Dear Jeff Bezos,
I love Amazon and the Kindle more than anyone I know. And, you totally deserve your $8.8 billion. But, could you do me a favor? Could you not list Pride and Prejudice 19 times in a freaking row on the Kindle best-seller list?
I know Jane Austen is the shit, that she has tons of cheap e-publishers because her copyright has expired, and that many kiddies probably have to buy P&P for back-to-school. But, damn Jeff. You’re listing the virtually the same thing 19 times in a row. Surely these could be aggregated into one special list item or handled in some more elegant manner. Ask yourself, What Would Steve Do?
Thank you, that is all.
Kindle 2.0 Wish List
Since the web is buzzing with rumors of an October surprise (or even a September surprise) of one or more new Kindles, I’ve been thinking about what I want in Kindle 2.0. My wish list is mostly about software improvements rather than hardware improvements. And, since I’m sure Jeff Bezos is reading:
- Navigating to and from footnotes/endnotes is time-consuming and painful. Fix it. How about letting us double-click the scroll wheel on a line of text with a footnote/endnote to view it and then click or double-click the scroll wheel to return to the text? Or, how about assigning a keyboard hot-key so we can scroll to a line of text and click the hot-key to go to/from the footnote/endnote?
- Manual downloading is annoying. Support scheduled downloading. I subscribe to Newsweek and Atlantic Monthly on the Kindle and get a fair number of book samples and books. I have to turn on the wireless connection, waiting for any download(s) that are ready, and then remember to turn off the wireless connection so my battery doesn’t drain. Why not let us tell our Kindle to turn on wireless and check for downloads on a daily or weekly schedule?
- More newspapers and magazines. The Kindle store has virtually the same list of periodicals now as when it opened. Why isn’t the selection growing? If publications already have their content in digital form for the web, getting them to sell it on the Kindle shouldn’t be that hard. For example, I would think the Foreign Affairs crowd is affluent, travels a lot, and thinks about the environmental impact of printing and shipping. Why not get Foreign Affairs, which is just about all text anyway, on the Kindle?
- Support USB-based charging. I almost always have my laptop with me, even when I travel. And, I usually have my iPhone USB-based charger with me too. It would be awesome to not have to carry a Kindle charger and just be able to charge via a USB cable.
- Make buying books from samples seamless. When I’m done reading a sample, I have to note my place in the text, buy the full book from the link at the end of the sample, delete the sample, open the full book, and find my place again. Ugh. When I buy the full book from the link at the end of the sample, the sample should just expand to become the full book and I should be able to keep right on reading from where I am. (Also, make the progress bar of a sample based on the length of the full book rather than the length of the sample so a reader knows what they’re in for if they buy the full book.)
- Make deleting things easier. Let us delete anything by scrolling to it, clicking the wheel on it, and choosing delete. Don’t make us deal with the content manager, check boxes, and confirmation windows for a simple delete. Painful. And, when we close out of a book/periodical at or very near near the end, ask us if we want to delete it.
- Let us file/categorize things. I want to be able to browse my Kindle content by read/unread, fiction/non-fiction, sample/full-book, my favorites, etc. Make it easy to create folders or labels to support organization.
- Put an “Add to Wish List” button on the main pages for e-books on the Kindle store. Seems like a no-brainer, but we still have to go to another page, like the full comments for an e-book, to be able to put an e-book on our Wish List.
I’m a week late writing about this post from Seth Godin. I largely agree with him on his points about the Amazon Kindle, except for #4:
4. The Kindle does a fine job of being a book reader, and a horrible job of actually improving the act of reading a book. This is a surprising design choice, I think, and a mistake. Here are three simple examples of how non-fiction books on the Kindle could be better, not just cheaper and thinner:—Let me see the best parts of the book as highlighted by thousands of other readers.
—Let me see notes in the margin as voted up, Digg-style, by thousands of other readers.
—Let me interact with hyperlinks and smart connections not just within the book but across booksI can think of ten others, and so can you. Instead of making this a dead end (like a book) they could have made it a connector (like the web).
This isn’t what I want at all. What I like about books and the Kindle is that they aren’t hyper—be that hyperlinked or hyperactive. When you read a book (physical or electronic), you aren’t web browsing or channel surfing. You’re immersing yourself in something. You’re taming your ADD and actually focusing on what you’re reading. That isn’t a dead end. That’s truly experiencing a written work for what it is rather than what it links to.
I don’t want to be shooting all over the web and interacting with others as I try to read a book. I want to deeply understand what the author(s) have to say. The Kindle does a wonderful job of helping me do just that.
I hope that Amazon doesn’t take the Kindle in the direction Godin advocates in #4 (or that they at least make it easy to turn off those features if they are added).
Based on Jeff Bezos’ latest Letter to Shareholders, I doubt Amazon will be going down that road. I love this Bezos quote so much, this is the second time I’ve blogged it:
We hope Kindle and its successors may gradually and incrementally move us over years into a world with longer spans of attention, providing a counterbalance to the recent proliferation of info-snacking tools. I realize my tone here tends toward the missionary, and I can assure you it’s heartfelt.
That’s a mission I can really get behind.
Dear Jeff Bezos
Dear Jeff Bezos,
You don’t know me. But, I buy at least an e-book a week on the Kindle Store and evangelize the Kindle to strangers literally every day who ask me, “Hey, what the heck is that thing?” So, I have two favors to ask.
First, could you give us a place on Amazon.com to request that specific books be Kindlelized? I’m sure you’re already focused on bestsellers and new releases. But, if you give Kindle users a chance to express our desires, we might surprise you. For example, here are a few I’d ask for:
- Fast Food Nation
- The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst
- The Great Book of Amber: The Complete Amber Chronicles
- Star Wars: Death Star
- Love the One You’re With (for my lovely wife)
Next, could you make the main web pages for Kindle books include “Add to Wish List” buttons? We kinda have to dig to find them right now. Having them on the main pages would be really handy.
I’ve been blown away by the Kindle in the few months I have been using it. Thanks for making this amazing device. I can’t wait to see what you do next!
Marc :-)
