The Victorians were remarkable people in many ways, and the women most of all.  Isabella L. Bird was one of those lone female travelers who were spawned during this era. She traveled, alone, to Japan in 1878, Tibet, India, Persia, the American West, Hawaii, China, Morocco and more. All the while she wrote journals of her travels, which were widely published. In 1892 she became the first woman inducted into the Royal Geographical Society. I recently bought the Dover edition of her "Unbeaten Tracks in Japan" (ebooks aside, isn't Dover one the publishing industry's great treasures!) and...

The Kindle craze goes on---how long until another Sony craze or maybe even a Readius craze replaces it? Or will the K-fixation last and last? Who knows? Of interest:  News that the Kindle's still sold out. Even so, where are the specific numbers? Just how many units sold out of how many in stock? I don't doubt that the K-machine is a hit among early adopters, and it might be much more of a success, but why is Jeff Bezos so shy about the stats that count? (Mike Cane, Henry Blodget and Peter Kafka.) Transcript of Amazon...

So many Web sites, so many e-books, so little time. Not surprisingly, Web-based bookmarks can be godsends for busy "read later" types--especially those using multiple machines. Consider possibilities such as DigitalReading.net, a search-and-bookmarking site run by TeleBlog regular Tamas Simon, who's partly integrated his service with del.icio.us. But suppose you want a no-frills approach for your technophobic friends and family members---maybe even a grandma-simple interface. Up and running in a minute Then beeline over to the Instapaper site, where, in around a minute, you can download a toolbar icon, then register and happily start bookmarking away. Remember,...

The most popular gizmos for reading e-books may yet turn out to be cell phones, especially when rollout E Ink screens become good and dirt-cheap. But meanwhile we optimists might remember Rob Preece's just-made observation---on the still-limited availability of dedicated e-book gizmos in most countries. Upside galore. While Rob was writing in a different context, that's what leapt out at me. Both the Sony Reader and the Kindle have yet to go on sale globally, with Sony and Amazon's marketing engines to push them in local contexts. If nothing else, imagine all the cultural variants of Sony's just-announced...

Moderator's note: Rochelle is, er, right on the money. Even with cheaper gizmos in use, such as the $200 OLPC XO, a library's role should be to encourage use of book-friendly hardware---not provide everyone with it! - David Rothman.(Screeching brakes)  Whoa. Wait a minute. Stepping back from my Kindle krush and putting aside the question of whether or not it's legal for libraries to loan them, I considered the Kindle issue through the eyes of a public library manager who has to make decisions about how to get the most out of a budget. Duh! It's a no brainer. ...

Where's Dick Cavett when we need him? Oh, the fun days---when Mailer and Vidal might battle it out, or when Cavett would ask probing questions of his guests? Yes, we have Oprah Winfrey here in the States. But it's not quite the same, and authors just don't figure that prominently in the grand scheme of things. Now, however, courtesy the Web, the very medium that in some ways can be the enemy of immersive reading, the entire world will be able to enjoy Titlepage.tv, starting March 3. Presiding over the book chat will be Daniel Menaker, the 55-year-old former...

E-books can be a real bargain for us Canadians. For years, I shied away from anything "American" because I was so terrified of the almighty exchange rate conversion and how it would rip me off. But last year, I came to realize that I was wrong about this. Even when the dollar is not at par, Canadians can still save money because the American list price is typically so much lower in the first place. $9.99 American, even when converted to Canadian dollars under a less generous exchange rate, was still cheaper than $14.95 Canadian, even back in...

Just how long will the party go on for Kindle owners? Amazon has already said it really would like you to Web-browse within shopping areas and maybe Wikipedia. EVDO isn't free to Jeff & friends. So might a WiFi hack make sense---getting the Kindle to work with 802.11 wireless via a TiVo WiFi adapter or another? Forward-looking people in a MobileRead forum are already on the case. Here's rooting for them or others to succeed! Obstacles remain. As one Kindle fan asks: "Could the store and browser be forced to recognize a different adapter? Is the Kindle's USB port...

Some links of the day: Kindle e-mail tips and others, on sale at K-store---plus some pointers from MobileRead on finding books for the Kindle, beyond the K-store. Also see info on Kindle-driven search traffic and an international rollout of DRMless MP3s, hopefully a sign that Amzon will do the same for the Kindle. Bookeen's assurance that the Cybook Gen3 is back in stock, plus MobileRead's comments. Rapidshare file-sharing service might be shut down (Techmeme roundup). The site is a copyright lawyer's nightmare or dream, depending which way you look at it. The Pirate Bay also facing legal woes (Google...

I have been an e-book reader for years, both on computers and on portable devices such as Palm organizers and my Alphasmart Dana. For anything longer than a short subway trip, however, or an afternoon coffee break, the Dana won't cut it for reading---the screen is too reflective and the lighting has to be arranged just so. Enter the eBookwise, with a long-lasting battery and a screen the size of a real book. Also, eBookwise is owned by the same people who run Fictionwise, where I already had an account and a few books ready to go. So...

Moderator's note: Rochelle Hartman, a librarian in La Crosse, Wis., and author of the lively Tinfoil and Raccoon blog, thinks the Kindle is almost toaster-simple to use. Legal and e-babel issues remain for libraries, but all in all, Rochelle is impressed. - David Rothman The library's business manager was very pleased to hand the Kindle to me. I started playing with it immediately, and took raw notes in Google docs and decided that's how I would report my inaugural Kindle experience.  I'll keep updating this post as I continue to poke and play with it.  I should note...

Does the Sony Reader diss millions of vision-impaired Americans? Yes! Here's a "must" homework assignment for Sony and Adobe, something to read and act on before the release of Digital Editions software for the Reader. Among other people, I'm thinking of a New York publishing executive with eyesight problems. She's a speed reader and might not be won over by the current generation of E Ink machines, which take a second or so to change pages. But let's look ahead. Meanwhile, via a firmware update, the current model PRS-505 could be much friendlier for the vision-impaired. Same for the...