Something significant is shaking up the
book world. The US Justice Department is suing the big five
publishers for price fixing. If you have little interest in this,
here's a video of Xander playing with Pororo, who is the Elmo of
Korea.
Still paying attention? The big five
have owned the book world for years. They account for almost all of
the publishing of general interest and popular books. They steadily
raise the price of hardcover books every couple of years, which has
always caused me to grumble. Someone's hackles went up when ebooks
that used to cost $8.99 and $9.99 started costing $14.99, which is
about the price of a trade paperback. I have been wondering when the
trustbusters would look to the publishing world, which is quite often
at odds with libraries for obvious reasons. It looks like they
finally have.
Speaking of books, I have completely
converted. A year ago, I downloaded my first ebook. I never saw the
need to have an ebook reader, since I have such a readily available
supply of free paper books. That was before the baby. I can read my
kindle one-handed while I feed the baby or rock him, and there are no
turning pages to wake him up. I can download my book to three
separate devices, so when I find myself stuck on the side of the road
in a civil defense drill as I was on Thursday, I can pull up my book
on my ipod. I can check out kindle books from the library now, so I
don't even have to pay for most of them.
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