The Kindle Chronicles

Latest Episodes:

TKC 503 Blake Pollard Mar 24, 2018

Show notes

Readly U.S. Contact

Interview starts at 12:48 and ends at 40:51

"Everyone for a long time has been trying to reinvent the magazine experience on digital, or even the newspaper experience on digital. I was one of those who came out and said, 'Why?' What you need to be doing is expanding your brand. People know your brand. Don't think about shoe-horning the magazine or newspaper into this new--whether it was a device, a screen type, a platform, you've got to sit there and think of what do people really want on this platform?"

News

"Amazon is the most sought-after employer in the U.S." by George Anders at LinkedIn - March 21, 2018

"LinkedIn Top Companies 2018: Where the U.S. wants to work now" by Daniel Roth at LinkedIn - March 21, 2018

Amazon press release on Harris Poll top ranking - March 22, 2018

"Amazon elbows Alphabet aside as second most valuable company" by Richard Waters and Nicole Bullock at The Financial Times - March 20, 2018

"At Mars, Jeff Bezos Hosted Roboticists, Astronauts, Other Brainiacs and Me" by Jack Nicas at The New York Times - March 22, 2018.

"Amazon has shut down Liquavista Offices in the Netherlands" by Michael Kozlowski at Good E Reader - March 15, 2018

"How Amazon's Bottomless Appetite Became Corporate America's Nightmare" by Shira Ovide at Bloomberg - March 14, 2018

"Leaked documents show Amazon's TV gamble is paying off strongly" by Alan Martin at alphr - March 16, 2018

"Amazon to open brick-and-mortar bookstore at Park Meadows mall" by Kurt Sevits at The Denver Channel - March 8, 2018

Tech Tip

"Alexa Fast Tips Friday: New Alexa Follow Up Mode" at Love My Echo

Interview with Blake Pollard

Readly

Readly Select FAQs

Texture you

Click here to sign up for a free 30-day trial to Readly

Readly TV ad in the UKbloo

Content

Open Road Integrated Media announces acquisition of US eBook rights to Graham Greene novels

Next Week's Guest

Otis Chandler, co-founder and CEO of Goodreads

Music for my podcast is from an original Thelonius Monk composition named "Well, You Needn't." This version is "Ra-Monk" by Eval Manigat on the "Variations in Time: A Jazz Perspective" CD by Public Transit Recording" CD.

Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!

TKC 502 South By Southwest Interactive Mar 17, 2018

Show notes

Brittany Kaiser, Co-Founder, Bueno Capital and CryptoHQ

Interview starts at 16:20 and ends at 22:29

South By Southwest Links

"Wyoming Passes 5 Pro-Blockchain Laws" at Consensys - March 15, 2018

"Despite some glitches, VR cinema takes a leap forward at SXSW 2018" by Omar L. Gallaga at the Austin American-Statesman - March 15, 2018

"Wyoming's Blockchain Bills: A Very Personal Labor of Love" by Caitlin Long - March 9, 2018

Pressing On: The e-magazine for growing Christians

"U.S. State of Wyoming Defines Cryptocurrency 'Utility Tokens' As New Asset Class"rache by Rachel Wolfson at Forbes - March 13, 2018

Doc Searls website

"Could an Amazon Token Become a Viable Worldwide Cryptocurrency?" by Erik Kuebler at Bitcoin Magazine - March 9, 2018

SXSW has released streaming audio for the following sessions that I attended:

"The Future of Machine Learning: Worth the Hype?" - Jeff Chow of TripAdvisor, Finale Doshi-Velez of Harvard, Tom Foster of Inc Magazine and Chris Jones of iRobot Corporation

"Interactive Keynote: Esther Perel"

"Why Ethereum is Going to Change the World" - Joseph Lubin, founder of ConsenSys

"Primed for Amazon: Value & Cost of HQ2 for Cities" - Justin Bibb of Gallup, Kansas City Mayor Sylvester James Jr., Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane, and Asad Syrkett of Curbed.

"Why Blockchain Tech Equals 10X the Internet's Value" - Jalak Jobanputra of Future/Perfect Ventures and Brittany Kaiser

"Blockchain Opportunities in Mobility and Logistics" - Chris Ballinger of Toyota Research Institute, Sweeni Ponoth of Bristlecone Inc., Rajat Rajbhandari of Texas A&M Transportation Institute, and Colleen Walsh of SAP

Upcoming Guests

Next week: Blake Pollard of Readly

TKC 504 on March 30, 2018: Otis Chandler, co-founder and CEO of Goodreads

TKC 505 on April 6, 2018: Elizabeth George, author of The Punishment She Deserves, available for pre-order with release on March 20, 2018, by Penguin Group

Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!

Note: You can now support The Kindle Chronicles with an Ether contribution to this public address on the Ethereum blockchain: 0xa08cc4fc9a7beeB71237C98412CD1dF64d199912

TKC 501 Brad Parks Mar 07, 2018

Show notes

Author of Closer Than You Know

Interview starts at 9:29 and ends at 43:09

"I look at certain authors that are greatly esteemed in the moment as literature. But I think, frankly, a lot of what passes as literature today will not stand the test of time, because there's no story in the story. You have 350 pages of a character examining his navel and having interior monologue, and that's just not the stuff that's going to endure....Though he has not won a National Book Award and probably never will, Stephen King is still going to be read a hundred years from now."

News

"Is Amazon Looking to Nation's Capital For a Second Home?" by Brian Deagon at Investor's Business Daily - March 5, 2018

"Ripple (XRP) and Amazon Would Be A Match Made in Crypto Heaven" by John P. Njui at Cryptonews - March 4, 2018

Block Zero, Kevin Rose's new podcast about cryptocurrency.

Block Zero Episode #001 "Bitcoin's true potential - Andreas M. Antonopoulos"

The Internet of Money by Andreas M. Antonopoulos

Interview with Brad Parks

"Who's the deranged man in the parking lot?" by Bill Ruehlmann at The Virginian-Pilot - September 7, 2014

Stand-alone books by Brad Parks Closer Than You Know and Say Nothing

Carter Ross mysteries by Brad Parks: 1. Faces of the Gone 2. Eyes of the Innocent 3. The Girl Next Door 4. The Good Cop 5. The Player 6. The Fraud

Also by Brad Parks: The Nightgown: A Carter Ross Story

Mark Twain: A Life by Ron Powers

Sing, Unburied, Sing: A Novel by Jesmyn Ward (Winner of the 2018 National Book Award)

Content

Website of Kaitlyn Dunnett's website, author of The Liss MacCrimmon Scottish-American Heritage Mysteries

Kilt Dead (A Liss MacCrimmon Mystery Book 1) by Kaitlyn Dunnet

"Dog Theme Mysteries: Dogs are Cozy, Too!" at The Cozy Mystery List Blog - August 9, 2007

Next Week's Show

Voices and ideas from South By Southwest in Austin, Texas

Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!

TKC 500 Kevin Keith Mar 03, 2018

Show notes

General Manager Fire Tablets & Kindle and Amazon Echo & Alexa Product Marketing

Interview starts at 15:16 and ends at 39:43

"I loved what I had heard about the leadership principles, particularly the customer obsession and innovation which I was seeing externally. As I came through the hiring process and since my first day that has been the reality. And so I just really love how the company obsesses about customers and looks to invent every day. That's what really attracted me here."

News

"Alexa briefly lost its voice amid widespread Amazon Web Services outage" by Chris Welch at The Verge - March 2, 2018.

Amazon Web Services service health dashboard

Thanks to James McQuivey of Forrester Research for his comment on the Alexa outage (included in audio)

"Why Amazon is Immune To Almost Any Boycott" by Cale Guthrie Weissman at Fast Company - March 2, 2018

"Amazon Buys Ring, Maker of Smart Home Products" by Nick Wingfield at The New York Times - February 27, 2018

"Amazon named Presenting Sponsor of Digital Book World 2018" by Bradley Metrock - February 25, 2018

Click here to register for Digital Book World 2018 October 2-4, 2018 in Nashville

"Inside the Alexa Prize" by James Vlahos at Wired - February 27, 2018

"Ebooks are not 'stupid'--they're a revolution" by Erin Kelly at The Guardian - February 21, 2018

"Amazon is in talks for a huge new office in Boston--and it drastically ups the HQ2 intrigue" by Dennis Green at Business Insider - February 28, 2018

"Shoppers would welcome an Amazon cryptocurrency, survey says" by Aaron Hankin at MarketWatch - February 27, 2018

"Beyond the Bitcoin Bubble" by Stephen Johnson at The New York Times Magazine - January 16, 2018

Tech Tip

A rave review for Readwise.io

Interview with Kevin Keith

"The votes are in: Alexa loses her voice but Amazon wins USA Today's Ad Meter" by Erik Brady at USA Today - February 5, 2018

Would You Rather for Family skill for Alexa

Sensible Object's "When in Rome" game for Alexa (available this summer)

Word Wise for Kindle

Content

Consider Phlebas (A Culture Novel Book 1) by Iain M. Banks

"Amazon Studios to Adapt Consider Phlebas, First Novel of the Culture Series, for Television" - Amazon Press Release February 21, 2018

Next Week's Guest

Brad Parks, author of Closer Than You Know: A Novel, which will be published by Dutton on March 6, 2018.

Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!

TKC 499 John Aga Feb 24, 2018

Show notes

Avid reader, longtime listener

Interview starts at 12:45 and ends at 43:20

"My ideal Kindle would have real buttons and would have audio support, so that you could do immersion reading along with just straight reading."

News

"Amazon plans to open as many as six more cashierless Amazon Go stores this year" by Jason Del Rey at Recode - February 22, 2018

"Prime Members Now Earn 5% Back When Shopping At Whole Foods Market Using the Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Card" - press release February 20, 2018

Amazon Rewards Visa Signature Card

"This board game is powered by Amazon Alexa" by Monica Chin at Mashable - February 19, 2018

Sensible Object

"ENCORE: When data rules the world" interview with Yuval Noah Harari on the Financial Times Tech Tonic podcast - replayed on February 21, 2018

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind and Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari

Tech Tip

Click here for the latest software updates for Kindle and other Amazon devices

Content (Books mentioned by John Aga in the interview)

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, illustrated by Jules Feiffer

Freddy the Pig series (Wikipedia)

Freddy the Detective by Walter R. Brooks

Books by Robert Heinlein including his Juveniles Series

Starship Troopers and Tunnel in the Sky by Robert Heinlein

The Hardy Boys Starter Set (5 Volumes) by Franklin W. Dixon

Gabriel Allon Series by Daniel Silva

The Liberation Trilogy Box Set by Rick Atkinson

The Train to Crystal City: FDR's Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America's Only Family Internment Camp During World War II by Jan Jarboe Russell (Audible version)

We'll Always Have Casablanca: The Legend and Afterlife of Hollywood's Most Beloved Film by Noah Isenberg (Audible version)

OverDrive

cloudLibrary by bibliotheca

RBdigital

RBdigital and OverDrive at Amazon app store

Our Guest for Next Week's 500th Episode:

Kevin Keith, Amazon's General Manager Fire Tablets; Amazon Echo & Alexa Product Marketing

Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!

TKC 498 American Library Association Feb 17, 2018

Show notes

Carmela Orsini of Novel Effect (5:08 to 13:22)

Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson

The Little Shop of Monsters by R. L. Stine

Paul Knopf, chief architect at GFA Technology (13:27 to 21:40)

Felix Lloyd, cofounder and CEO of Beanstack (21:44 to 30:53)

Harvard (MA) Public Library

David Burleigh, director of brand marketing and and communication at OverDrive (30:57 to 40:23)

Overdrive's Libby app

Pete Schreiner, Libraries Fellow at North Caroline State University in Raleigh (40:27 to 42:25)

Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!

TKC 497 My Father William and Grandson James Feb 10, 2018

Show notes

My father William and grandson James

Interview starts at 17:43 and ends at 42:24

"I've been writing a realistic fictional narrative for my class as an assignment. There are certain phrases in [Kindle] books that have been highlighted 300 times or a thousand times. I try to make my phrases be like those phrases, because I've gotten to know what are the powerful phrases that people are going to highlight."

News

Amazon press release announcing Prime Now delivery from Whole Foods - February 8, 2018

"Amazon Finally Gets Serious About Whole Foods" by Phil Lempert at Forbes - February 8, 2018

"Amazon Prime to offer two-hour Whole Foods delivery" by The Associated Press at New York Post - February 8, 2018

"Amazon looks to put bookstore in Cherry Creek" by Thomas Gounley at BusinessDen - February 5, 2018

The Hermitage Bookshop in Denver

"Amazon to Launch Delivery Service That Would Vie With FedEx, UPS" by Laura Stevens at The Wall Street Journal - February 9, 2018

"Amazon passes Samsung for 2nd place in worldwide tablet shipments" by Taylor Soper at GeekWire - February 5, 2018

Tech Tip

Readwise recommended in Cool Tools

Reading Basics, including View Your Reading Progress

Interview with my father William and my grandson James

Dad and James on TKC 413 in July, 2016

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

Grant by Ron Chernow

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

Homecoming (The Tillerman Cycle Book 1) and Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt

Tillerman Cycle Series by Cynthia Voigt (Goodreads)

Content

Monthly Kindle Deals

Next Week's Show

I will be reporting from the American Library Association midwinter meeting here in Denver on next week's show, which I will prepare in Cambridge, Mass.

Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!

TKC 496 Meg Gardiner Feb 03, 2018

Show notes

Author of Into the Black Nowhere: An UNSUB Novel

Interview starts at 18:20 and ends at 40:10

"One of the oldest stories that humanity tells itself is defeating the monster. Whether that's the dark shape that howls in the night outside the cave or something that drags a club around or sea monsters--humanity always wants to defeat the monster. To do that we have to try to identify and understand it. The idea that the monster walks among us disguised as one of the community I think sets us on edge."

News

Amazon releases Q4 Earnings report - February 1, 2018

"Amazon has posted a profit for 11 straight quarters" by Jason Del Rey at Recode - February 1, 2018

"Inside Amazon's Artificial Intelligence Flywheel" by Steven Levy at Wired - February 1, 2018

Click here for a free three-month subscription to Wired

"Amazon is taking a welcome tilt at healthcare bills" by Brooke Masters at The Financial Times - February 2, 2018

"Dallas is best place for Amazon's second headquarters, Wall Street Journal says" by Bill Hethcock at Dallas Business Journal - January 26, 2018.

"Amazon's Treasure Truck to Provide Offers at Select Whole Foods Market Locations Across the U.S." - Amazon press release January 30, 2018

Amazon's Super Bowl ad

"Here's Why Alexa Won't Light Up During Amazon's Super Bowl Ad" by Brad Stone at Bloomberg - February 2, 2018

Tech Tip

How does Kindle know how fast we're reading?

Interview with Meg Gardiner

UNSUB: A Novel and Into the Black Nowhere: An UNSUB Novel by Meg Gardiner

"Stephen King on Meg Gardiner" at Entertainment Magazine - February 9, 2007

Meg Gardiner on Twitter and Facebook

Stephen King's tweet recommending Into the Black Nowhere - January 30, 2018

Meg Gardiner's 2018 tour dates for Into the Black Nowhere

Content

Prime Reading

Comments

jeff@amazon.com

Next Week's Guest

Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!

TKC 495 Jon Fine Jan 27, 2018

Show notes

Senior Vice President & Publisher at Open Road Integrated Media

Interview starts at 11:28 and ends at 34:48

"No company in publishing right now is better aligned with Amazon in terms of our focus on the customer experience, in terms of our focus on eBooks and driving growth in eBooks."

News

Amazon Go video

"Amazon Go: convenience and concern at new checkout-free corner shop" by Mark Harris at The Guardian - January 22, 2018

Amazon's listing of 42 Amazon Go jobs open

"Amazon Go draws crowds" by Matt Day at The Seattle Times - January 22, 2018

"Here's what it's like to shop at Seattle's Amazon Go cashierless convenience store" by Christine Clarridge at The Seattle Times - January 22, 2018

"The Amazon Go store - techy-cool or creepy-weird?" by Elizabeth Weise at USA Today - January 26, 2018

"Amazon's Checkout-Free Store Makes Shopping Feel Like Shoplifting" by Jake Bullinger at The Atlantic - January 24, 2018

"New Walmart Partnership Brings Retailer into the E-Book Game" by John Maher at Publishers Weekly - January 26, 2018

"Apple's Getting Back Into the E-Book Fight Against Amazon" by Mark Gurman at Bloomberg - January 25, 2018

"Apple's iBooks Director at Digital Book World: Liveblog" at The Kindle Chronicles - June, 2015

"Thoughts on Apple Books" by Bradley Metrock at Digital Book World - January 25, 2018

Tech Tips

"Has Blocking text-to-speech access ended?" by Bufo Calvin at I Love My Kindle - November 28, 2017

Suzanne Skyvara's Notes & Highlights for Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio - Goodreads

Interview with Jon Fine

Open Road Integrated Media

"Jon Fine Joins Open Road Integrated Media as SVP and Publisher" - press release October 27, 2017

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Open Road's Early Bird Books email newsletter

The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage (Book of Dust, Volume 1) by Philip Pullman

Agatha Christie mysteries published by Open Road

Content

Summer Doorways: A Memoir by W. S. Merwin

"The Durrells in Corfu" PBS series

Comments

Greg Montague's "A Good App Gone Bad" thread at Goodreads Audiobooks Group

Recommended by Eolake Stobblehouse: Terry Pratchett's Discworld series

"Where do you get your story ideas? - Life Expectancy" by Dean Koontz

Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz

The Blacklist, an original Netflix series

The Book of Disquiet: The Complete Edition by Fernando Pessoa, translated by Margaret Jull Costa (recommended by Jean Remple)

Next Week's Guest

Meg Gardiner, a novelist whose next thriller, Into the Black Nowhere, will be released on January 30th by Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!

TKC 494 Hafizah Geter Jan 19, 2018

Show notes

Editor at Little A

Interview starts at 22:52 and ends at 44:24

"The trick with writing is a lot of times the more specific, the more universal something becomes. In taking care of a story, if there is something that I don't quite understand, I'm not going to say, 'Oh, that's not related. We'll take it out.' I'm going to ask for more. Show me how this is all of us." (Photo by Stephanie Land)

News

Amazon press release on top 20 in HQ2 search - January 18, 2018

Recode on top 20 - January 18, 2018

"Amazon Chooses 20 Finalists for Second Headquarters" by Nick Wingfield at The New York Times - January 18, 2018

"The Case for Ending Amazon's Dominance" by Tim Harford at The Financial Times - January 19, 2018

"Jeff Bezos Donates $33 million to Dreamers Scholarship Fund" by Matt Shuham at Talking Points Memo - January 12, 2018

TheDream.US

Tech Tip

Translated skill for Alexa

Interview with Hafizah Geter

Day One: A Literary Journal for the Digital Age

Kindle Singles store