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Posted: 19 Feb 2013 02:37 AM PST

AMAZON.com's quarterly earnings figures show the market for e-books has never been greater, while the market for their printed counterparts has never been smaller.

It's official: e-books are now a multi-billion-dollar business, and if Amazon's effervescent CEO is to believed, this new market is due to Amazon and its loyal customer base.

"We're now seeing the transition we've been expecting," says Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. "After five years, e-books is a multi-billion dollar category for us and growing fast – up approximately 70% last year. In contrast, our physical book sales experienced the lowest December growth rate in our 17 years as a bookseller, up just 5%. We're excited and very grateful to our customers for their response to Kindle and our ever expanding ecosystem and selection."

There is no doubting the impact that digital books have had on the publishing industry.

Barnes & Noble, Amazon's largest direct competitor in terms of books sales, announced last month that it will be closing 30% of its physical stores over the next decade as it continues its move into electronic publishing, e-readers and tablets.

Amazon has put the growth of the market down to its Kindle e-readers, but the company's focus on developing Kindle apps that work on iPhones, iPads and Android tablets could prove just as important as the market grows.

The latest data from ABI Research shows that while tablet sales show no sign of abating, the market for e-readers is. And, contrary to popular belief, it is not because tablets are cannibalizing their sales; it's because almost everyone who wants an e-reader, has an e-reader.

"The facts are that the US market continues to dominate e-reader shipments and an ageing Baby Boomer population looking to replicate the print reading experience is a waning audience," says ABI's senior practice director Jeff Orr of the figures, published late last month. "If other world regions do not successfully organise digital publishing markets, the dedicated e-reader market will go away without regard for adoption of tablets and other mobile devices." – AFP

Detailed future reading

Posted: 19 Feb 2013 02:31 AM PST

WONDER what the Year of the Snake has in store for you? Want to find out how the core numbers in your life can help to open the many windows of opportunity in love, money, career and other dreams in 2013?

Well, wonder no more. Singaporean Master Numerologist Gracy Yap (pic) will guide you to discover your hidden gifts, talents and life purpose and teach you how to use the science of numbers to foretell the rise and fall of fortunes, relationships and many more aspects of life.

The sought-after speaker and author of internationally-acclaimed titles such as Finding And Keeping Your Crush as well as Secrets Of Golden Numbers will be conducting a special workshop entitled Forecast 2013 with Golden Numbers.

"People are born to be different and there is a pattern to predict the future and life. So it is important for everyone to find out the unique inborn talents and traits that each has by using numerology as a self-discovery tool. The secrets to the future are actually locked in everyone's birth date and name!"

The three-hour workshop is to be held at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (Utar) PJ Campus, Block PD, PD 011 on Saturday (Feb 23) from 2pm to 5pm.

The registration fee of RM39.90 includes a free copy of Yap's Secrets Of Golden Numbers. Customers of Popular bookstore can get their tickets at the special price of RM29.90 with a RM10 coupon available at the store's Klang Valley outlets or downloadable from its Facebook page at facebook.com/popularmalaysia.

The workshop is limited to 100 participants only. Register online at bit.ly/GracyYapRgstr or call 03-9179 6135 to make reservations. For details, visit Popular's Facebook page or call 03-9179 6135.

The event is organised by Popular with Utar and the Centre of Extension Education.

A rollicking good time

Posted: 19 Feb 2013 02:27 AM PST

Ignore those who sneer at chick lit: this is a well-written solid piece of fiction that discusses real-life issues with a light touch.

The Mystery Of Mercy Close

Author: Marian Keyes

Publisher: Penguin, 507 pages

DYSFUNCTIONAL families: everybody's got some version of one – and maybe that's what makes Irish author Marian Keyes' Walsh family novels just so darn addictive.

Appearing in a series of six books so far, the five Walsh sisters and their slightly dotty parents make for hearty chick lit that sticks to your ribs.

The latest installment, The Mystery Of Mercy Close, features black sheep sister Helen Walsh (although you could argue that all the sisters are dark-hued woolly ruminant mammals in their own way) and her trials and tribulations as a broke, depressed private investigator.

With tongue-in-cheek references to real world events, The Mystery Of Mercy Close sees Helen taking on a missing persons case at the behest of her supposedly dodgy (but extremely handsome) ex-boyfriend, Jay Parker – who has some emotional baggage on hand as well as the euros Helen needs to pay her mortgage. Hard-hit by the recession, she's been kicked out of her flat and reduced to living with her parents.

The missing man she's been contracted to find? Only one-fifth of has-been supergroup boyband Laddz, Wayne Diffney. He's vanished from his house in Mercy Close less than a week before a gargantuan reunion gig that will see his bandmates turn their post-fame pennies into profit.

Of course, it's only a four-man reunion – talented bandmate Shane Dockery (or simply, Docker) has long moved on to bigger, better things. The pop culture wink and nudge here is unmistakable, with narrator Helen announcing early in the book that every band has The Talented One, The Wacky One (who usually has strange hair), The Cute One, The Gay One, and The Other One. Apply to any boyband of your choice (I did it with NSYNC) and you'll find this theory holds water.

Helen's full of these sorts of observations and quirks; another notable one being her Shovel List ("people and things I hate so much that I want to hit them in the face with a shovel").

Throw in an extremely mad family, a love triangle or two, a hunky boyfriend with an exasperatingly, suspiciously sweet ex-wife, and some underworld connections and you've got a mystery on your hands, one that blends escapism with a hearty sense of "that could be me".

The clever thing about this book is that despite being labelled "chick lit", Keyes isn't afraid to take her story to some dark, messy places. Protagonist Helen battles clinical depression, much like Keyes in real life.

They say to write what you know, and while Keyes does that to sometimes annoying effect with Helen, it's clear she understands her character's agony viscerally. The Mystery Of Mercy Close was written after a two-year hiatus in which Keyes was laid low with clinical depression, and it shows in her writing.

Although some of the characters border on aggravating (including Helen herself who is surprisingly show-offy and self-aggrandizing at times), the story moves along smoothly, and that's despite the large supporting cast and subplots.

Engaging enough that you care and light enough you can read it in transit, The Mystery Of Mercy Close is a rollicking good time – you'll laugh, cry, and realise for the first time just how much you missed the Walsh family.

Keyes definitely is a giant of the genre, with a plot so well-knit and watertight you'll be wondering if you could become a private investigator yourself.

Of course, this book does stick to the chick lit staple of having everything resolved perfectly in the last couple of pages – but really, what's wrong with that? Ignore the literati who might sneer; The Mystery Of Mercy Close is a well-written solid piece of fiction that discusses real-life issues with a light touch.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Selasa, 19 Februari 2013

The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf

The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf

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