Strange Days

Still stunned by the death of Deborah Digges.

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Amazon, after all, is the retailer many in BookLand love to hate. While it only represents about 10 percent of the business (Barnes & Noble controls more than 35 percent), Amazon has consumer “mind share,” economies of scale, and some nerve: The online retailer provides enormous discounts to consumers, argues publisher discounts in its own favor, and now, with the Kindle, seems to have a stranglehold on the dissemination of e-books, as well. And there’s something about Amazon that isn’t exactly “nice.” For one thing, executives seem to work on the Beg Forgiveness, Don’t Ask Permission business model; when it launched the Kindle2 earlier this year, executives must have known there’d be an outcry among agents and publishers about “audio rights.” But they launched it anyway—and the minute BookLand squawked, Amazon reneged and offered an audio opt-out clause.

--Sara Nelson's take and why she thinks Amazon has the right to determine what it wants it wants to sell and how.

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I'm at least, fortunate to have a ton of used and independent book stores in my vicinity. Buy local or bye bye local.

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I still want goats.

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Then there are these goats:



The Mountain Goats. "No Children."