive content, magazines, etc. This is precisely who the new blio reader software backed by famous futurist Ray Kurzweil looks so promising. It comes at the problem from the side of massively available computers and because of that, I think it could really take off. Check out this demo of the software running on Windows.

The following concept video from Bonnier Research and Development is also exciting as it specifically lays out some very solid concepts for taking magazines digital. Watching videos like the ones in this post lead me to believe that we will be reading our periodical content much differently within the next 1-2 years.

Content providers, please adopt these so that we don’t have to use the horribly inefficient postal service to deliver dead trees end up being tossed into a recycle pile.

Mag+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.

And finally, I can already hear some of the complaints from you cantankerous buggers about backlit screens and how it increases eye strain. On the one hand, I agree with you; I own a Kindle and I read on it whenever the format is suitable to that device. I also read A TON on my computers: RSS feeds, news sites, magazine articles, Wikipedia, etc. I just find the current crop of e-ink devices to not be entirely satisfying for these types of reading. Even this, however, appears about ready to change. Check out this demo of a new color reader technology, called Mirasol, coming to the market from Qualcomm.

Compelling several videos, aren’t they?

The Technologizer has written a super in-depth review of the new Nook eReader being sold (though not yet fulfilled) from Barnes and Noble. Overall, he finds it a mixed but promising offering.

Readers of The Puget News may have already seen the Infinite Summer project currently being promoted by The Morning News. Basically, a large group of people are going to read “Infinite Jest” at the same time, starting June 21st and ending September 22nd. The website will be at the center of the project, hopefully hosting some interactive and dynamic discussion and fact-finding expeditions. This is a huge book but it’s also a very reasonable reading schedule amounting to about 75 pages a week.

I’m planning on taking part in the event and I’d love it of several Seattle-ites would like to come along for the ride with me, and meet up bi-weekly or monthly to discuss it in person over beers. Is anyone out there interested? If so, hit the comments and we’ll get a group going. If this works out, there are several new large works out there that I can think of that would be fun to tackle next. Cheers.

Well, not a huge shocker but it appears that Oprah’s “favoritest ever” and “life-changing” gadget being teased on Amazon’s homepage and on the Oprah site is indeed (drumroll please) the Kindle.

I believe I’ve endorsed this product on this site here as well but I’m not quite as powerful or well-followed as Oprah, so… now that she’s endorsed it, step right up and buy one!

Use the code: OPRAHWINFREY to get $50 off the purchase price through November 1st!

P.S. While the Financial Times and GigaOm are still showing speculation as to whether the Kindle will be the featured device, I scooped it by watching Oprah’s site and finding the feature page. I apparently have no life.

If you’ve been waiting for the price to lower on Kindle before you pick one up, wait no longer. Amazon has just dropped the price from $399 to $359 (and it still ships to you free via 2-day air). It may be a while before you see any further price drops…

I picked up a Kindle about a month and a half ago. While I have not yet written a comprehensive review, suffice it to say that I love mine so far. I’ve read a couple of books, peruse the New York Times daily, and have downloaded a couple of samples from new authors I may try out. It’s all integrated quite nicely and reading is very pleasant.

As I sat organizing hundreds of books at home yesterday, I actually decided to get rid of the vast majority of them since I could always get them for the Kindle; inexpensive much of the time and free for others. Any book that’s part of the public domain, and most of the older classics are lumped in that category, I can get for free via Project Gutenberg.

Any of you folks planning on purchasing a Kindle? What’s it going to take for you to switch?

One of my favorite college literature professors used to make quite a point of telling us how unnaturally fast our reading behavior as students was (and then following that up with telling us we had to do it anyways). His classes required each student to read about one novel along with supplemental literary criticism every week. When he would hand out a course syllabus at the start of a quarter, he’d point out the big books in that quarter’s curriculum and tell us not to even try to read those ones in a week. “Get started on those ones early,” he’d say.

This professor told us that there was no way we would have anything close to the reading experience that most of these authors intended for us. “When you read Dostoevsky’s ‘Crime and Punishment,’” he said, “it’s supposed to consume your life for months at a time.” As students, we didn’t have that luxury of time and I’ll be the first to admit, our comprehension inevitably suffered… Going back and reading some of these classics again, on my own timetable, has proven to be incredibly rewarding.

The same professor explained to us the desired experience of reading a book at its appropriate pacing. While there is much variability in determining the correct pace for the consumption of a book, a lot of it is just trying to determine who a given book is written for and then adjusting your pace to how you believe that audience would absorb the material. For example, let’s return to “Crime and Punishment” for a moment: this famous novel was originally published in 1866 as a series of 12 monthly installments in a journal called “The Russian Messenger.” This means that the audience at that time was reading this book over a period that stretched more than a year. And yet, the literature class I read this novel for, scheduled a week (although I think spent a total of 3 weeks on it). How do you think my experience varied from the one of the original audience?

I think that there’s something to be said for readers who go too fast… “DON’T.”

Resist the urge to go quickly with books that should require your full attention. Reading is not a race, at least it isn’t after high school. Be one of the rare people that digs into texts and extracts something beautiful.

To go wrong in one’s own way is better than to go right in someone else’s. – Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

This is my first experience reading Vinge and I’m excited by the possibility of picking up a few more of his books. “Rainbows End” opens fantastically, intertwining thoughts on politics, scientific research, psychology and technology into an unholy amalgamation which sets the story cranking. While not quite the frenetic pace of the opening scenes in “Snow Crash,” it was darned close – a slightly dystopian vision of technology-enabled society and its impact upon our collective consciousness. This society is one never-ending stream of interruptions and threats. Real-world protests occurring for millions of fans while a small group of government spooks investigate the possibility of a terrible new weapon.

The July 18 Pseudomimi and the advertising at the football match – together they amounted to an extremely well disguised test of a new weapon concept. In its developed form, such a weapon would make the Sunrise Plague look like a malignant toy. At the least, biological warfare would become as precise and surprising as bullets and bombs: slyly infect a population with the slow random spread of disease, all but undetected, and then bam, blind or maim or kill – singly with an email, or by the billions with a broadcast, too quickly for any possible “defense against disease.”

Unfortunately, after about the first 100 pages or so, the story becomes a bit derailed and tired, eventually chugging to a stop after a lackluster climax. The characters all have Dickensian quirks but lack depth. The plot is an artificial structure made only to hold the ideas which are indeed dazzling. The writing is lyrical and sharp. While this is all good enough, it’s not great. It’s recommended only for those singularity/futurist types who really lap this stuff up.

Does anyone have a suggestion as to which Vinge I should try next? They’re all open game… If you do, please post it in the comments.

This is a business book that needs to be on the shelf of anybody who wants to get better at their job, especially those who may not see a direct path to the next step or who realize that they may not be as successful in their current role as they have been in a past one. It’s a mature wake-up call that asks you to gather feedback from those surrounding you in your workplace and then to act decisively upon it so that they will know you are addressing your shortcomings and that you have heard and appreciated their input, no matter how brutal it was to receive.

Marshall writes with the practiced ease of somebody used to speaking truth to power. He’s a diplomat and a realist who has earned his stripes the hard way – directly coaching executives. He’s come up with a way for stalled careers to start rolling again. While it’s not easy (in fact, it can be downright painful), it is honest and you may even come out a more insightful person for following through on it. The plan to improve starts through the solicitation of 360-degree feedback. At this phase, you gather feedback from your co-workers, management, and direct reports. There are helpful tips for getting to this in as objective manner as possible in the book. You then aggregate the feedback, own up to what you’re going to change in a very public way, and set about fixing it, re-soliciting feedback when it makes sense to do so.

My favorite part of the book was section 2, which is dedicated to “The Twenty Habits That Hold You Back from the Top.” This is basically an excruciating list of flaws wherein any passionate person will see themselves reflected. How many times have I committed habit #5, “starting with ‘no,’ ‘but,’ or ‘however?” Many many times.

When you start a sentence with “no,” “but,” “however,” or any variation thereof, no matter how friendly your tone or how many cute mollifying phrases you throw in to acknowledge the other person’s feelings, the message to the other person is You are wrong. It’s not, “Perhaps you are misinformed.” It’s not, “I disagree with you.” Its bluntly and unequivocally, What you’re saying is wrong, and what I’m saying is right.” Nothing productive can happen after that. The general response from the other person (unless he or she is a saint willing to turn the other cheek) is to dispute your position and fight back. From there, the conversation dissolves into a pointless war. You’re no longer communicating. You’re both trying to win.

How many times have I made excuses, habit #12? I can count one today… I will return to this section of the book with some frequency to attempt to track my progress and ensure that I’m not picking up any new foibles. I get my annual review next week, which includes 360-degree feedback from peers and managers and I can hardly wait to put it to good use!

I originally heard Marshall Goldsmith on the Cranky Middle Manager podcast in January and liked what he had to say. The book does not disappoint. It’s one of the rare business books that doesn’t pound you over the head repeating what it could have made clear in 5 pages. “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There,” is a cogently written and thoughtful set of exercises and self-examinations that will help you get where you need to go.

Updated: Make sure to check out Marshall Goldsmith’s comments to this post below! He’s got a wonderful repository of resource materials available for free on his site. Check it out:

http://www.MarshallGoldsmithLibrary.com

I just got my Kindle last week and I think I need a bit more time with it to really gather my thoughts and make any real review of the device. I will, however, cop to the fact that one of my first thoughts when I saw the “Whispernet” connectivity and a browser was, “I really wish this thing had RSS.” Thankfully, it does. Kind of…

For all you Kindle-folk out there, and I suspect we’re a growing legion, here are the things you need to do to use Google Reader as your RSS Reader on the Kindle. I was excited to discover I could do this. While there’s nothing overtly tricky, this may be able to save you few exploratory and incorrect clicks.

1. Get an account on Google Reader if you don’t have one yet and add your rss feeds.
2. From the “Home Page” on your Kindle, click on “Menu > Experimental”
3. On the “Experimental” page, select “Basic Web.”
4. From the browser page, click “Menu” and select “Advanced Mode”
5. From the browser page, click “Menu” and select “Settings.” On the “Settings” page, click to “Enable” JavaScript.
6. Type the Mobile Reader URL (http://www.google.com/reader/m/) into the “Enter URL” bar at the top of the browser.
7. You’ll have to log-in to Google Reader on your Kindle now, which is kind of a pain the first time. You’ll probably want to ensure that the box is ticked to remember your settings so that you don’t have to do this frequently.

Voila! You can now use Google Reader for free from anywhere you get the “Amazon Whispernet.” Woohoo! Admittedly, navigation is a bit clunky and the speeds are not dynamite on the stripped mobile version of the reader, but I found that the act of reading the entries was quite pleasurable.

I have to use the Kindle roll and click navigation to get around on the reader site while using Kindle. Has anyone out there been able to get any of the keyboard shortcuts to work?

The Kindle is finally back in stock at Amazon. The flood gates are open.

Watch the promo video for more information on the device.

I’ve now ordered a Kindle twice and canceled my order prior to shipment, both times after waiting more that 4 weeks. I was really close to a delivery on one of those shipments. It’s difficult to decide whether or not this is the device I want or whether I should wait for a v2. Thoughts? Any Kindle owners out there want to weigh in in the comments? Your help and knowledge are appreciated.