Yet another mostly anti-Amazon article in the New Yorker

[QuantumIguana]

I don't know if the book is crap or not. There's one review which seems to be primarily concerned with Freud being considered a philosopher, but Freud's views are often seen as more philosophy than actual science.

[lol.systema]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

I don't know if the book is crap or not. There's one review which seems to be primarily concerned with Freud being considered a philosopher, but Freud's views are often seen as more philosophy than actual science.

I haven't purchased the book either, yet calling Freud a philosopher is completely ridiculous. Just by the title I know that there's some serious shenanigans going on.

I'll purchase the book just for the lulz and read it. I know it'll be a waste of 3$ but hey, at least it's a read of some sort..

I did get Montessori's Absorbent Mind on Amazon and it does lack a lot of stuff that the original 1949 text from the Osmania university collection had... some pretty important stuff imho, so it proves to point out that Amazon by commercializing, might release some crappy books just for the cash-in and lose some quality in the process ... Montessori's book cost me .99$ and last time I saw it was free, so there's not much of a chance of complaining, though

[QuantumIguana]

Originally Posted by lol.systema

I haven't purchased the book either, yet calling Freud a philosopher is completely ridiculous. Just by the title I know that there's some serious shenanigans going on.

It's a position you might disagree with, but that doesn't make it ridiculous. And even if it were ridiculous, that doesn't indicate that any shenanigans are going on. It's just a position you disagree with.

[HarryT]

Freud is certainly widely considered to be a philosopher. You'll find him, for example, in the highly-regarded "Internet Encyclopaedia of philosophy" at http://www.iep.utm.edu.

[bgalbrecht]

Originally Posted by lol.systema

I did get Montessori's Absorbent Mind on Amazon and it does lack a lot of stuff that the original 1949 text from the Osmania university collection had... some pretty important stuff imho, so it proves to point out that Amazon by commercializing, might release some crappy books just for the cash-in and lose some quality in the process ... Montessori's book cost me .99$ and last time I saw it was free, so there's not much of a chance of complaining, though

Um, you do realize unless the book is published by one of the Amazon publishing imprints (e.g., 47 North, Thomas & Mercer, several others), Amazon has nothing to do with the contents of the book, it's only the selling agent. In this case, if you bought the free one I did, at the end of the book it says "Printed by C. Subbarayuda, at the Vasanta Press, The Theosophical Society, Adyar, Madras"

[DiapDealer]

I dislike the endings to most Amazon books. Kobo ends the same books much, much better, IMO.

[cadele]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I dislike the endings to most Amazon books. Kobo ends the same books much, much better, IMO.

Thanks, I needed that!

[DiapDealer]

Happy to oblige.

[lol.systema]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Freud is certainly widely considered to be a philosopher. You'll find him, for example, in the highly-regarded "Internet Encyclopaedia of philosophy" at http://www.iep.utm.edu.

I believe that would be taken into consideration because most of his standpoints were debunked (being greatly seen in the workshop of philosophical studies instead) yet his work is not philosophical in the very least (at least HIS work) and calling him strictly a philosopher is a slap in the face, since his work is a lot more clinical and scientific (as debunked as it may be).

There is a book I read half-way through that is Freud as Philospher which hits his work in a philosophical context yet never merges both in one whole unit. Sure it mixes details and links them together, but never sets them in one whole piece. Really good, long, monotonous, worthy read.

VERY off track though I just went on a huge tangent.. lemme get back in the rail

Originally Posted by bgalbrecht

Um, you do realize [that] Amazon has nothing to do with the contents of the book, it's only the selling agent.

Precisely.. Amazon really has nothing to do with the books quality or production.. only the release which in itself is quite very mucho importante. It's like the example I used earlier, buying two of the same book from different publishers... one being really bad and one being really good.

Some Amazon books are really good. Some other books are not that good or have different bits and changes, depending on the publisher. Amazon really does not get into those details, which is the question asked by the crazy cat lady with a tin foil hat who made that article: " is it good for the books?"

Well, as long as Amazon doesn't monopolize the books content for their benefit, I'm pretty sure it is good, specially if you can see reviews of the book before having to purchase it. Bad books will always be in the market so I don't see why is it so bad. However, bad books in Amazon is nothing new. Like in any other online purchase, people need to check the reviews of the product first.

Originally Posted by bgalbrecht

In this case, if you bought the free one I did, at the end of the book it says "Printed by C. Subbarayuda, at the Vasanta Press, The Theosophical Society, Adyar, Madras"

Yup.. The Theosophical Society. The one I have though has the missing details that the free kindle edition doesn't have. I wonder 'who' is doing 'what' in 'where' on this book. I got a physical copy, and if you read it a few times, you can see some differences. Not so prominent, yet clear differences.
Odd, to say the least

[wizwor]

Originally Posted by bgalbrecht

Amazon is good for customers. But is it good for books?

The New Yorker is the only publication I have ever cancelled a FREE subscription to. So, I missed this.

[fjtorres]

Amazon has a good returns policy.
They let you see reviews, look inside, buy used copies, even download sample chapters if an ebook edition exists.
So Amazon is good for good books, bad for bad books.
That's as neutral as you can expect from a for-profit venture.

[LadyKate]

Originally Posted by jersysman

So is this going to be the new strategy? Admit that Amazon is great for customers, but not good for books? That is a crazy assumption. Even before I got into ebooks, Amazon was a place for me to go and get great prices on used pbooks and even hardcovers. Why is it so bad for books to get them into the hands of readers (and previous pbook hoarders such as myself) and a reasonable price?

Something I've been curious about. What is the difference between a used book and a pirated copy? The author/publisher does not get anything from a resale of a used book.

On another note... the complaint about amazon sounds a lot like the complaint I imagine the printing press brought about. The scribes sitting around over their ale and saying "they will never appreciate a good book if it is mass produced. How can a book that is not unique be as good as a mass produced book where the type is all the same!". While the readers and owners of books were able to increase the size of their libraries from two or three hand copied books to a few hundred for much less cost.

Changes in the medium brought about great changes to what books were. Non-important things were put into print. Fiction for pleasure! Light reading such as Dickens!

E-books have now removed another barrier to putting an author into print (e-print anyway). No longer is not having a publisher interested in your written word a barrier. (true there were boutique publishers for those who wanted a vanity copy of their own works but it is easier and cheaper to get an ebook published)

As readers, we now have access too a much wider variety of authors. Some great, some good and some not so bad... and others horrid.

A teacher in the one room school I went to had drilled into us that you needed to read 50 pages of a book before you decide you don't want to finish it. That translated to must finish the book for me at some point. NOW I have to change that attitude. Too many of the newer books are not worth finishing. I'm starting to put a book aside if I don't like it when I start it (marking in the notes why it didn't grab me) and review that list every so often.

Too little time to read to waste on "freebie or near freebie books" that don't have what it takes. BUT I do hit on the occasional jewel of a new author that starts as a "freebie" ebook.

[MikeB1972]

Originally Posted by LadyKate

Something I've been curious about. What is the difference between a used book and a pirated copy? The author/publisher does not get anything from a resale of a used book.

The author / publisher has been paid for the used book when it was new, 1 sale 1 copy and only one person at a time has that copy. For the pirated version it may be 1 sale 20 million copies (The extreme situation is that everyone can read a book at once while you have only sold 1 copy).

Originally Posted by LadyKate

Too little time to read to waste on "freebie or near freebie books" that don't have what it takes. BUT I do hit on the occasional jewel of a new author that starts as a "freebie" ebook.

That's why some people don't read any indie books, with a decent publisher you can expect the book to be at least a certain level of competance - Doesn't mean you will like it, of course, but at least it's not illegible and if you like books from a certain imprint you will probably like other books from the same imprint (Before the flame war starts, I'm not knocking all self published books here and agree that there are good ones).

The vast majority of self-published books I've come across have been garbage, and they were all 4-5 star books according to Amazon customers. Never again...

Then again, Amazon is the place where Twilight has a better rating than Infinite Jest...

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by LadyKate

What is the difference between a used book and a pirated copy? The author/publisher does not get anything from a resale of a used book.

It is the same difference that exists between a used car and a stolen car.

When I buy the cheapest used copy of a book from bookfinder.com, the next-to-cheapest instantly becomes the cheapest. This allows the new price to remain a bit higher than it could have otherwise. More used sales = higher resale value = higher retail price, just like with cars.

When demand pushes the used price high enough, some people will instead buy new, further helping authors, agents, editors, and publishers.

One of the worst things about eBooks, for content producers, is that repeated reading doesn't cause cosmetic deterioration -- so they can't reap the price support advantages of a used marketplace.