I freely admit that I like Amazon.com. I have ordered a lot of stuff from them (mostly books) over the years with minimal fuss and it’s always such a joy to see that Amazon package sitting on my front porch waiting for me when I get home.

I’m not saying Amazon is perfect, no large corporation is. But I can easily say I have been a satisfied customer and confident enough in the company to place their ads on this blog.

Ironically, the problem I have with Amazon is the one area of book publishing,distribution and consumption I’m interested in most – that is, ebooks. While I don’t doubt that the Kindle has thrown ebooks into the mainstream in a big way, I think Amazon is making some very fatal mistakes that can easily spell doom for Amazon and for ebooks.

Kindle DRM means you "access" books, don’t really "own" them

My biggest fear has come true. In this disturbing post yesterday over at Teleread, a Kindle customer, Michael, relates how he was banned from Amazon and blocked from the ebooks he legally purchased on the site.

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How I have managed to run this blog since December 2006 and never have a privacy policy is beyond me. In fact, it never really occurred to me that I needed one until just recently. This is just a blog where people read my posts, maybe leave a comment or two, and if you really like me, subscribe to my newsletter. I’m not exactly collecting valuable data that I’m going to use in nefarious ways. (or am I?)

Yet the powers-that-be will beg to differ. So I have written this privacy policy in hopes to alleviate any fears that this blog is harmful to your computer, finances, privacy, love life, etc. I make no promises about this blog adversely affecting your mental health though.

Here it goes:

1. Leaving a comment or subscribing to my newsletter requires you give your email address. Your email address stays 100% confidential. I never sell, rent, or give away your email to any third party for any reason. If you leave a comment, I might send you a quick thank-you note via email, but that’s about it.

2. I do use third-party advertising on this blog (mainly Amazon.com and Google Adsense). They both utilize cookies and collect non-personal identifying information about you.

We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here.

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One part of literature that really interests me is the number of drafts an author goes through before the final manuscript is ready for publication. This also includes any marginalia (notes made in the margin by the author) during the editing process added either by the author, editor, or both.

Why is this so interesting?

Because it gives the reader an inside glimpse into the creative process a writer goes through when developing a work of fiction. Scenes are cut, added, edited and characters can change drastically from one draft to another. Sentences might disappear with no explanation, or a sentence might be revised many times until the author feels the sentence is just right.

This idea of showing how a piece of art is constructed is not new. We see this in music all the time. Albums are often released with "bonus features" that allows you to listen to studio outtakes (my personal favorite), alternate versions of songs and alternate recording takes. This allows the listener to catch a glimpse inside the world of the musician and discover how a seemingly complex song can emerge from a simple idea.

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Now that winter is over (in some parts of the U.S.), spring is here and is bringing warmer weather with it. What does this have to do with literature? Spring ushers in one of my favorite activities, especially from my college days – reading outside in the sunshine!

For me, it doesn’t get much better than sitting outside, in the fresh air, under a warm sun, reading a good book. Maybe it’s the intersection of nature and literature that is so appealing. Or maybe it’s just being able to do something outside after a long, dark and cold winter.

Do you like to read outside in the warmer months? Where is your favorite reading spot? Leave a comment below with your answer!

The other day (Wednesday), I had the perfect topic to write about for this brief introduction to Friday Link Love. Did I write the idea down so I wouldn’t forget? Nope! So I forgot the idea (an idea I thought was cool) and now you’re stuck reading this boring drivel.

Now that April is here, I’m starting to get scared that I’ll be turning 30 in a little over a month! Where does the time go? How did I get so old? Is it possible to reclaim any of my youth? As I grapple with these questions and the impending crisis that is my 30th birthday, you can enjoy this week’s installment of Friday Link Love.

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In this previous post I wrote about old technology meeting new futuristic technology in the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (aff link), by Philip K. Dick. Now I’m getting further into the novel and some interesting moral/ethical dilemmas are starting to pop up. I thought it might be fun to analyze these issues in this post. As always, your input is very welcome here!

1. If we create sentient beings (i.e. androids), then should they be afforded the same rights as humans?

I have a feeling that we will be dealing with this question within the next century, especially given the pace of technology and new breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI). Let’s pretend we do create a robot that is fully sentient, has a conscious and can "think" in every way humans can.

Would it be immoral to destroy that robot? If the robot is capable of feeling pain and having normal human emotions, then one can justify that some sort of protection must be in order for these beings. I’m not necessarily arguing this position, just throwing it out there as food for thought.

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Don’t believe everything you read online, especially today. April 1 is commonly known as "April Fools Day" and there is no shortage of pranks to be found, especially on the intertubes.

Thinking about today got me thinking, how did April Fools Day come about? What is the history of this strange "holiday"? I decided to scour the internet to find out.

My first stop took me to an obvious place when searching for information – Wikipedia. I came across this entry that gives a vague and convoluted history of this day, much of which is pure speculation:

In many pre-Christian cultures May Day (May 1) was celebrated as the first day of summer, and signalled the start of the spring planting season. An April Fool was someone who did this prematurely. Another origin is that April 1 was counted the first day of the year in France. When King Charles IX changed that to January 1, some people stayed with April 1. Those who did were called "April Fools" and were taunted by their neighbors.

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I’m pretty convinced that J.K. Rowling does not read this blog, because if she did, she would have read this earlier post about her problem with ebook piracy. Yet Rowling has still refused to release her popular Harry Potter books into ebook format, creating a ripe environment for unscrupulous pirates to post digital copies of her novels online.

Today I came across this article from the Times Online, which says that her novels, along with other popular books, have shown up on the popular site Scribd.

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