yes, Amazon messed up royally this past week by removing a couple of George Orwell titles from the accounts of Kindle customers, “1984″ and “Animal Farm.” apparently, the versions were not authorized. Amazon is well within its rights to remove titles from a Kindle accounts based on the terms of service. But it begs a couple of questions: just what are the rights of readers when it comes to ebooks and how did Amazon allow illegal Kindle copies to be uploaded?
today’s Shelf Awareness provided a list of media sources covering the controversy:
Amazon’s decision late last week to remove copies of George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm from its customers’ Kindles sparked widespread controversy, anger among owners of the e-reader and irresistible opportunities for headline writers:
for more to ponder, check out Richard Stallman’s essay “The Right to Read,” published a little over 12 years ago, predicting such a world in which the reader is at the mercy of the corporations in the digital age.
coming this fall from Quirk Books is a companion novel to the wildly popular “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” “Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.” it’s not in the catalogue yet, but fear not, an order will be submitted this week. in the meantime, enjoy the trailer.
Pantheon Graphic NovelsThe cover of “Asterios Polyp” by David Mazzucchelli.
New on our hardcover list this week is “Asterios Polyp” by David Mazzucchelli. It tells the story of a middle-aged architect whose life is upended when his New York City apartment goes up in flames. Fittingly, New York magazine called it “terrific” and hailed it as “the great New York (graphic) novel.” Mr. Mazzucchelli’s previously work includes two critically-acclaimed comic book series for both Marvel and DC Comics. He collaborated with the writer Frank Miller on “Daredevil: Born Again,” in which the hero is betrayed by a former lover and finds himself at the mercy of the murderous Kingpin, and on “Batman: Year One,” a look at the earliest days of the Caped Crusader.
Our manga list had an amazing amount of turn over this week, adding five new titles including “Jungo Romantica” Vol. 10, about a gay relationship. This seems to be an example of “shonen-ai,” a genre of manga aimed at teenage girls who enjoy gay romances.
The complete lists appear after the jump, as does an explanation of how they were assembled. See you next week!
Sno-Isle does not own Jungo Romatica and older volumes in the series are out-of-stock. Several long term series have come to an end – 100 bullets, Kitchen Princess and one of our most popular series – Fruits Basket.
