FREE Kindle book - Student Travel Guide to Europe, 2011

Let's Go Europe 2011 - Normally $21.95, FREE currently

Let's Go Europe 2011: The Student Travel Guide (Kindle Ed.), is authored by Inc., Harvard Student Agencies whose Kindle books with more specific European locations cost between $9.66 - $9.99.  They're providing this Kindle book for $0.00 right now, on what is likely a temporary 'price.'

  Released in January 2011, it has 9 customer reviews with 4 stars out of 5. It's quite large (at 1,232 pages), as most Kindle books that are mainly text average less than 1 meg, and this one is about 3 megs and will take longer to load, which indicates it has more than the usual number of images. Product description:

' From Portugal to the Ukraine, from Norway down to Greece, Europe is a lot to take on.  Luckily, the student adventurers behind Let’s Go Europe 2011 know that any traveler can handle it — with a little help.  Whether whipping through London, Barcelona, and Prague in five days or spending a leisurely year abroad, travelers get all the info they need from Let's Go.  Their wit and irreverence can brighten even the drabbest Renaissance museum — if travelers didn’t take their advice to skip it.  From German beer halls to Roman ruins, Let's Go Europe 2011 is the ticket to adventure. '

  CAVEAT The two Kindle book reviews I see (the rest are paperback reviews) say it's well worth downloading as a free book, but is written by Harvard students for other students and one reviewer thinks it's mainly for students with money to spare -- I used to go on the $5/day books :-) And the paperback version had less information on hostel locations than a couple of people wanted.

On the other hand, another reviewer says:

' However, to be honest, the listings for stuff like accommodations and nightlife are just UNBEATABLE, so I'm willing to deal with the flaws in order to get those recommendations.

  I was trying to keep to a budget, so maybe I'm biased, but when I opened the Lonely Planet and Frommer's guides in the bookstore, their idea of "cheap" was like...65 euro a night. Even the "shoestring" book was borderline. That's just not the sort of budget I'm operating on.
  Let's Go, on the other hand, listed hostels and cheap mom-and-pop places that got me through most of Western Europe on 20 euro or less a night. No complaints about those prices. '

  Some think the writing is fun while others find it geared toward those who look for drinking places.  The maps and even some icons are said to be very hard to read on the Kindle (I recommend viewing these in Landscape mode, which may handle better some bad layout problems mentioned.)

  For $0.00, it's worth a look.


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   K3 Special, $114   DX Graphite

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Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or £5 Max ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.

Random House Releases Kindle & Hardcover "Lost Symbol" Together

Speakeasy's Jeffrey Trachtenberg (WSJ) writes " Kindle Averts Battle Over Dan Brown’s ‘The Lost Symbol.’

  ' Many publishers were eager to see if Random House would challenge Amazon’s strategy of pricing the book industry’s most successful titles at $9.99 for the Kindle e-reader by withholding the e-book edition of Dan Brown’s upcoming novel, “The Lost Symbol.” '

Random House is releasing the Kindle and hardcover versions simultaneously (coincidentally after much ado from customers about ignoring the hardcover edition if so, in which case there'd be less income from and less than excellent publicity for the book).  Random House claims that "security and logistical issues were resolved.

' Some in publishing suggested that Amazon might have responded by disengaging the “buy” button for the physical edition of Mr. Brown’s book. (An Amazon spokesman noted via email that the company has a “longstanding policy of not commenting on our interactions with publishers.”) '

Free "Nurse Jackie" Script for Kindle

Kudos to Showtime for exercising the power of innovative synergy and making the pilot script of their new show "Nurse Jackie" starring Edie Falco available on the Kindle for free through August 31.

A June 1 article in Advertising Age reports that "Showtime may have finally cracked the code on using Kindle as an ad medium." Jon Haber, director of the team that works with Showtime's media shop Omnicom Group's OMD on the project, told Adage.com that they were looking at the Kindle "as a new concept platform that no one has figured out."

It will be interesting to see if they've figured out the formatting problems that have plagued screenwriters trying to transfer and read scripts on the Kindle. But for a network that has already gained a reputation for employing new media when it introduces new shows, it's nice to see the Kindle get a chance to show its versatility in a different way.

UPDATE: Received my copy of "Nurse Jackie" overnight and it looks almost perfect as far as the format. The only thing I've noticed so far is that the right side of the dialogue passages don't have proper indentation, but it's still quite readable.

KC Book Review: "Kept"

“Kept”
Zoe Winters
Digital List Price: $1.00
Kindle Price: $0.80
File Size: 125 KB
Publisher: IncuBooks (November 25, 2008)

“Kept” by Zoe Winters is a great read for fans of fantasy, paranormal romance and magic. Priced at under a dollar, I’d also suggest giving it a try even if those aren’t your usual genres of choice.

Winters’ writing is really good and the characters are interesting, though I suspect they’ll be even more fleshed out in the second and third installments of this three-novella trilogy. It definitely left me wanting more, although this story is complete and extremely satisfying. The erotic scenes were well-done and intense, with just the right balance of explicit and suggestive. Winters’ also has a talent for conveying emotion and depth with straightforward sexuality, something many romance writers lack.

I enjoyed every line in “Kept” except the very last, which I felt was unnecessary and even a bit cheesy. Its six little words managed to jar me out of the delicious feeling I usually get at the end of a good read. But it was hardly enough to detract from the rest of the book, and I can’t wait to learn more about this world and its mythology, magical rules, Werecats and sorcerers. I’m in for the series.