Not too early to be drawing up Christmas gift lists, is it? (Or Newton’s birthday gift lists, if that’s how you roll.) Do I have the perfect suggestion for you: a nice copy of From Eternity to Here, undoubtedly the best book about the nature of time written by a Discover blogger this year. And the paperback has just been released today, so you get just as much knowledge for a fraction of the cost! Take your pick from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, or Indiebound. (But it’s always nice, as an author, to get a big boost in the Amazon rankings. Just saying.)
We should celebrate with a contest or something — I have a few copies of the paperback that could be given away, but no clever ideas to spark a competition. Best short story about the arrow of time? Limericks are out, but perhaps sonnets? Or just for the biggest contributors to our Donors Choose campaign? Suggestions welcome. (Best suggestion for a contest? How deliciously meta.)
At the moment Amazon is offering a bargain price on the hardcover, even cheaper than the paperback (presumably to clear out inventory). They are also pushing their Kindle editions, presumably to help stave off the iPad onslaught. Truth is, there are a lot more books available for Kindle than in the iBooks store, so like many people I read books on my iPad using the Kindle app.
Anyway, Amazon is allowing readers to peruse the first chapters of some of their Kindle books — so here you go! I wish it had been the second chapter, to be honest; that is where we get into some of the mysteries of entropy and the arrow of time. Chapter One is a bit more scene-setting (but it’s a pretty awesome scene).
Actually, looking at the sample more closely, they seem to have included the Prologue and some of Chapter Two. Even better! Note you can click the “Aa” icon near the top of the viewer to change the font size and line spacing, if you like to read more than twenty words of text at a time.
KindleReader.LoadSample({containerID: ‘kindleReaderDiv’, asin: ‘B002VXTAZ0’, width: ‘600’, height: ‘625’, assoctag: ‘lecturenotesonge’});
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Haven’t read through the whole selection yet, but as a American civil engineer overseas (in Romania), with kids in the states, where my kids are going to University, it probably answers one question. My son decided although he likes the science, he didn’t want to do the math for engineering, so instead, he’s going into business classes. OK, he still likes to understand how things function, so that, and another copy of “A short history” will work.
Seems it would be good for the silent types who like science and won’t tell you what they want (except, of course, money)
That may well do it.
Sonnets are not a bad idea at all. Just long enough to make a point, but not too long to benefit writers. The biggest contributors can afford the books, and the short stories offers writers an advantage over others.
Why is the kindle edition more expensive than both the hardcover and paperback?
Re: #5
The book printers own the copyright, and have no incentive to put themselves out of business by licencing the e-book rights too cheaply.
Kindle and Nook versions are both three quarters of a buck more expensive than the paperback. Ugh. Sooner or later e-books have got to be priced rationally relative to their dead tree brethren.
Sean,
Can you please take that Kindle for the Web link off this page? Every time I go to the Cosmic Variance web page it jumps down to this article and waits for the link to resolve. I want to see the new articles and not this old when when I enter Cosmic Variance. Maybe I just need to block that Kindle site…