Did you buy any e-books this Cyber Monday? All the major bookstores had big sales going on, with Amazon offering 1,000 books at huge discounts. I was tempted. But ultimately, I did not buy. Why not? Because I'm tired of how much work reading e-books has become for me. I bought from Fictionwise for years in the pre-agency days and never had a single book with a typo. But this year, I don't think I have read a single book from a Big Six publisher that hasn't had at least a dozen. I do go through and mark them for correction because...

Jon Cog of the Me and My Kindle blog gave us a very convenient heads-up yesterday about Amazon's Black Friday plans for the Kindle Fire. As he reports on his site: Amazon’s retail-store partners, like Best Buy, OfficeMax, Staples, or Office Depot, [are] reportedly not allowed to lower the actual price of the [Kindle Fire], but they’re doing the next best thing. If you purchase a Kindle Fire tablet, they’ll just give you some money back in the form of a gift card! Check out Jon's post for details on the sales being offered by the four brick-and-mortar retailers mentioned above. Of course, it's worth bearing...

Amazon, Target Winning Black Friday Wars, Report Says (Los Angeles Times) Kobo Arc vs Kindle Fire {and} Kobo Arc vs Nook HD (Good E-Reader) Buyer Beware: Nintendo Nukes $400 Worth of Downloaded Content in DRM Migration Fail (BoingBoing) Open Access: Why Academic Publishers Still Add Value (The Guardian) Kindle Daily Deal: Porch Lights by Dorothea Benton Frank {and} four Thanksgiving-themed children's books * * *  ...

An item posted on ZDNet earlier today alerted us to the fact that come tomorrow, November 4, Barnes & Noble will be slashing USD$20 off the cost of both its Nook Color and Nook Tablet devices. "The tablet PC price wars continue to heat up," according to ZDNet, "as Barnes & Noble lowers the cost on its older slates in preparation for the release of its new Nook HD models." From the article, here are the pricing details: "Each of the 7-inch tablets will get $20 shaved off their former price tag. The Nook Color will now cost $139, while the 8GB Nook Tablet will now...

From the press release: Holiday shoppers made Kindle Fire the bestselling product across all of Amazon.com on Black Friday Kindle Fire now the bestselling product across Amazon for 8 weeks running – ever since its introduction on September 28 SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–(NASDAQ: AMZN) Amazon.com, Inc. today announced that this Black Friday was the best ever for the Kindle family and the popular Kindle Fire remained the bestselling product across all of Amazon since its introduction 8 weeks ago. The bestselling Kindle family – the $79 Kindle, $99 Kindle Touch, $149 Kindle Touch 3G and the $199 Kindle Fire – are available now at www.amazon.com/kindle and at...

Barnes & Noble is listing a refurbished Nook Color (its first-generation Android tablet/e-reader, which is more hackable than the new Nook Tablet) for $119.99 on eBay, knocking $30 off the normal refurb price. Although it is refurbished, it does come with a one-year warranty, which is better than most non-Apple refurb sales get. A couple of my friends picked up this tablet back in the day when it was more expensive and were very happy with it (once they’d jailbroken it). I don’t have the disposable income to snag one myself right now, alas, but don’t let that stop...

Black Friday is almost upon us, and it bids fair to be an e-reader kind of holiday season. There’s no word yet from Amazon on any discounts on its Kindle products (though it seems to be discounting just about everything else), but Barnes & Noble has announced a special deal on a “Limited Edition” of its Nook Simple Touch e-reader—in stores only, it’s knocking $20 off the price. This brings it down to $79—on par with Amazon’s lowest-tier ad-supported Kindle price. Amusingly, one of its listed benefits is No Annoying Ads Reading...

Blog Kindle reports on the “aftermath” of the Black Friday $89 Amazon Kindle deal. As might reasonably be expected, the Kindles sold out so fast that some people accused Amazon of not actually having them at all. Not that it’s too surprising, given how popular Amazon is; the blog notes that between Twitter and Facebook, there was the potential for half a million people to be aware of the deal even before its spread on blogs (such as ours) came into play. Under all that attention, even several thousand refurbished units could sell out literally in seconds. ...

By now, you’ve probably read that Amazon is offering its previous generation Kindle for $89 today starting at 12 noon ET. It’s a well-made product even if it doesn’t have the Wi-Fi or higher-contrast Pearl E Ink screen, and I’m sure it will sell out within the first minute or two. So how do you get in line for it? Go here: amazon.com/blackfriday In the Lightning Deals box, select the Kindle Store category and you’ll see the listing. Amazon doesn’t list the price of a lightning deal until the deal starts, but it lists a countdown timer so you know when to check...

Apple has posted the discount list for its Black Friday sale. As expected, they include $101 off on iMacs and MacBooks (Pro and Air), $41 off on the iPad, $21 to $41 (essentially, 10% off for each model) on the iPod Touch, and $11 off on the iPod Nano. There are also minor discounts on a number of accessories including the iPad case, camera connection kit, wireless keyboard, keyboard dock, and so on. These discounts may be had either on-line or in an Apple Store. (Given the Black Friday crowds, on-line is probably where the smart shoppers will go.) ...

Nate the Great at The Digital Reader notes that one of his readers reported that Barnes and Noble listed refurbished Wi-Fi Nooks on eBay for $79.99 today; it sold 3,590 of them at that price before the listing ended, but has relisted them for $99.99 (and the 3G + WiFi Nook for $119.99) for the next 26 days (or, presumably, until they run out). The $79.99 price went Amazon’s Black Friday $89.99 2G Kindle refurb deal one better, and the entire-holiday-season length of the deal certainly beats Amazon’s one-day-only offer. Take that, Jeff Bezos! I wonder if Amazon will...

From an email I got from e-reader-info.com: It seems that Amazon will offer the Kindle 2 for only $89 on Black Friday... We couldn't find official word yet, but that's the talk on the Kindle fan page on Amazon. The Kindle 2 is still a great e-reader with a 6" E Ink display, 3G wireless and 2GB of memory. In related news, Amazon says that yesterday was the biggest sales day ever for Kindle devices. Seems that the iPad and other tablets are not hurting e-reader sales after all, at least for now....