If e-book readers are to ever catch on then they must be able to display all kinds of documents and information, from novels to picture albums to technical documents. This presents a challenge for publishers right now because whist e-book readers are catching on, they don’t posses the technology to display anything other than just words and simple black and white images. A lot of publishers are wanting to put their technical documents on to e-ink devices, however technology in the e-ink industry is limiting how those documents can be displayed.

Once such publisher is Dave Thomas from Pragmatic Programmer which publishes technical programming books, as you can imagine, programming books will be full of diagrams, tables, code lists and images — they are really tricky to reproduce for e-book viewing.

This is what Dave had to say

About once a week, we get a request from a reader to have our books available in a format that can be read on an eBook reader (typically, nowadays, the Amazon Kindle).

In fact, we’ve had a prototype form of that capability for a while now, but we’ve always held back. Frankly, we didn’t think the devices worked well with our kind of content. Basically, the .mobi format used by the Kindle is optimized for books that contain just galleys of text with the occasional heading. Throw in tables, monospaced code listings, sidebars and the like, and things start to get messy. The .epub format (used, for example, by Adobe Digital Editions) is slightly more capable, but it also has issues.

You can see exactly what Dave is talking about because he has uploaded his tests, you can see the results here;

Dave goes on to say getting to this stage required a lot of hacks, for instance the code listings have been converted to images so that they render better, however they don’t scale when the user changes the font size — i’m sure many more hacks were used to get to this stage, Dave finises with a good question:

So… what do you think. Is this workable? Should we make these available, even though they’re not very good, or should we wait for a later generation of eBook that’s closer to the capabilities we need? Comments are open… :)

What do you think, should publishers wait or press on knowing this is the best possible outcome given the current technology?

Source: O’Reilly, PragDave

If your one of the many people interested in buying the Kindle, but unfortunately you live outside the US, then until Amazon decides to release Kindle in your local you cant enjoy the benefits of owning a Kindle. Kindle owners here in the US are also interested in knowing whether using their Kindles outside the US is possible. Amazon states in it’s FAQ section that it is working on releasing the Kindle for international markets and asks that international customers to sit tight for the time being.

That’s not good enough for some.

Where there’s a will, there is way. A post by Nerdgirl on her site offers a solution for those unwilling to wait for the official Kindle release in their country. The hack involves tricking Amazon into thinking that your billing address is associated with a US address — apparently Amazon does not verify the address unless you purchase a dead-tree book. This then allows you to associate a Kindle device with your Amazon account, once your Kindle is associated with your account you can use gift certificates to buy e-books. But if your expecting them to be delivered wirelessly then think again, they wont be, you will have to transfer the e-book via USB.

The very fact that someone has discovered this hack proves that people outside the US are itching to get their hands on the Kindle.

You can read the full instructions on Nerdgirls website by following the link below.

Source: Nerdgirl

The Kindle has been around since November 2007 and Amazon has yet released any sales figures. Anecdotal evidence suggests that Amazon has sold anywhere between 40,000 – 140,000 Kindle units per month and that e-book sales are on the increase accounting for 12% of title sales at Amazon.com. Whilst the Kindle hasn’t been a runaway success for Amazon, it has been a hit amongst readers and is slowly gaining acceptance amongst consumers.

Since its launch in 1995, Amazon has become a leviathan in the publishing industry, this spelt good news for the consumers, but not so good for the publishers. Amazon flexed its might in March this year by declaring that if publishers didn’t use Amazon’s in house print on demand wing called BookSurge then the “Buy” button on the Amazon page for their books will be removed. They could then only sell their books on Amazon through a third party.

This amounted to a antitrust suit being filed against Amazon in March of this year, the case is ongoing, Amazon filed for the case to be dismissed, the judge will decide on August 21st if the case can proceed.

The once mighty publishing industry is facing troubling times, with tighter margins on books and more competition from magazines and online publications, publishers are left with little option but to bow to Amazons wishes. Amazon’s cut is 65% when publishing book on the DTP and 25% when published on Mobipocket which gives Amazon even more power over the publishers. Removing their books from Amazon is not an option for many publishers simply because of the amount of revenue they will lose, precious revenue they cannot afford to lose.

The Kindle seems has tightened Amazons grip on the publishers, and as Kindle growth surges it will put the publishers in an even worse position.

It might be hard to spot, but they are talking about the Kindle. The guy in the middle is actually holding one! Photo by imogen_ph

If you have an image that you would like to submit for Kindle Photo of the Day, then please get in touch! you can send the image via email to – please make sure you include your name and a link to your site.

Welcome to the BlogKindle.com weekly news round-up!

Every Sunday we compile a list of our favourite stories from the past week, we also bring to you our selection of Kindle and Amazon related links from around the web. Compiled from blogs, magazines, main stream media and other sources, we hope these links will give you a definitive overview of what’s happening regarding the Kindle and what the Kindle community is talking about.

News Flash From the Cover of Esquire: Paper Magazines Can Be High Tech, Too – New York Times

Warming to the Kindle – Time

Me and my Kindle – CNNMoney.com – Fortune

Jeff Bezos loves his Amazon Kindle – CNNMoney.com

Amazon kindles sales for digital books – Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Amazon puts Albom commencement speech on Kindle reader – The Salt Lake Tribune

Can technology re-Kindle boys’ interests in reading? – Lancaster Online

Lost: One poor, forlorn Kindle – cnet

No e-commerce worries here? Amazon doubles earnings – ZDnet

ReKindling, an updated review – Newsvine

Why Kindle Will Not Die a Fast Death – k.indled

Kindle tip: Take that paper clip along for resets at 30,000 feet – TeleRead

Review: Amazon Kindle – Books Were Just A ‘Gateway Drug’! – BC Books

E-readers thrive but paper promises to be eternal – Business Daily Africa

Road Warriors: Take your library with you – Tech Republic

Four Reasons Why Ebooks Are My Preferred Reading Format – Dear Author

the Kindle and the iPhone dance – Publishing Frontier

Kindling My Reading Habit – crystalking @ wordpress.com

The long, slow death of an institution – lazarusanderson @ wordpress.com

Why the iPhone is the best and worst e-book reader ever – Machinist

Hardback Still the Gold Standard? – Murder She Writes

Boy, Was I Wrong About The New York Times… – Kindleville

eBook Readers vs Other Handheld Devices – Pros and Cons – eBook Reader Source

Big Screen Kindle Aiming for $5.5 Billion Textbook Market – Law Librarian Blog

First Kindle complaint: unreadable images – Blahg

A Kindle to curl up with – ocala.com

University researchers develop e-book reader – Diamondback Online

A Beginner’s Guide to Kindle Content – MobileRead Forums

That was amazingly harder than I thought it would be – MobileRead Forums

Wish I could see the future (aka Newbie making a choice) – MobileRead Forums

Made my own Kindle case …. – MobileRead Forums

Opinion: How to make the Kindle a mainstream success – ars technica

A practical handbook of pertinent expressions, striking similes, literary, commercial, conversational, and oratorical terms, for the embellishment of speech and literature, and the improvement of the vocabulary of those persons who read, write and speak English. By the American author and former instructor in public speaking at Yale University.

American writer, Grenville Kleiser (1868-1953), is best known for his writings on humor, inspiration and positive thinking. Besides Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases, he authored Model Speeches for Practice, Successful Methods of Public Speaking, The Training of a Public Speaker, and others, all now published by PDQ Press. Kleiser is quoted nearly as often as Mark Twain thanks to his wit and insight Good humor is a tonic for mind and body. It is the best antidote for anxiety and depression. It is a business asset. It attracts and keeps friends. It lightens human burdens. It is the direct route to serenity and contentment. To every problem there is already a solution whether you know it or not. It is often better to have a great deal of harm happen to one than a little; a great deal may rouse you to remove what a little will only accustom you to endure.

It is a wonderful resource for writers.

Excerpt from the e-book:

INTRODUCTION

The most powerful and the most perfect expression of thought and feeling through the medium of oral language must be traced to the mastery of words. Nothing is better suited to lead speakers and readers of English into an easy control of this language than the command of the phrase that perfectly expresses the thought. Every speaker’s aim is to be heard and understood. A clear, crisp articulation holds an audience as by the spell of some irresistible power. The choice word, the correct phrase, are instruments that may reach the heart, and awake the soul if they fall upon the ear in melodious cadence; but if the utterance be harsh and discordant they fail to interest, fall upon deaf ears, and are as barren as seed sown on fallow ground. In language, nothing conduces so emphatically to the harmony of sounds as perfect phrasing–that is, the emphasizing of the relation of clause to clause, and of sentence to sentence by the systematic grouping of words. The phrase consists usually of a few words which denote a single idea that forms a separate part of a sentence. In this respect it differs from the clause, which is a short sentence that forms a distinct part of a composition, paragraph, or discourse. Correct phrasing is regulated by rests, such rests as do not break the continuity of a thought or the progress of the sense.

GRENVILLE KLEISER, who has devoted years of his diligent life to imparting the art of correct expression in speech and writing, has provided many aids for those who would know not merely what to say, but how to say it. He has taught also what the great HOLMES taught, that language is a temple in which the human soul is enshrined, and that it grows out of life–out of its joys and its sorrows, its burdens and its necessities. To him, as well as to the writer, the deep strong voice of man and the low sweet voice of woman are never heard at finer advantage than in the earnest but mellow tones of familiar speech. In the present volume Mr. Kleiser furnishes an additional and an exceptional aid for those who would have a mint of phrases at their command from which to draw when in need of the golden mean for expressing thought. Few indeed are the books fitted to-day for the purpose of imparting this knowledge, yet two centuries ago phrase-books were esteemed as supplements to the dictionaries, and have not by any manner of means lost their value. The guide to familiar quotations, the index to similes, the grammars, the readers, the machine-made letter-writer of mechanically perfect letters of congratulation or condolence–none are sententious enough to supply the need. By the compilation of this praxis, Mr. Kleiser has not only supplied it, but has furnished a means for the increase of one’s vocabulary by practical methods. There are thousands of persons who may profit by the systematic study of such a book as this if they will familiarize themselves with the author’s purpose by a careful reading of the preliminary pages of his book. To speak in public pleasingly and readily and to read well are accomplishments acquired only after many days, weeks even, of practise.

Foreigners sometimes reproach us for the asperity and discordance of our speech, and in general, this reproach is just, for there are many persons who do scanty justice to the vowel-elements of our language. Although these elements constitute its music they are continually mistreated. We flirt with and pirouette around them constantly. If it were not so, English would be found full of beauty and harmony of sound. Familiar with the maxim, “Take care of the vowels and the consonants will take care of themselves,”–a maxim that when put into practise has frequently led to the breaking-down of vowel values–the writer feels that the common custom of allowing “the consonants to take care of themselves” is pernicious. It leads to suppression or to imperfect utterance, and thus produces indistinct articulation.

Download “Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases” by Grenville Kleiser for your Kindle:

“Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases” by Grenville Kleiser [.azw file]

Feedbooks.com — a site we have previously mentioned on this site –  has a new feature which allows Kindle users to download RSS feed directly onto the Kindle in a way creating your very own personal newspaper from multiple feeds.

From MobileRead forums by Hadrien;

Feedbooks provide an easy way for Kindle users to download and read RSS feeds directly on their device:

1. You can create a file for a single feed: http://www.feedbooks.com/feed
2. … or you can create a newspaper with multiple feeds: http://www.feedbooks.com/newspaper/create
3. Generate a Mobipocket/Kindle file and transfer the file to your Kindle through USB or e-mail
4. Once the file is on your Kindle, you can directly update your feeds inside the file, through the link on the cover or in the main menu of the file
5. You can also subscribe to these feeds/newspapers from the main website and download those subscriptions from the mobile website: http://feedbooks.mobi

Here’s an example, just add this file on your Kindle to read the feed from Mobileread: http://www.feedbooks.com/feed/743.mobi

It is a smart idea to provide feeds in an “offline” format for those times when your Kindle had no wireless signal.

One of the most interesting things to try once this feature is online will be to read a blook (blog+book), which is basically a serialized novel published on a blog. For the last 2 years, Lulu even created a Blooker Prize to award the best blooks. I’m not a huge fan of LCD screens for reading, but with an e-paper device on my hands, things are much different and I’ll probably start reading a few blooks and hope that I’ll find one that suits me pretty well.

Create your own newspaper for you Kindle at Feedbooks: http://www.feedbooks.com/news. It will be interesting to keep your eye on this service and see how it evolves.

Source: MobileRead forums, Feedbooks

Esquire Magazine celebrates its 75th birthday this year. To celebrate this milestone Esquire has partnered up with a Cambridge, Massachusetts based technology company, E Ink Corporation (the same company which makes the Kindles e-ink display), to become the first magazine to be printed-or should I say manufactured-with an e-ink cover.

The special 75th anniversary issue will focus on exploring the ideas, people and issues that will be the foundation of the 21st century.

“This cover is both a breakthrough for magazines and an expression of the theme of our anniversary issue,” said David Granger, editor-in-chief of Esquire Magazine. Whilst the cover uses “rudimentary e-ink technology” primarily because the cost associated with having a high resolution e-ink display is still very high, Mr. Granger hopes this is only the beginning of an explosion in the use of e-ink technology.

Mr. Granger, also has high hopes for the covers place in history saying “I hope it will be in the Smithsonian [...] Magazines have basically looked the same for 150 years,” adding “I have been frustrated with the lack of forward movement in the magazine industry.” – you can include the publishing and the newspaper industry’s to that also.

Whilst some might see this as a marketing gimmick, Esquire is hopeful that the technology behind the device will last, Mr. Granger thinks “The possibilities of print have just begun. In two years, I hope this looks like cellphones did in 1982, or car phones.”

Esquires publishers have had to invest a six figure amount in order to get the project off the ground, so a big-time sponsor was needed in order to turn a profit, Ford was brought in to help with some of the costs in exchange for a 2-page e-ink advertisement.

The Esquire team has been planning to use an e-ink cover for a long time, back in 2000, Mr. Granger visited E Ink Corporation in Cambridge for a technology demonstration, but conceded that it was too premature for magazines. In 2006 the technology had improved sufficiently that only limitation to creating an e-ink magazine was having a battery small enough to power it-and the associated costs-, so for the past 16 months Esquire has been working with a Chinese manufacture to create a battery which will fit inside a magazine, the battery is expected to last 90 days.

It would be interesting to see what magazine stands would look like in a decades time if the e-ink cover catches on. Magazine stands are already a visual assault on the eyes, every magazine is competing for you attention with bright colours and scantily clad women, one can only imagine the stands if they were filled with animated e-ink covers!

Now I suspect that the e-ink display will be a segmented type as opposed to a high resolution graphic type available on the Kindle, given the cost of manufacturing. The Esquire cover will probably have a few frames of animation or some flashing text – nothing fancy, but still quite cool. Esquire has an exclusive deal with E Ink Corporation on the use of e-ink technology in print through 2009, however only a 100,000 e-ink covers will be produced, they will only be available on Magazine stands and the 620,000 Esquire mail subscribers will get a printed copy of the issue.

Source: New York Times

Just a quick update following on from the previous post.

Tor.com has made 24 e-book available to download, you can now download some of them directly from Amazon.com and get them delivered to your Kindle through Whispernet.

The book available from the list of 24 are;

1. Mistborn: The Final Empire
2. Old Man’s War
3. Spin
4. The Outstretched Shadow: The Obsidian Trilogy: Book One
5. Crystal Rain
6. Lord Of The Isles
7. Through Wolf’s Eyes
8. Reiffen’s Choice
9. Sun Of Suns

You can get them by following this link.

Source: Amazon Kindle official blog

UPDATE: Thanks to reader Tracey Rowley who informed me that Amazon had put up a new link for all the free Tor.com content, right now there are 15 e-books available–there were 20 before–which you can download to your Kindle via Whispernet:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_7205842_1?ie=UTF8&docId=1000255371&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=right-3&pf_rd_r=1A34K6V7WQ8EJ7RKVZKC&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=418894601&pf_rd_i=133141011%3Cbr%20/%3E

Back in May we got wind of a new social fanzine site especially for science-fiction and fantasy readers, Tor.com was due for launch we were told imminently, but as with these things the launch actually didn’t happen for a couple of month – over the weekend Tor.com was launched.

If you read the earlier post you know that had you signed up for the newsletter, Tor was giving away a free e-book every week in their weekly newsletter. Now that the site has launched, Tor will make available all 24 titles that were given away in the newsletter–only till the 27th of July, so head on over to the site and download them–in their Freebies Bonanza, there is a selection of artwork for download as-well, some would make an excellent desktop wallpaper.

Here is the list of all the available e-books;

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson

PDF || HTMLnew! || HTML zipnew! || Mobinew!

Old Man’s War by John Scalzi

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

Spin by Robert Charles Wilson

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

Farthing by Jo Walton

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

The Outstretched Shadow by Mercedies Lackey & James Mallory

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

Crystal Rain by Tobias Buckell

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

Lord of the Isles by David Drake

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

Through Wolf’s Eyes by Jane Lindskold

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

The Disunited States of America by Harry Turtledove

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

Reiffen’s Choice by S.C. Butler

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

Sun of Suns by Karl Schroeder

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Cherie Priest

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

Spirit Gate by Kate Elliot

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

Starfish by Peter Watts

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

Touch of Evil by C.T. Adams & Cathy Clamp

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

A Shadow in Summer by Daniel Abraham

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

Orphans of Chaos by John Wright

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

In the Garden of Iden by Kage Baker

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

In the Midnight Hour by Patti O’Shea

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

Battlestar Galactica by Jeffrey A. Carver

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

Flash by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

Soul by Tobsha Learner

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

Darkness of the Light by Peter David

PDF || HTML || HTML zip || Mobi

Three Shadows by Cyril Pedrosanew!

PDF || ePub

If your a fan of science-fiction and fantasy  books then you might want to bookmark Tor.com, and sign up for access to more advanced community features, whilst the site is still in officially in beta there is a lot there for you to look at and read. There are already some lively discussions going on in the community forum with Tor and Macmillan employees and the blog on the front page is filled with interesting news and stories.

Eric sent in this wonderful picture, what a great place to go to read.

Eric says;

I wanted to show you the stellar location I was able to read my Kindle at this weekend. It’s in the Blue Mountains above Walla Walla wine country. Breathtaking and serene. Somehow the Kindle fit in just fine. In fact, my girlfriend was jealous everytime the breeze picked up – her pages would flip and rustle, I just kept reading.

For full disclosure, I am an employee of Amazon.com although I had nothing to do with the development of the device. I am just an avid reader and a fan of free public domain literature on a great reader.

Cheers!

Eric Franklin
http://thepugetnews.com

Cheers Eric!

If you have an image that you would like to submit for Kindle Photo of the Day, then please get in touch! you can send the image via email to – please make sure you include your name and a link to your site.

Whenever you purchase an expensive new gadget you dread about dropping it, you take it out of the packaging with care and handle it like a newborn child, but as the novelty wears off and you start using, odds are that you will occasionally drop it – eek!

Now it’s a good to know that just in case you drop your Kindle, your device wont be smashed into a million tiny pieces, to put your mind at ease Amazon did a drop test for the Kindle, now the video has been around for a while, but it hasn’t been posted on this site, so here is the Amazon Kindle drop test from 30 inches (76 cm).

Source: YouTube

Oh my god, why is everyone is looking at me??!!!… are you the type of person who gets paranoid about what people are thinking when you indulge in the latest self-help book? Lets face it there are some books which are just plain embarrassing to be seen with, The Amazon Kindle official blog has a humorous post about one bloggers addiction to self-help books and how they make her feel, she lists what’s going through her mind when she’s reading on the bus;

Me (reading): He’s Just Not That Into You: The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys
Bus passenger (thinking): “That chick probably gets dumped a lot.”

Me (reading): How Not to Look Old
Bus passenger (thinking): “She should have read that a couple of decades ago.”

Me (reading): The Secret
Bus passenger (thinking): “She watches too much Oprah.”

Me (reading): Ask and It Is Given: Learning to Manifest Your Desires
Bus passenger (thinking): “Geez…yesterday she was reading The Secret.”

For those of you who are conscious about what other people are thinking when you read your book the Kindle makes reading your weird little titles a little more bearable in public, no longer do you have to hide the cover or find a secluded spot to read your book, the Kindle offers protection because the title you are reading remains anonymous. However now people will now think you are cool because you own a Kindle, or are they just saying that because you own a Kindle?… hmm

Has the Kindle made you more a adventurous reader in public?

Source: Amazon Kindle Offical Blog

Welcome to the BlogKindle.com weekly news round-up!

Every Sunday we compile a list of our favourite stories from the past week, we also bring to you our selection of Kindle and Amazon related links from around the web. Compiled from blogs, magazines, main stream media and other sources, we hope these links will give you a definitive overview of what’s happening regarding the Kindle and what the Kindle community is talking about.

I’ll never be caught reading an ebook – Times Online

Warming to the Kindle – Time

New look at Kindle – Baltimore Sun

Open source and the Kindle – cnet

Revisiting the Amazon Kindle e-Book Reader – BlogCritics

Amazon to release two new Kindles by the end of the year? – Boing Boing

Bad News For The Kindle: iPhone 3G + Apps (AAPL, AMZN) – Silicon Ally Insider

Christian Publishers Commit to Delivering Majority of Catalogs to Amazon Kindle Owners by the End of 2008 – Yahoo News

A digital Albom through Kindle – Associated Press

Movie poster screens for your Kindle – kindlerama

Can You Curl Up With a Kindle? – Media Ramblings

Kindle Exclusive and Growing Media Attention – Dearauthor.com

The iPhone, the Kindle, and the rest of the world – Musematic

Un-book – Internet Time Business Blog

Amazon Kindle Drop Test – YouTube

Interesting items about using a Kindle in a Borders Bookstore – MobileRead forums

PDFs and Free Conversions – Kindleville

Kindle PDF tips – TeleRead

How to remove custom screensaver images from your Kindle – kindlerama.com

Crazy for Kindle? – Ask Alison

Do you have a Kindle? – Beth William

Rumor: Amazon to release the Kindle 2.0 in time for the holiday season – Gadgetell

Have You Ever Bought an eBook? – Geek Sugar

Amazon Kindle – The “Going Green” Gadget for Saving Trees – Furniture

Kindle 2.0 Coming Around October 2008 – CrunchGear

Kindle 2.0 as early as October, perhaps? And more price drops on the old model? – Teleread

Amazon prepping next-gen Kindles – Pocket-lint

New Amazon Kindle Goes Smaller, Launches October 2008 – Mobile Magazine

Rumor: Amazon Kindle 2 Coming This Fall – Gizmodo

Kindle Statistics: Better Not Tell You Now – Used Books Blog

O’Reilly On Kindle – Offical Amazon Kindle Blog

Kindle Review: Good but I Prefer Books – LIVEdigitally

The Future is Now! – Robin’s life

Kindle CS – marian333 @ livejournal

organizing books – Kindle Tips

I was wrong: I now have and love the Kindle – Brian’s Brain

Re-Kindled – BuggBlog

Kindle – epitome

Will the Amazon Kindle provide a new home for newspaper content? – librarianization

Amazon Kindle and Ebook Trends – eReader Central

Kindle Reset – Kindle Tips

My Current Obsession: To Kindle or Not To Kindle – Writer in Progress

Whatever is Digital Text Platform? – k.indled.com

Will Amazon Do For Wine What It Has Done For Books? – kasewines

DO WANT!!!! – CatHouse Chat

Welcome to the New York Times Best Sellers list for July 18th, 2008.

Each week we go through the top sellers on the list and give you our top 3 picks so to give you can get an idea of what to download for your Kindle. You can browse through The New York Times best sellers list on Amazon.com.

Here are our top 3 books of the week followed by the top 5 best-selling books by category;

Our Picks

Lean Mean Thirteen (Stephanie Plum, No. 13) (by Janet Evanovich) – Number 3 in Mass Market Paperback

If I had a dollar for every time I laughed out loud listening to Janet Evanovich’s Lean Mean 13, I could have treated myself to dinner, and not fast food either. In fact, my husband and I thoroughly enjoyed Evanovich’s latest Stephanie Plum mystery on a long car trip and it kept us entertained for hours. Evanovich could have called this one Lucky 13 as this book finds her on top of her game.

Ranger asks Stephanie to plant a bug in the office of lawyer Dickie Orr, Stephanie’s ex-husband. Some of his law firm partners are up to no good. Stephanie grabs Lula and they pretend they’re asking Orr for legal advice. But as only Stephanie and Lula can do, fireworks erupt, the police are called and they’re thrown out of the office. When Orr disappears the next day and foul play is apparent, Stephanie becomes the number one suspect. So she sets out to find Orr to clear her name. But unsavory characters follow Stephanie around, figuring that she’ll lead them to Orr. All the while, bodies are turning up that are burnt like crispy-critters.

Most of the old gang is back in Mean Lean 13. There’s the crazy Lula (a former hooker and now office filer for Plum Bail Bonds) and the equally crazy Grandma Mazur (who always packs heat). Joyce Barnhardt is Stephanie’s rival (in both love and bounty hunting) and she’s also determined to find Orr. There’s the usual love triangle between Stephanie, the ever hunky cop Joe Morelli and the dark, sensual but dangerous Ranger. And this book even includes a taxidermist who booby-traps his specimens. It makes for a wild time. There’s also a great side-story that deals with the ineptitude of a cable television service. For those of us who live in New Jersey, that can only mean The Big C.

If you’re looking for mystery that is great literature, look somewhere else. But if you want to read a mystery that is side-splitting funny, Evanovich and Plum are your girls. - reviewed by Cynthia K. Robertson

4/5 Amazon.com rating by 342 customer reviews.

Kindle Version is available!
Source: Amazon Customer Review*

The Billionaire’s Vinegar: The Mystery of the World’s Most Expensive Bottle of Wine (by Benjamin Wallace) – Number 10 in Hardcover Nonfiction

It’s not right to fool people, especially to make money from them. It’s still fun, however, to learn about how suckers have gotten swindled, if the suckers aren’t you or someone close to you. It’s especially fun if the suckers are successful tycoons who are used to having the world and its denizens bow to their wills. It’s fun, too, if the suckers are partaking in some particular form of snobbery, like the prestige that comes from buying hugely expensive bottles of wine. When a bottle went in 1985 for $156,000, the world swooned at the presumptuousness, and the press went wild calculating just how many hundreds of dollars each little sip would cost. Twenty years later, the fun is that the bottle was a phony, and the buyers of that particular bottle and of who knows how many others had been taken in by a very smart wine expert who eventually got caught. This is a fun story, told with verve and detail in _The Billionaire’s Vinegar: The Mystery of the World’s Most Expensive Bottle of Wine_ (Crown) by Benjamin Wallace. Wallace has researched different facets of wine history, so there is a good deal of science and social history in his book, and he has the eye for detail of a good mystery writer (it isn’t surprising that this nonfiction book has recently been optioned to be turned into a movie). You don’t have to be interested in wine to find this story of human foibles funny and instructive.

The bottle in question was auctioned by Christie’s in 1985. It was a 1787 Château Lafite Bordeaux, and was presented as having been part of the cellar of the wine enthusiast Thomas Jefferson. It was engraved “1787 Lafitte” (the way they spelled it then) and had the initials “Th.J.” Christie’s was the most prestigious of auctioneers in the department of fine and historic wines, and it vouched for the authenticity of the bottle. The wine had been found and placed on the market by a German wine dealer named Hardy Rodenstock, who had previously been a pop-band manager. Rodenstock refused to say who sold the wine to him, nor how many other bottles there were. But he was doing a great business in very rare, very old wines, and customers were in those days eager to buy his finds, whether he would reveal their provenance or not. Neither Christie’s nor potential buyers took the simple step of checking with the museum staff at Monticello, Jefferson’s home, to see if there were any record of such a purchase by him. Jefferson was meticulous, even obsessive, about documenting his purchases of wine and everything else, so there should have been a record. There was none. Rodenstock’s silence on where his fine old wines were coming from should not have taken two decades to foster suspicion in some of those who were buying from him, but such suspicions eventually started up. Wallace is exactly right about how the con game was played: “As with all successful cons, the marks and the grifter had been collaborators. One sold the illusion that the others were desperate to buy.” Rodenstock made the mistake of selling Jefferson bottles to a litigious Florida tycoon who spent a fortune on investigators and laboratory tests to demonstrate fraud. Wallace cannot end his book with Rodenstock being convicted and sent to jail, but the arguments included in the book seem conclusive. Readers will be eager to hear about further legal news in the case.

There wasn’t anything vintners could do in the seventeenth century to make sure that counterfeits didn’t show up two centuries later, but Wallace explains that steps are being taken these days to make sure no future Rodenstock can pull the same tricks. Laser-etching of bottles or embossing them with particular marks is one step, as is using watermarked and ultraviolet-tagged labels. Another step is using particularly adhesive glue to affix the label, but this will irritate collectors who like putting labels in their scrapbooks. There will be future wine counterfeiters, but they will have to work harder. And that bottle sold at Christie’s in 1985? It was bought by Kip Forbes, under orders from his father Malcolm Forbes. The father was furious that the son had paid so much, but he always had a yen for publicity, and realized that having such a headline-making bottle was just what he needed. He put it on display in a case specially highlighted, and the heat from the light made for just the opposite of a wine cellar. It shrank the cork, which fell in, and even if the wine was fake, it wasn’t even wine after that, just the vinegar of this book’s title. You couldn’t ask for a more fittingly symbolic end to all the selfishness and self-importance that Wallace has illustrated in this fascinating tale. - reviewed by R. Hardy “Rob Hardy”

4/5 Amazon.com rating by 23 customer reviews.

Kindle Version is available!
Source: Amazon Customer Review*

The Last Patriot: A Thriller (by Brad Thor) – Number 1 in Hardcover Fiction

The character of Scot Harvath has been one of my recent favorites in the last 3-4 years since discovering Thor’s books, and ‘The Last Patriot’ virtually cements this bold character into (at least MY version) of great leading Action/Adventure Hero’s.

Controversy is nothing new to Brad Thor by any means…however, with that said, I believe he is courting a whole new set of problems, or seriously potential problems with the storyline here. Religion in general is a very touchy subject, but as we have seen over the last decade or so, even fictionalizing specific events in Muslim History can be viewed as MAJOR Blasphemy–the kind that involves life-threatening retaliation. Don’t believe me? Anybody remember Salmon Rushdie’s ‘Satanic Verses’? ‘Nuff said. I heard an interview done with Thor on Glenn Beck and I’m not the only one concerned here. I honestly feel that if somewhere, sometime soon if I read about Brad Thor being the target of Terrorists, well, let’s just say it won’t surprise me (read the book and you’ll understand).

The book, though is a hum-dinger of a story. Easily Thor’s best-to-date. Like other reviewers, I like when events in history are tied in with current storylines, and I REALLY like it when its done right…and I am happy to say Thor really nails it with this latest installment. Action on top of intrigue firmly attached to a healthy dose of adrenaline mixed with a Titanic-sized load of action and you have an idea of how well constructed ‘The Last Patriot’ truly is. I have enjoyed these books a lot since I first began them, but this one seriously places the bar at a level that is amazingly high compared to the previous Tales of Scot Harvath–and THEY were great, if that tells you anything.

One thing I enjoy in particular about Harvath is that no matter how death-defying his exploits end up being, I always find myself thinking that were I under similar circumstances, and I had Scot’s talent, what Thor describes is pretty much dead-on with how I feel I would act and say–or at least what I’d like to THINK I would act and feel if our roles were reversed–which I am glad they aren’t.

For those who are fans of how Cussler takes historical events and weaves a seamless tale of adventure into a modern tale of action, you honestly owe it to yourself to give Brad Thor a try–and while you don’t HAVE to start at the beginning to appreciate each book, I personally feel that by starting with ‘The Lions of Lucerne’ you will get a much better appreciation not only for the character of Scot Harvath, but you will get a ringside seat to Thor’s growing talent for storytelling that just gets better with each book…no REALLY.

Kudos to Thor for not just a good addition to this series, but EASILY the best to date by a country mile…and that’s saying a LOT. - reviewed by Jeff Edwards “RadioJeff”

4/5 Amazon.com rating by 39 customer reviews.

Kindle Version is available!
Source: Amazon Customer Review*

* These reviews are taken from Amazon.com customer/editor reviews and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions blogkindle.com

Top 5 Books by Category

Hardcover Fiction
1. THE LAST PATRIOT, by Brad Thor
2. FEARLESS FOURTEEN, by Janet Evanovich
3. SAIL, by James Patterson and Howard Roughan
4. TAILSPIN, by Catherine Coulter
5. THE STORY OF EDGAR SAWTELLE, by David Wroblewski

Hardcover Nonfiction
1. WHEN YOU ARE ENGULFED IN FLAMES, by David Sedaris
2. FLEECED, by Dick Morris and Eileen McGann
3. WHAT HAPPENED, by Scott McClellan
4. ARE YOU THERE, VODKA? IT’S ME, CHELSEA, by Chelsea Handler
5. THE MONSTER OF FLORENCE, by Douglas Preston with Mario Spezi

Paperback Trade Fiction
1. THE SHACK, by William P. Young
2. WATER FOR ELEPHANTS, by Sara Gruen
3. THE KITE RUNNER, by Khaled Hosseini
4. THE ALCHEMIST, by Paulo Coelho
5. THE FRIDAY NIGHT KNITTING CLUB, by Kate Jacobs

Paperback Mass-Market Fiction
1. DOUBLE TAKE, by Catherine Coulter
2. SOMEDAY SOON, by Debbie Macomber
3. LEAN MEAN THIRTEEN, by Janet Evanovich
4. INTO THE SHADOW, by Christina Dodd
5. THE NAVIGATOR, by Clive Cussler with Paul Kemprecos

Paperback Nonfiction
1. THREE CUPS OF TEA, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
2. WISDOM OF OUR FATHERS, by Tim Russert
3. EAT, PRAY, LOVE, by Elizabeth Gilbert
4. BIG RUSS AND ME, by Tim Russert
5. THE AUDACITY OF HOPE, by Barack Obama

Hardcover Advice
1. THE LAST LECTURE, by Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow
2. THE SECRET, by Rhonda Byrne
3. WHEN MARKETS COLLIDE, by Mohamed A. El-Erian
4. THE SOUTH BEACH DIET SUPERCHARGED, by Arthur Agatston with Joseph Signorile
5. WOMEN AND MONEY, by Suze Orman

Paperback Advice
1. SOUL WISDOM, by Dr. Zhi Gang Sha
2. A NEW EARTH, by Eckhart Tolle
3. SKINNY BITCH, by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin
4. YOU CAN HEAL YOUR LIFE, by Louise L. Hay
5. THE POWER OF NOW, by Eckhart Tolle

Children’ Books
1. GALLOP!, written and illustrated by Rufus Butler Seder
2. ALPHABET, by Matthew Van Fleet
3. THE DANGEROUS ALPHABET, by Neil Gaiman
4. SMASH! CRASH!, by Jon Scieszka
5. ZEN TIES, written and illustrated by Jon J. Muth

That’s what analyst Steve Weinstein of Portland’s Pacific Crest told the San Francisco Chronicle, adding that Amazon has sold around 40,000 units so far this year and could sell between 700,000 – 800,000 by the end of 2008 hitting $2.5 billion in sales by 2012.

Considering that Apple sold 376,000 iPod units in its first year, the numbers look promising, that’s considering you believe Mr Weinstein’s numbers – we think his numbers are highly inflated and Mark Mahaney’s figures are more realistic. But that’s not the interesting part of Steve Weinstein’s analysis, he goes on to say that Kindle wont have the same impact on the industry as the iPod had on the music industry, – I think we can all agree on that – one reason being that that price of the Kindle, currently at $359, is too expensive for mass acceptance. Is $359 too expensive? what we have got to remember is that Kindle is the first generation device, and prices will inevitably drop.

Tim McCall, VP of sales at Penguin Group USA said “We see it as an incremental change” suggesting that the Kindle is a catalyst in an overall move towards an e-book distribution model for the industry. Tim McCall added “It’s certainly a device that has energized the digitization of books”.

Is the Kindle too expensive for mass acceptance? what do you think:

The images above are from a test conducted by Cartwright Reed, with the iPhone on the left and Kindle on the right showing The Stand by Stephen King.

From Cartwright Reed

The smaller, brighter iPhone screen is showing the same number of words as the Kindle. The Kindle is the premiere ebook reader, but I think that the eReader/iPhone combination is compelling. Listening to music while reading off the iPhone screen is a great experience.

The Kindle is still the winner when you’re buying ebooks, though. I bought a few titles from Fictionwise and eReader from the iPhone, but it’s not nearly as easy as Kindle’s Whispernet experience. Of course, you can only go to one bookstore on the Kindle :-).

What is interesting is that the iPhone can squeeze the same amount of words onto the screen as the Kindle, however I suspect you will be squinting quite hard as you try and read the the tiny font on the iPhone. The only solution would be to increase the font size which means less words per screen, which means more page flipping.

Source: Cartwright Reed

As crazy as it sounds, according to an intriguing CrunchGear article today, a trusted “insider” has revealed that Amazon will be releasing two new Kindle models, the first of which could be hitting shelves as early as October.

From CrunchGear;

An insider let slip that two new Amazon Kindle models will hit stores this holiday season, with the first coming as early as October.

The first is an updated version with the same sized screen, a smaller form factor, and an improved interface. The source told us that Amazon has “skipped three or four generations,” comparing the old Kindle to the 1st gen iPod and the new version to something like the sexy iPod Mini.

The rendering to the right is NOT what the new Kindle will look like – we hope – it’s CrunchGears own rendering. However, according to the article, Amazon will be making the new Kindles available in a variety of colours to make the device more appealing to a younger audience, so buying a pink Kindle is not out of the question – yet.

Reportedly, the first model will be a smaller incarnation of the existing Kindle with the same sized screen and an “improved interface”. The source goes on to say that the newer smaller Kindle will have “skipped three or four generations” it will be interesting to see exactly what this means, a new eInk display perhaps or a new operating system? The second new version will be shaped like a 8.5 – 11 inch sheet of paper and will be noticeably larger than the current model, it will hit shelves early next year.

There is no word on the pricing structure, or indeed if it means that the existing Kindle will be reduced in price – we hope so.

We would advise that you take this news with a pinch of salt because Jeff Bezos said this at “D: All Things Digital Conference” back in May;

“There will be a second version, a third version, a tenth version. … but a second version is not that near.”

Was Jeff deceiving us? I don’t think he was, however I think the most likely reality is that Amazon is refreshing the product line – just like the Apple did with the iPod. First we had the iPod, then along came the iPod Nano, iPod Shuffle and iPod Touch, most likely that is what is going on. Amazon is offering different flavours of the Kindle depending on your reading habits, a “Kindle Nano” if you occasional reader, a “Classic Kindle” if your a major bookworm etc…

This rumour has thrown a gigantic spanner in the works if you were thinking of purchasing a Kindle any time soon.

Source: CrunchGear

If you have an image that you would like to submit for Kindle Photo of the Day, then please get in touch! you can send the image via email to – please make sure you include your name and a link to your site.

Samhain Publishing is having a promotion with two of their e-books, for this week only you can download Nate by Beth Williams over Whispernet onto your Kindle absolutely free.

Official promo:

Samhain Publishing is pleased to announce our very first Amazon Kindle ebook giveaway! The title is Nate from Beth Williamson. The free download period begins on Monday, July 14th through Sunday, July 20th. This title is the first in the Devils on Horseback series from Williamson and we’re thrilled to share this exciting series with readers. As an FYI, Williamson recently signed with Kensington in April 2008.

Our next Kindle giveaway will be in August. That title is Giving Chase from Lauren Dane. I will send out a notice with all the details once they are finalized.

Here is the book description from Amazon.com

Amidst the post-war chaos that rains down around them, a controlling man and a desperate woman must choose between life and love.

Book one of the Devils on Horseback series.

Nate Marchand grew up as the only son of the town drunk. As a Confederate soldier, he found that order in the chaos was the only thing that kept him sane. Numbers, information, keeping everything in its proper place became second nature. The chaos of the war and its aftermath sent him into a rigid state that he couldn’t seem to overcome.

He and his friends, nicknamed Devils on Horseback, leave behind the aftermath of war to start fresh in the west. Their new business venture flounders and desperation drives them to take whatever work they can. The Devils are hired to remove the Taggert family from land claimed by Samuel O’Shea, the largest landowner in Grayton, Texas.

When he meets Elisa Taggert, his entire world shifts beneath him. Attracted, bewildered, and off-kilter, Nate ignores his conscience in favor of his wallet.

The simple task of removing a woman, a boy, and an old man, along with a small herd of cattle, resembles a Medieval siege. Nate wrestles with what he knows is right with what he must do. Will his love for Elisa overcome his need for survival?

Warning, this title contains the following: explicit sex, graphic language, violence.

Sounds thrilling, look out for Giving Chase by Lauren Dane next week.

Download Nate: Devils on Horseback Book 1 (Kindle Edition) by Beth Williams

Source: nice mommy evil editor

Rampage is literally the word to use in this instance. A Time magazine article last week said;

“on a title-by-title basis, of the 130,000 titles available on Kindle and in physical form, Kindle sales now make up over 12% of sales for those titles.”

That’s according to a Time magazine source inside Amazon, now consider that just two months ago Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos sat down with with Walt Mossberg at “D: All Things Digital Conference” and said;

“Title-by-title basis…Kindle unit sales more than 6% of total book sales”

Incredible! A doubling of sales in the publishing industry is unheard of! in two months Amazon has managed doubled sales with a device which many critics claimed was not ready for prime time. The supply problems and pessimistic early reviews haven’t dented growth at all.

Which begs the question, have Kindle users started to purchase more e-books? and is that because e-books are significantly cheaper than their printed counterparts? or has Amazon been selling a stack load of Kindle’s, far more than previously thought.

Time magazine has a theory;

A couple of things could explain the uptick. The Kindle quickly sold out shortly after it was unveiled on Amazon at the end of 2007. However, the company recently cranked up supply to meet demand, and cut the price at the end of May from $399 to $359. Some analysts estimate Kindle sales at around 55,000 a month. At the same time, the Kindle is quirkier than your average gadget, and consumers are learning how to use it. It’s possible that as Kindle owners warm up to the gadget — and as the library of titles rapidly grows — they increase the rate of their purchases. We now return you to more scrutable data points…

So we are asking you, have to started to purchase more e-books for your Kindle now that you have had the device for a few months? or have you recently purchased the Kindle and was that because of the price drop?

Source: Time Magazine

AuthorIsland.com turn 2 months today and to celebrate this monumental day they have decided to give away 2 Kindles in a competition, sweet!

From AuthorIsland.com

AuthorIsland.com is turning TWO this month and to celebrate, forty three AuthorIsland.com authors and one of our publisher members got together to offer up one heck of a prize!  They’re giving away TWO – are you ready for this? - TWO AMAZON KINDLES!!!   YIPPEEEE!!!

But you’re going to have to work for it, each of the forty four sponsors has a question for you to answer – the answers can be found somewhere on each of the author’s websites.  Once you have all the answers, email them to AuthorIsland at yahoo.com, numbered, along with your name and address, with AuthorIsland Kindle Contest in the subject line.  TWO winners will be drawn on August 1st from all the correct entries to receive their very own – AMAZON KINDLE!!!

You can enter the competition by following this link, be warned however they ain’t kidding when they say your going to have to work for it, there are 44 questions to answer! however you do have plenty of time to find the answers since the deadline for entering is August 1st.

Good luck if you decide to enter!

Source: Author Island

You may of heard that over the weekend Apple unveiled it’s new iPhone 3G device, there has been a lot of buzz surrounding the device, mostly because of the software, the actual hardware is not that impressive and mostly includes improvements that the original iPhone should have shipped with in the first place. The iPhone 3G comes in at a impressive $199 to buy, however you will be paying more in the long term compared to the classic iPhone with higher network subscription charges.

Now how does the new iPhone effect us Kindlers? well… Apple has done something remarkable with the software – they have opened it up! which is impressive considering we are talking about Apple here. All this has allowed third party developers to create e-book apps for the iPhone 3G and has turned the iPhone into a e-book reader.

There are already a couple of iPhone e-book reading apps out already, the iPhone Bookshelf is one which supports multiple formats.

Another promising e-book app is Stanza. Stanza is an app which lets you read e-book which are stored on your iPhone and e-books online, make sure you check out the demo at the bottom of the page. Stanza can also read files in the ePub format, which many other apps are able to work with, perhaps the Kindle will eventually support ePub aswell one day.

The only annoying thing about reading an e-book on the iPhone is that each e-book comes as its own individual app, with its own icon on the iPhone home screen, Apple could have done a better job of categorising e-books or even better creating their own e-book reading App.

There is still some speculation on whether  Apple will create a dedicated e-book reading device, but for now we know e-books are on a Apple device through third party apps, if you couple this with rumours that Apple is in touch with major publishers this would support the theory that Apple is working on its own e-book reader, or at least a e-book store.

Will the touch screen make it easier to read an e-book? I don’t know since I don’t own a iPhone or iPod Touch, but I suspect that it might be a bit easier to read with the iPhone, swiping the screen to turn the page seems a more natural gesture than pressing a button, however you will be using both hands, whereas with the Kindle you need only use one. With the Kindle accidentally turning the page can be quite frustrating, I cant see it happening on the iPhone.

You can watch our buddy Walt Mossberg review of the Apple iPhone 3G in the video below, he mentions the e-book reading capability of the device.

Can Apple with its new iPhone 2.0 software challenge Amazon?

An Amazon.com press release today revealed that 11 top Christian publishers are to make available thousands of e-book for the Kindle.

From the Amazon.com press release;

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), today announced that Christian book publishers Augsburg Fortress, Crossway Books & Bibles, David C. Cook, Gospel Light, Group Publishing, NavPress, Strang Communications, Thomas Nelson, Tyndale, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. and Zondervanp have committed to making the majority of their catalogs of books available to Kindle owners by the end of 2008.

….

The response to our Kindle editions has been remarkable,” said Alan Huizenga, Director of Digital Publishing at Tyndale House Publishers. “We are excited to know that for readers who own a Kindle, they can download and begin reading bestselling Tyndale authors such as Joel Rosenberg, Tony Dungy, Francine Rivers, and Tommy Newberry in under a minute!”

“For years Eerdmans readers have enjoyed our extensive selection of titles from the scholarly to the popular,” said Sam Eerdmans, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Eerdmans. “Now Eerdmans is excited to announce that many of our titles will be readily available on Kindle. Fans of Eugene Peterson or Joan Chittister can quickly find and access their new books using the extremely easy interface of Kindle.”

“Thomas Nelson is excited to offer our books in the digital format on Kindle,” said Robert Edington, Vice President of Internet Channel, Thomas Nelson, Inc. “Our readers have enjoyed works by Max Lucado, John Maxwell and Ted Dekker for a long time, and now those who have a Kindle can quickly and easily download them in 60 seconds.”

It looks like more and more publishers are jumping on the Kindle bandwagon, the more the merrier!

Source: Amazon.com

Amazon Kindle does come with a stock cover, but that is all it is a stock cover, Amazon did so much right with the Kindle, but they failed miserably with the stock case – if your bored with your Kindle continuously falling out of the stock cover you might consider having a look at the M-Edge Leather Executive Case.

This shiny, lushly padded case is a class above the base cover provided by Amazon, it firmly secures the Kindle to the case with four leather corners without being too tight, the top right corner is elasticised so allowing access to the switches on the back. For those who prefer leather the case feels and looks superb – the pictures simply don’t do any justice, it looks fantastic – it is smooth, smells divine and is available in a range of colours. On the inside left there is space for a pen and SD card holder as well as pockets for notes and business cards, it also folds back quite neatly. The craftsmanship is fantastic there are no loose threads in the stitching anywhere and fronting the elastic corner with the same material that’s on the other corners was a nice touch.

Product description from Amazon.com

The Amazon Kindle Executive Jacket is the ultimate for sophisticated on-the-go eReader users. Whether in the office, at a business meeting, or on the treadmill, the Executive Jacket provides refined and stylish protection of your Amazon Kindle in a superior case. The Executive Jacket offers full surface protection in a lushly padded case. The soft grey interior ensures your Kindle will always be cushioned in comfort. This smart case with classic lines even includes a loop for your pen and interior pockets for storage of SD Cards, notes, business cards, and other essentials. Even while closed, you’ll find access to all ports, so you never need to remove your reader for charging. The M-edge Accessories Amazon Kindle Executive Jacket is a sleek case that will protect your eReader from scratches and dings. It is the perfect solution for the user with a fashionable, active lifestyle.

The M-Edge certainly does look a lot better than the standard cover for the Kindle which is frankly quite ugly, a lot of users have reported that the Kindle fell out of it quite easily, you wont get that problem with the M-Edge case because the 4 leather corners firmly keep the Kindle in place. The stock case weighs in at 5.8 ounces while the M-Edge comes in at 4.9 ounces, so no big difference in terms of weight.

The only sticking point is the $54.99 price tag, however this is what Amazon should have shipped with the Kindle in the first place, I wish I had ordered mine months ago.

M-Edge Genuine Leather Executive Case for Amazon Kindle at Amazon.com