The Gurly Life

A creepy Kindle incident - updated

The other day I was listening to NPR and I heard about an incident with Amazon.com's electronic reader, the Kindle. If you're not familiar, I encourage you to click on the link so you can see it, but basically it's just that, an electronic reader. You upload books, newspapers, magazines, and then just carry it around and read whatever you want.

This is not the point of this post, but I do think it's a fantastic thing to carry when you travel. Sooo much lighter than the real thing.

Back to the point. Recently, Amazon.com pulled 2 books from the Kindle. There were some copyright issues (and by that, I assume they meant they did not have the right to sell the book in that format), and from one moment to the next, two books disappeared from the Kindles.

I for one am not certain that I'd be willing to give up paper books. It's not that I have anything against electronic books, but they just don't have the same texture and smell, you know? It also occurs to me that it's not a big deal that Amazon.com pulls two books in a split-second because we live in a pretty open society. But it really doesn't take much, I think, for an open society to turn. I think freedom, and especially freedom of thought, and speech, and to read whatever books you want, is still tenuous. Even here.

If all our books are on electronic readers from which they can disappear so easily, censorship is a matter of clicking a button on a computer. All it takes is one person. At least with paper books you have to deploy what is essentially an army of people who then have to ransack libraries, homes, schools, universities etc. to gather up and destroy all the books. Much more labor intensive, much less easy to achieve, and therefore that much less likely to happen. Even if you achieve said book burning, copies will be hidden, smuggled, stuffed in mattresses and so on. If everyone has only electronic books, how would we do that?

I think the creepiest (or perhaps prophetic?) thing about this incident is that the books Amazon.com pulled were George Orwell's Animal Farm and - are you ready for this? - Nineteen Eighty-Four.

[Updated on 8/7/09 to add:]

This post gave rise to a few comments, and I wanted to address one of them in particular, plus there is another drawback to this sort of reading device that I thought of.

The comment came from Nicholas, on Facebook. He said that once you purchase the book for the Kindle, you can download a copy on your laptop as a backup. Assuming that this is the case, and assuming that it is a download and not some kind of sync operation - which would result in losing the downloaded book the next time you sync - that is definitely reassuring.

However, there is still something fundamentally different about the remedy in such a situation. With paper books, once they're sold, they're sold. If the book seller messes up the copyright and discovers that it did not have the right to sell the book, the remedy is damages to the rights holder. In other words, if you sell my book and you don't have my permission, you now have to give me money to compensate me for the harm you've done me. But the books are gone. The remedy does not include a recall, as it were.

In this case, the remedy was a swift recall of the material itself. That it might have been justified under copyright law is beside the point (as is that consumers were reimbursed). I am of course very much for the strict enforcement of intellectual property laws. The point is the ease and immediacy of the remedy. I'm sure it saved Amazon.com some money somewhere, but they would never dream of walking into my home and grabbing a book off my shelf, even if wrongfully sold.

The other question I have is this: what do electronic readers do to the second hand book market? Can a Kindle book be resold at a garage sale for $2?

And for that matter, what do electronic readers do to that fantastic custom of borrowing books from friends and family, or just passing the book on? I have given friends books, they have given me books, and so on. I am asking because I literally don't know what the rules are. I doubt that once you have the book on your electronic reader, you can just pass it on. Unless they figured out a way in which you can pass it on like a real book: from my Kindle to yours, and then I no longer have it.

Recommended listening

Terry Gross interviews author and scholar Bart Ehrman about his new book, Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (and Why We Don't Know About Them), on this week's Fresh Air.

The interview is very interesting, and the books sounds just as interesting. Here's a little blurb about the interview: What is the story of Jesus' birth? How did Judas die? What did Jesus say when he was crucified? The answers to those questions vary depending on which Gospel you read, says Bible scholar Bart Ehrman.

Best Amazon.com book review EVAH!

Forwarded by my good friend, CJ.

The Secret saved my life!

December 4, 2007

By	Ari Brouillette

Please allow me to share with you how "The Secret" changed my life and in a very real and substantive way allowed me to overcome a severe crisis in my personal life. It is well known that the premise of "The Secret" is the science of attracting the things in life that you desire and need and in removing from your life those things that you don't want. Before finding this book, I knew nothing of these principles, the process of positive visualization, and had actually engaged in reckless behaviors to the point of endangering my own life and wellbeing.

At age 36, I found myself in a medium security prison serving 3-5 years for destruction of government property and public intoxication. This was stiff punishment for drunkenly defecating in a mailbox but as the judge pointed out, this was my third conviction for the exact same crime. I obviously had an alcohol problem and a deep and intense disrespect for the postal system, but even more importantly I was ignoring the very fabric of our metaphysical reality and inviting destructive influences into my life.

My fourth day in prison was the first day that I was allowed in general population and while in the recreation yard I was approached by a prisoner named Marcus who calmly informed me that as a new prisoner I had been purchased by him for three packs of Winston cigarettes and 8 ounces of Pruno (prison wine). Marcus elaborated further that I could expect to be raped by him on a daily basis and that I had pretty eyes.

Needless to say, I was deeply shocked that my life had sunk to this level. Although I've never been homophobic I was discovering that I was very rape phobic and dismayed by my overall personal street value of roughly $15. I returned to my cell and sat very quietly, searching myself for answers on how I could improve my life and distance myself from harmful outside influences. At that point, in what I consider to be a miraculous moment, my cell mate Jim Norton informed me that he knew about the Marcus situation and that he had something that could solve my problems. He handed me a copy of "The Secret". Normally I wouldn't have turned to a self help book to resolve such a severe and immediate threat but I literally didn't have any other available alternatives. I immediately opened the book and began to read.

The first few chapters deal with the essence of something called the "Law of Attraction" in which a primal universal force is available to us and can be harnessed for the betterment of our lives. The theoretical nature of the first few chapters wasn't exactly putting me at peace. In fact, I had never meditated and had great difficulty with closing out the chaotic noises of the prison and visualizing the positive changes that I so dearly needed. It was when I reached Chapter 6 "The Secret to Relationships" that I realized how this book could help me distance myself from Marcus and his negative intentions. Starting with chapter six there was a cavity carved into the book and in that cavity was a prison shiv. This particular shiv was a toothbrush with a handle that had been repeatedly melted and ground into a razor sharp point.

The next day in the exercise yard I carried "The Secret" with me and when Marcus approached me I opened the book and stabbed him in the neck. The next eight weeks in solitary confinement provided ample time to practice positive visualization and the 16 hours per day of absolute darkness made visualization about the only thing that I actually could do. I'm not sure that everybody's life will be changed in such a dramatic way by this book but I'm very thankful to have found it and will continue to recommend it heartily.

You can go to the Amazon.com site for this review and add a comment or let Amazon know how helpful it was. I, of course, said it was helpful. And by the way, the comments are priceless.

In your face, Palin!

Thanks to alert blogger downunder, Ms. Dancingmorganmouse, I bring you The Forbidden Library, in association with Amazon.com (bless their hearts). It is a list of the books that have been banned for one reason or another in some part of the world. It includes classics such as George Orwell's 1984, Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl.

If McCan't/Failin' get elected on November 4, we may yet have to put on our subversive hats and take on the establishment.

The end of suffering? Some random thoughts.

I’m reading an interesting book, you’ve probably heard of it: “A new earth” by Eckhart Tolle. It was one of Oprah’s Book Club picks. I must say that the other couple of books I read that she recommended were excellent (damn it!), plus my friend Liza also said I should read this. So here I am, reading it at last, and here's what I'm getting from it so far.

It’s all about how the ego runs us and is the cause of suffering and hate and war, and on a microlevel is also preventing us from having real relationships. There’s another aspect to the book, which has to do with transcending the ego into the next evolutionary leap for humanity. Oh, yes, it’s that big a deal, according to Tolle.

At this point, I would normally tell you what I think of the book, but it seems to me that that would actually be missing the point of what Tolle is trying to say/teach. The book is intended to be an experiential, not an intellectual, journey for the reader.

For those of us who have been on a journey of self-discovery and expansion for a while, it’s not revolutionary, but it does access a new realm of self-awareness: the self which hears itself speak and think and react, the observing eye.

If I have thoughts, feelings, reactions, things to say etc., and I can observe myself doing and thinking and speaking, who is the observer? The observer is the true self. The true self who notices how my mind is never still, who listens to its thoughts without assigning meaning or significance to them, and who can listen to others without assigning meaning or significance to what they say. The true self who notices how other people, events, conversations etc. set me off but can simply allow the reactions to occur on their own, without acting on them. The true self who knows and can see all the filters and interpretations that inform everything I say or do or hear or see, without making myself wrong for having such filters, or others wrong for having such filters.

Much of what Tolle says is aligned with a number of Landmark distinctions. Not the same, but aligned. Landmark’s paradigm is educational, Tolle’s is spiritual. They fit well together. And Tolle’s ideas fit well with yoga – I can really begin to see an opening into spirituality in yoga that I have not seen so far. In yoga, I’ve been practicing being in my body, rather than being in my mind. Obviously, that’s the same thing, the mind is part of the body, but the focus of the mind differs. Going into my head separates and isolates me, it makes me sad and lonely. Going into my body connects me to all things, makes me one with all things and living creatures, loneliness and sadness are irrelevant.

And for my first post...

Miraculously, I have started reading books again. I know!

One of the books is a recommendation from my good friend and fan, John B., "Love Walked In" by Marisa De Los Santos.

Another book is something I found browsing Borders, "The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science" by Natalie Angier.

Although I am by no means an official writer, I do write. Reading other people's work is actually helpful and inspiring. I love reading something and finding an original turn of phrase, it's really exciting.