Erikzona – the state of Jonas Eriksson. Writing, Design, Music, Life.

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Kindle

So what’s that Kindle thing?

Sep 25

Posted by Jonas in Books, Kindle

Okay, this is a disclaimer that this post is all about me selling the Kindle. If you’re not at all interested in e-books or e-readers, please read some other post :)

You’ve heard about it, you’ve read about it and you’ve probably wondered “is this thing for me?” – it’s the Amazon Kindle and it’s an absolutely revolutionary way of reading books. This is something you can get into even if you’re a print-book nostalgic like myself, much thanks to the E-ink screen that lets you read in broad daylight (much unlike the glare-prone iPad for example, although I still think the iPad is a pretty amazing product in its own right).

Another thing I really like about the Kindle is the built-in dictionary and the possibility to make notes in the books and also that you can bring as many books as you like with you. This is especially useful when traveling of course.

So you’re stoked and now you really want to look into this Kindle thing…well, there’s actually only one place where you can buy it and that is on Amazon.com

Amazon is the world’s largest online store and was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1995. Amazon.com started as an online bookstore, but soon diversified, selling DVDs, CDs, MP3 downloads, computer software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, and toys. The flagship product of Amazon.com is their own product, The Kindle e-book reader.

The Kindle is an amazing product for its price, at the time of writing listed at 139 dollars and 189 dollars with built-in 3G. You can carry countless books with you, use the pre-installed dictionary to look up words instantly and the e-ink screen will prevent any kind of glare or tired-eyes syndrome.

Here’s Amazon own list of specs for the Amazon Kindle:

All-New, High-Contrast E Ink Screen – 50% better contrast with latest E Ink Pearl technology
Read in Bright Sunlight – No glare
New and Improved Fonts – New crisper, darker fonts
New Sleek Design – 21% smaller body while keeping the same 6″ size reading area
17% Lighter – Only 8.7 ounces, weighs less than a paperback
Battery Life of Two Months – A single charge lasts up to two months with wireless off
Double the Storage – Up to 3,500 books
Books in 60 Seconds – Download books anytime, anywhere
Free 3G Wireless – No monthly payments, no annual contracts
Built-In Wi-Fi – In addition to the 3G wireless, you can connect to Wi-Fi hotspots
20% Faster Page Turns – Seamless reading
Enhanced PDF Reader – With dictionary lookup, notes, and highlights
WebKit-Based Browser – Free 3G web browsing (experimental)

Although I love my Kindle and think it’s essential for reading more and enjoying reading more (I bring it with me to the gym every morning), there might be a reason you don’t want one (you might already have an iPad for example) all you need to do is to install Free Kindle Reading Apps or use the Kindle Cloud Reader which enables you to get to your Kindle library from any digital device with an Internet connection. All the Kindle apps and the Kindle Cloud Reader are free of charge and easy to install and use. There’s simply no reason for you not to try them out and start reading digitally.

And when you’ve installed the app of your choice, make sure to check out my book The Wake-Up Call! The Wake-Up Call can also be read and bought via Smashwords and downloaded in pdf-format through http://thewakeupcallbook.com

Okay that’s enough sales for a week, folks! In the post I might be longing for the old anti-Internet days…

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The Wake-up Call: The cover

Aug 10

Posted by Jonas in Books, Design, Kindle, Me, Writing

Here’s the preliminary cover art for my upcoming novel The Wake-Up Call, designed by talented designer Joakim Wiborn. The book is about New York advertising mogul Jack Reynolds’ quest for love; from family, friends, and of course from girls (well meeting girls is not a problem, the problem is meeting the girl). Jack has worked hard all his life to reach the top in the advertising world, only to realize it’s pretty lonely up there.

After a breakdown during a second date with a girl he doesn’t particularly care for, Jack decides to try and reconnect with his father. But instead he connects with his father’s young girlfriend and soon finds himself in a web of complications that leads him to reconsider his life completely.

The Wake-Up Call is set in New York, Miami and Mexico and takes the reader on an emotional journey into the heart and mind of a lost middle-age man.

To be released in a not too distant future on Kindle  (Amazon), Nook ( Barnes and Noble), and other e-book formats.

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My favorite book on writing…

Jun 25

Posted by Jonas in Books, Kindle, Reviews

Is On Writing by super famous thriller writer Stephen King. King is often taken very lightly in “serious” literary circles, but although his subject is most often horror and thrillers, a genre disliked by literary award committees, there’s no doubt that he’s a great writer who knows how as well as anyone how to tell a story. It’s just that his stories are a bit on the gory side sometimes.

I actually think King’s writing are at his best in his short stories like The Shawshank Redemption, with no supernatural themes in it.

On Writing is recently released in its 10th Anniversary edition called On Writing: 10th Anniversary Edition: A Memoir of the Craft and it’s a fantastic memoir of a great writer and at the same time a manual on how to become a good writer. I really recommend it.

You can buy it here in Kindle format, Hardcover, Paperback or Audio CD. Every purchase through this link will give this blog a few cents in support. Thanks.

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Shutter Island

Jun 20

Posted by Jonas in Books, Kindle, Reviews, Writing

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I’m currently reading the Kindle version of Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane. It’s made into a movie by Martin Scorsese, featuring Leonardo Di Caprio in the leading role. It’s a great book and movie and I really recommend it.

You can check out more books from thriller writer Dennis Lehane here.

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The Daily Carrot Principle

May 24

Posted by Jonas in Kindle, Reviews

I’m currently reading a book about recognition as a powerful management tool on my Kindle. It’s called the The Daily Carrot Principle and it’s written by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton (where do people get these cool names?).

Quoting from Amazon: From the authors of the smash bestseller The Carrot Principle comes an inspiring and lively page-a-day guide to harnessing the remarkable power of the carrot—taking yourself and your team to new heights of success in work and life.Based on their twenty years of experience teaching leaders at Fortune 100 companies, as well as one of the largest research studies ever conducted on workplace satisfaction, Gostick and Elton share a wealth of wisdom about simple but amazingly effective ways to boost your productivity and work satisfaction by setting clear goals, communicating effectively, building trust, and offering recognition in ways that make others feel appreciated and motivated.

I really enjoy the book and it’s easy to understand the value of recognition and to be specific, concise, and generous with the feedback to your employees.

I’ve been reading a lot of management books over the years and many of them do trend to drag on and on without really saying anything new. The Daily Carrot Principle focuses on a topic that can be used as much in your daily life as in the business world and does it in a very reader friendly and constructive way. The book truly demonstrates recognition as the accelerator to the four basics of leadership; goal setting, building trust, communication, and accountability.

Recommended.

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Jay-Z: Decoded

Apr 5

Posted by Jonas in Kindle, Reviews

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Jay-Z wrote a book? Yes he did. Decoded is part memoir and part description of some of his most provocative lyrics and although I haven’t finished it yet I really like it so far. I am reading the Kindle version.

You can get it here. It’s worth the dough.

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Americana by Don Delillo

Mar 22

Posted by Jonas in Books, Kindle, Reviews

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I just finished Americana by Don Delillo on my Kindle. The book is about 28-year-old television executive David Bell and his search for some kind of truth that takes him on a strange trip through America.

The book starts well mostly taking place at Bell’s workplace and there is a lot of quite funny office humor. The whole part 1 of the books is actually very good, with a sarcastic tone that entertains and gets you closer to the narrator. But from part 2 the book tries to hard. There is a big chunk about David’s childhood that is too long and when he goes out to shoot a movie somewhere in the American nowhere-land the book loses direction and falls quite flat.

Delillo described the book: “I don’t think my first novel would have been published today as I submitted it. I don’t think an editor would have read 50 pages of it. It was very overdone and shaggy, but two young editors saw something that seemed worth pursuing and eventually we all did some work on the book and it was published.”

I agree with the man himself. He is a great writer, but it’s very obvious that Americana is a debut and not up to scratch with his later works like Libra or Underworld.

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Blood Meridian

Mar 14

Posted by Jonas in Kindle, Reviews

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I finished Cormac McCarthy’s famous western novel “Blood Meridian” about a week ago, mostly reading it on my Amazon Kindle but also on my Kindle iPhone app at the gym. The book is like a punch to the face. Not in a bad way, not at all, but just slightly overwhelming with the strong language, the harsh scenery, the characters, the graphic (literary) violence.

Here is a sample:

Everywhere there were horses down and men scrambling and he saw a man who sat charging his rifle while blood ran from his ears and he saw men with their revolvers disassembled trying to fit the spare loaded cylinders they carried and he saw men kneeling who tilted and clasped their shadows on the ground and he saw men lanced and caught up by the hair and scalped standing and he saw the horses of war trample down the fallen and a little whitefaced pony with one clouded eye leaned out of the murk and snapped at him like a dog and was gone.

Among the wounded some seemed dumb and without understanding and some were pale through the masks of dust and some had fouled themselves or tottered brokenly onto the spears of the savages. Now driving in a wild frieze of headlong horses with eyes walled and teeth cropped and naked riders with clusters of arrows clenched in their jaws and their shields winking in the dust and up the far side of the ruined ranks in a piping of boneflutes and dropping down off the sides of their mounts with one heel hung in the withers strap and their short bows flexing beneath the outstretched necks of the ponies until they had circled the company and cut their ranks in two and then rising up again like funhouse figures, some with nightmare faces painted on their breasts, riding down the unhorsed Saxons and spearing and clubbing them and leaping from their mounts with knives and running about on the ground with peculiar bandylegged trot like creatures driven to alien forms of locomotion and stripping the clothes from the dead and seizing them up by the hair and passing their blades about the skulls of the living and the dead alike and snatching aloft the bloody wigs and hacking and chopping at the naked bodies, ripping off limbs, heads, gutting the strange white torsos and holding up great handfuls of viscera, genitals, some of the savages so slathered up with gore they might have rolled in it like dogs and some who fell upon the dying and sodomized them with loud cries to their fellows.

It is not an easy read, Blood Meridian, but it is well worth the effort as it has some of the most fantastic writing I have ever come across. If you are any way a fan of the Western world or interested in the 1850s in America/Mexico this is pretty much as good as it gets.

If you want to know more about the book you can always check this Wiki page.

Buy Blood Meridian in the Amazon Kindle store

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Amazon Kindle

Feb 16

Posted by Jonas in Kindle, Reviews

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I bought an Amazon Kindle as a birthday gift for myself and I must say it is a fantastic thing. It takes a while to get used to reading on a screen, but since it uses an E ink screen it feels like reading on paper.

Books I have in my Kindle right now:

Blood Meridian – Cormac McCarthy (A classic, reading it right now and enjoying it)
Full Dark, No Stars – Stephen King (Vintage King short stories, a nice read)
Rework – Jason Fried (Best Work/Management book I’ve read)
Fifth Avenue - Christoper Smith (Fast-paced thriller, not exactly great literature but good for the gym)
Shit my Dad Says – Justin Halpern (Funny autobiographical book that evolved out of a twitter account)
Let the Great World Spin – Colum McCann (A literary masterpiece set in 70s New York)
Getting Things Done – David Allen (Some good parts, but far too long)
The Clay Ran Red: Roger Federer vs Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros – Peter Bodo (A collection of tennis related blog pieces)

I also have Kindle for my Mac and my iPhone and they all synchronize perfectly.

#mce_temp_url#Read more and buy the Kindle here.

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