Been a while since I’ve stunk up your linkses. Lots popping in the world of AWESOME. Let’s see what’s up.

Welcome to the Glee Lantern Corps

I hate Glee. I love Green Lantern. Makes for an interesting mix.

10 innovative digital books you should know about

I haven’t audited every one of the digital books Peter Meyers lists here, but there are some fairly AWESOME looking concepts. I really think tablets are the future of transmedia storytelling and that the book experience needs to be redefined for them. There’s an incredible app listed here from the New York Public Library that’s downloadable for the iPad: every photo and article they have from the 1939 World’s Fair, which is an AMAZING experience on the iPad.

U.N. Report Declares Internet Access a Human Right

I don’t think people realize how huge the implications for this are. The U.N. is basically saying a human’s access to the unrestricted information on the Internet is equal to that same human’s right to be free. In the wake of the Arab Spring, this sets up immense shifts in the ubiquity of the global Internet, perhaps even paving the road for the persistent integration of web connectivity to human biology. This is a big moment that will appear on historical timelines decades from now.

ComicsAlliance Recaps The ‘Smallville’ Series Finale

I make no secrets about my loathing of Smallville, a television show that could have presented a thoughtful yet entertaining mainstream exploration of Clark Kent’s pre-Superman life to a wholly new audience. Instead, the show featured cheesy “re-imaginings” of classic Superman comic book stories, horrible dialogue and characters, and outright disrespect of everything that makes Superman special. And yet, it ran for ten fucking years. What insipid assholes actually thought this was a good show??? In any case, Smallville’s series finale retained the degree of silly ridiculosity established in the 10 years prior with everything from killer planets to Tom Welling never actually putting on the Superman suit. Chris Sims and David Uzumeri at Comics Alliance continue their horrified deconstruction of this television travesty in the wit-filled mockfest that any Smallville review deserves. Definitely one for laughs.

There’s Something Happening Here…

Futurist Venessa Miemis tipped me off to this dark, dark vision of the future, where the optimism of our modern social and technological advances is crushed by the realities of today’s economic and political downfalls. Dave Pollard, writer of the blog How to Save the World, presents an extremely well-researched and sourced assessment of the current state of the world and how he thinks we are all on an inevitable downslide into hopelessness and decay. Pollard notes several observations of evidence for this assessment that make a lot of sense despite my own personal hopes for a better world in the future. It’s a frightening punch to the gut that everyone should check out and comment on. This is our world we’re trying to save here, people.

Bleeding Cool’s Coverage of DC Comics’ Relaunch Announcements

Last week, I wrote about DC Comics’ ballsy move of relaunching its entire line of comics with new #1 issues and publishing them digitally on the same day they see print. This week, DC has slowly rolled out announcements of new creative teams and directions for their 52 new titles in September. The content is not as impressive as originally thought. Initially, this was presented as an opportunity to recast its universe into a more modern, future-looking and diverse playground for new audiences to discover. Unfortunately, the selection of creative teams for some of these titles is backward-looking, in my opinion. The Batman titles, for example, feature the exact same creative teams as they do now, just mixed up a little bit. They also include two titles written by artists who have since been unable to get their books out on time. I’m not sure how revolutionary this is going to be for modern audiences.

DC's rebooted TEEN TITANS #1 by Scott Lobdell and Brett Booth.

There are some positive indications, however. DC is taking this opportunity to indeed ratchet up the diversity factor in their books. We’re seeing more women, more heroes of color, and more international representation amongst team books. It also looks like a design edict has come down the pike from DC Editorial to ensure women’s costumes are much more appropriate for modern audiences, as opposed to the pervert suits we’re all used to. I think these are all positive steps toward modernizing the DCU for maximum appeal to that key young demographic that has proven so elusive to them over the past 20 years. I’m most intrigued by the inclusion of a brand new title featuring Batwing, the Batman of Africa:

BATWING #1 by Judd Winick and Ben Oliver.

Although, I would have been much more impressed in DC’s attempts to diversify their lineup had they given an ongoing title to the Muslim Batman of Paris:

Get clickin’, y’all!

Related articles

• DC Comics Relaunch: List of Titles! (ghostradio.wordpress.com)
• DC Comics planning day-and-date digital comics publishing for relaunch (mobile-ent.biz)
• ComicsAlliance Reviews ‘Batman’ (1989), Part One – ComicsAlliance | Comic book culture, news, humor, commentary, and reviews (mmcelhaney-media.blogspot.com)
• Leaked DC Relaunch Covers Reveal Six Titles, Including Detective Comics #1! (goodcomics.comicbookresources.com)
• ‘Batman’ publisher DC Comics to renumber all comics, offer day-and-date digital distribution (shelf-life.ew.com)

Neil Pasricha: The 3 A’s of Awesome

I love me some TED Talks. Here’s the author of 1000 Awesome Things describing how he came up with that blog and subsequent book. As purveyor of all things AWESOME, I feel for the guy and get where he’s coming from. The downer part of this is that Neil’s presentation isn’t terribly… AWESOME. In fact, it’s kinda weak. If you’re gonna go AWESOME, bro-han, you gotta go BIG. Get some pep and CRUSH that sucker.

[Bit of an aside: I actually think that while his concept is pretty rad, the actual content leaves something to be desired. He should aim for 1000 AWESOME Things instead of 1000 Awesome Things.]

Why You Can’t Work At Work

What? More videos? Send the AWESOME, son!

Jason Fried’s frustration is shared by many, but I think a lot of that frustration comes from the tension that springing up in the modern workplace between social business and the 1.0 workplace of collaboration. People confuse meetings with collaboration and hierarchy with order.

The 5 Critical Social Media Skills You Need To Disperse

I saw Jay Baer speak at BOLO 2010 in Scottsdale last year, and he touched on these skills before codifying them (with Amber Naslund) in this post and his forthcoming book The NOW Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter, and More Social. He’s right on the money with every one, from Listening to Brand Immersion to Engagement. Business MUST understand that their people will ALWAYS BE MARKETING. A.B.M. ALWAYS! BE! MARKETING! If these businesses miss the boat on empowering their people to become marketers on the brand’s behalf, then they will risk those same people talking negatively about the selfsame brand. Be human, people!

China’s Global Dominance Tour: Next Stop Muslim World

This is more than a little significant. Fast Company‘s article is short on the details, but I HIGHLY encourage people to start paying attention to what China’s up to internationally. If you combined the entire population of China with the total number of professed Muslims, you would get a number worth paying attention to.

Amazon Launches Kindle Singles, Saves Long-Form Journalism

Long-form journalism that’s not book length? Not a bad business model here. At $1-$5 a pop, this is a GREAT way for writers and reporters to make some scratch off magazine-plus length journalism that’s too short for book distribution and too long for magazine inclusion. Further, it sets up a direct-to-consumer relationship, which is good for journalists and bad for journalism companies that can no longer charge a percentage against the writer for any work he publishes. I think you’re about to see a ton of for-profit writers start generating some AWESOME work this way.

Have a Great Weekend!

Related articles

• Links of the Week: January 7, 2011 Edition (mustbeawesome.com)

I got quickly overloaded by the abundance of “2011 predictions!” posts, white papers, and other internet ephemera that started spouting before the turn of the new year. As an armchair futurist and a self-described Challenger of the Unknown, I have to pay attention to a lot of the thinking bubbling up from the cesspool of teh Interwebz just to maintain a reputable degree of “cocktail party talk.”

No single source really jumped out at me as AWESOME in the 2011 prediction glut until I came across JWT‘s 100 Things to Watch in 2011 presentation on Slideshare (embedded below for your reading pleasure). What really struck me about this preso were a couple things:

1. JWT leads with its track record. Not a whole lot of people out there honestly self-assessing their prior predictions. I can respect companies and people who are willing to include the credential of their work, positive or negative, before making predictions about the future. How accurate was JWT about 2010? Two words: BACON EVERYWHERE.
2. They call Foursquare a “mobile gaming app.” This is the most accurate description of what Foursquare really is and how it works. Most netizens like to describe Foursquare as a geolocation social media tool, which completely misses the point. What makes Foursquare special is that it’s competitive, and that’s how you bring back users time and again.
3. The preso’s author, Ann Mack, is credited as Director of Trendspotting. That is the BADDEST-ASS title I have ever encountered from a PR firm.

For these reasons alone I ascribed enough of a degree of credibility in JWT to actually consider their projections for 2011. Here now are the ones I found most AWESOME:

Auto Apps

I’m very intrigued by the integration of social and smartphone-type apps to vehicles of the future. The obvious one that JWT identifies is Pandora, which is the internet nerd’s answer to mobile radio. But think about where this goes: Security systems that tweet your iPhone when someone jacks with your car. Shutdown options for stolen cars. Intelligent maps that ask you if you’re interested in stopping at some AWESOME attraction while on your road trip. Lot of potential here.

Biomimicry

Design that takes inspiration from naturally occurring shapes and constructs? Love this concept. Sounds very posthuman to me.

Breaking the Book

Glad JWT sees that redefining the way we read is going to explode even more in 2011. They briefly touch on the future of publishing with Kindle Singles and the concept of serialized e-publication, but I think there’s more to it than that. With the advent of the tablet market, I think books are about to be redefined as a medium en toto.

Detroit

Everyone knows how sad of a story Detroit has become since the economic recession of the past few years. JWT proposes that Detroit is in for a turnaround this year, an idea I find curiously sticky given my sudden fondness for Detroit-set TV shows like Hung. Could Detroit become the playground for a new Silicon Valley-type creative ecosystem? We’ll see.

Group-Manipulated Pricing

I think this is a gimme just based on the data we all saw in late 2010. Things like Groupon are going to become more and more popular because it’s a social enterprise that crosses online and offline worlds. While people will gravitate to services like these to get monetary and consumer deals, I think they’ll become more popular because of the social act the service brings. People ENJOY saving money together, and this may even cross the geo-location boundary at some point when people get better deals by checking in somewhere as a group. The even more amazing facet of this phenomenon (which JWT missed, surprisingly) is how democratizing prices in this fashion looks VERY similar to a socialist economy.

Ignorance Is Bliss

JWT posits that if information becomes ubiquitous, as it seems to be doing via internet-age enabled apps and services, more people will simply stick their fingers in their ears and choose not to care. I identify with this to some degree because I do it all the time: do I really care that much if everyone on the planet knows I just checked into Samuel Beckett’s Irish Gastro Pub? Blow that up to the next logical question: If no one cares, are we bound for a sudden slingshot backwards in technology and progress?

Nanobrewers

I know TONS of people in the DC area that brew their own beer. The idea that these folks can sustain their own businesses by doing something they love is totally rad. The larger question, I think, is what’s the magic number that turns your hobby into a sustainable business? People will always want to drink a cold beer, but how well is that helping other more esoteric businesspeople (see Etsy).

Near Field Communication (NFC)

This concept is similar to RFID in that it involves the exchange of information between mobile and other devices within a four-inch zone. JWT sees utility in this for ticket purchasing, wallets, etc. Once that proves out as a useful method for data transfer (and it will), I’m more interested in the propensity for NFC-enabled wetware in humans. Why carry ANY device when you can embed it subcutaneously and turn your body into a digitally transmitting wallet?

Objectifying Objects

Love the idea of “fetishizing” – as JWT calls it – obsolete physical objects into decorative accouterments or other re-purposeable items. My wife and I buy things like this from the French Market in New Orleans all the time. She has two clocks up in her office that were made from old vinyl records painted in new artistic ways. I’m real interested to see new expressions of this “recyclable” art form this year.

Odyssey Trackers

JWT’s example is more extreme than mine, but this concept involves the aggregation and broadcast of all social and personal media information from people who go out to explore the world. I’m looking into some innovative storytelling uses of this when I trek across the country in a few weeks.

Older Workforce

I dont actually think this is AWESOME as much as it is alarming and shitty. My dad always told me he expected to work until the day he died and I should too. Data is clearly indicating that there is no way national entitlement programs will be able to satisfy their constituents without immense tax increases (something our already bloated deficit can’t handle). So the alternative is to continue to work past your retirement age. After all, what the fuck am I gonna do with $265 a month from the Social Security Administration when I’m 70?

Social Networking Surveillance

We’re living in a post-Wikileaks world now, people. If you don’t think there are little nondescript buildings at Fort Meade where tons of poorly-paid federal contractors are poring over your social media output, think again. Take it from a guy who’s participated in studies of social media and social networking in more oppressive societies (like Egypt): there is no more privacy.

Social Objects

Love love LOVE the concept of making THINGS social: attaching personal information, reviews, or other data to objects to advance the knowledge of a community of consumers. I thought JWT was going to miss the emergence of “cloud-seeding” in 2011 (I’ll talk more about this in a subsequent post) but their identification of this phenomenon coupled with apps like StickyBits makes it all better.

Space Travel Goes Private

FUCK. YES. It’s about fucking time. It’s the 21st century, for Chrissakes.

Storied Products

Transmedia Producers

JWT describes the first concept as something that involves consumers demanding more of a personal connection to brands they love. I actually think these two things on JWT’s list are interconnected in such a way that they deserve to be together. Transmedia producers have had a really hard time finding mainstream access and recognition beyond mere marketing effects (see the “Why So Serious?” campaign instituted for The Dark Knight). The more studios and companies blur the lines between marketing and production, the more transmedia’s reach will be seen. In the meantime, I actually think we’ll see more transmedia pros find better paying and better recognized work creating transmedia experiences for products on behalf of brands.

Temporary Tattoos Go High-End

According to JWT, there are places in Dubai that sell temp tattoos in actual gold. I actually think upgrading temp body art to designer levels (e.g., Chanel) is a new form of posthuman body modification. Up till now, I’d seen body mods as purely utilitarian and ability-expanding instead of cosmetic or vanity-inspired. So combine the functional with the fashion and what could you get? Solid gold Prince Alberts that deliver electrical shocks during sex? ZING!

Tintin the Movie

JWT’s calling this the next big franchise, possibly the new age replacement for Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. With Spielberg AND Peter Jackson at the helm, I don’t doubt that it could be HUGE. But I’m not sure it hits the imagination highs required of big summer tentpole films like Harry Potter or Star Wars. Unless of course Spielberg and Jackson do some reinterpretations of the original source material and Tintin fights a robot zombie or something.

What Did They Miss?

Despite how great and how comprehensive this 2011 list is – and I encourage you to check out the entire preso – I actually think there are a lot of things JWT and other futurists missed. We’ll explore those next in a subsequent post.

In closing, I’d like to point out that this report is published annually by JWT Intelligence. Key in on the italicized word there and think about that for a second. From my experience, having worked in what many consider “real” intelligence (i.e. the U.S. government Intelligence Community), I find fascinating how many communication and public relations companies are choosing to characterize their future endeavors in the vernacular of intel. The term “business intelligence” has been around for quite some time, but I think its use in commercial enterprises like JWT implies another, more sinister intelligence-related word: espionage. So if this report compares as an intel assessment for JWT’s 2011 operations, what do you think its competitors and their communities of interest are doing with it?

Related articles

• JWT – 100 Things to Watch in 2011 [presentation] (hardknoxlife.com)
• JWT illustrates its trend predictions for 2011 (adweek.blogs.com)
• Nice future-gazing presentation by JWT Intelligence: 100 things to watch in 2011 (mediafuturist.com)
• JWT: 100 Things to Watch in 2011 (fredzimny.wordpress.com)
• JWT’s 100 Things To Watch In 2011 (paidcontent.org)
• CT gets fancy dressed by JWT (10and5.com)
• 2011 Forecast: 100 Global Trends That Will Drive Consumer Behavior (fuelingnewbusiness.com)
• Place Makers appoints JWT NZ (mumbrella.com.au)
• 100 Things to Watch in 2011 (investmentpostcards.com)
• 2011: 100 Things to Watch by JWTIntelligence (wolpers.posterous.com)
• JWT’s top 10 marketing trends for 2011 (fredzimny.wordpress.com)

Quote of the day: Mark Millar on digital comics;

The Not .99 Method

On the heels of my recent diatribe on digital comics, here are two interesting perspectives on the issue. Mark Millar, creator of Kick-Ass and Wanted, breaks down the numbers on digital comics, showing how creators like himself really aren’t making a whole lot off digital sales yet:

1/ Apple take 30% right off the bat.
2/ In the case of Wanted, Comixology then splits 50/50 with the publisher.
3/ Then the publisher pays the agent and creative team out of the remaining cash depending on their deal.

Millar’s description of this profit model provides justification for the naysayers who believe that digital comics simply aren’t profitable enough for creators and downright industry killers for retailers. On the other hand, at the second link, Warren Ellis shares a business model for digital comics that completely cuts out third party distribution and costs and enables comics creators to sell their work directly to consumers. Inherent in this approach, however, is a requirement by comics creators to completely rethink their publishings models and instead use free online tools like Google Docs, PayPal and others to set up their own direct-to-consumer publishing – all digital, all creator-owned. Ellis is right: 2011 may very well see tons of comics creators making money hand over fist jumping over publishers and retailers to sell directly to consumers.

Scientists Discover Time Teleportation

WTF???

Before, we knew that quantum teleportation works in space. Two identical particles at different locations are linked in such a way that, when you change the state of one, the other one instantly changes in exactly the same way, no matter how many miles or light-years are between them. This is a phenomenon that defies our understanding of reality, and it just got even more complex with this discovery.

University of Queensland’s scientists Jay Olson and Timothy Ralph claim that the quantum entanglement is a fundamental part of the universe, and it works both in space and time, so changing the state of particle today instantly changes the same particle in the future, even while the particle will not exist between those two points.

The presupposition here (I think) is that there has to be something/someone on the other end of the time pipeline conducting the same teleportation experiment. So we can travel forward in time but not back? Pity.

Shackleton’s 100-year-old whiskey unearthed in Anarctica, soon to be drunk

I’m little more than an amateur scotch and whiskey connoisseur, but I can tell you this with some authority: the older it is, the smoother it goes down. Cool story about how they found this whiskey preserved in an old wrecked ship.

The Batman Nightclub ‘Wayne Manor’ Revealed in 1966 ‘Life’ Magazine Article

Chris Sims at Comic Alliance – also of Chris’ Invincible Super Blog fame – has made a name for himself as the world’s only preeminent “Batmanologist.” He has pored through every aspect of Batman pop culture across all media, and his writing has reflected an intense investigatory passion for new AWESOME Batman finds in pop history. In this post, Sims found an old copy of Life Magazine (apparently the ENTIRE RUN is available FOR FREE on Google Books) that featured this spread on Batman nightclub called Wayne Manor. Wayne Manor was built at the height of the “Bat-craze” of the old Adam West Batman TV show in the 1960s, replete with camp but – as evidenced by this INSANE picture – also more popular with the general American public than at any other time in Batman history.

Courtesy of Comics Alliance. Y’dig?

And finally…

New Image Of Kermit, Jason Segel And Miss Piggy At Muppet Read-Through

Courtesy of Bleeding Cool.

To call the iPad merely an e-reader shortchanges all the great things this platform can offer to consumers. However, I originally bought my iPad to have all my e-reading experiences in one place. With apps for Kindle and Nook ebooks and a limitless range of options to connect to social networking services I use for reading (i.e., Goodreads), the iPad satiates my OCD “all-in-one” mentality.

On average, my reading experience encompasses the following activities:

• Reading the actual book
• Listening to music to accompany the book
• Commenting on specific things I find interesting in the book on Twitter
• Rating the book on Goodreads and writing a short review

The iPad is the only device to offer those all-in-one capabilities. Sure, the nook’s secondary color touchscreen features an Android-based browser, but the online experience is slow and meandering. The iPad is BUILT for an integrated e-reading experience.

The main drawbacks come in the form of size, weight, and screen type. The iPad is a bit more unwieldy to hold than the Kindle or nook, primarily due to its weight. Furthermore, I have found that I get terrible eyestrain from reading too long on the iPad. It is, after all, a big interactive computer screen and does not feature the smooth, ink-on-paper quality that E-Ink technology brings to the Kindle and the nook.

What the iPad REALLY brings to the e-reader experience, however, is the promise of multimedia integration. A great example of this is Smashing Ideas’ The War of the Worlds app. This downloadable app takes H.G. Wells‘ public domain novel into a unique bookreading experience by adding interactive, animated chapter breaks. These interpretive pieces sometimes depict the alien tripods from this epic, and readers can tap the screen which causes the tripods to animate and shoot laser beams, complete with sound effects. Granted, this particular app is somewhat limited in its imagination for the format, but consider the potential: with each page swipe, you could blend audio readings of the text or an actual conversation between characters, animated or live action video, and even puzzles and games that readers can solve to unlock different parts of the narrative.

The possibilities for this method of storytelling are endless and bound only by authors’ and developers’ imaginations. I personally would enjoy re-experiencing older works like The War of the Worlds as new, interactive iPad stories. This is what makes the iPad a much more powerful experience than its E-Ink confined competitors. Eventually, someone will design a truly limitless reading experience that incorporates audio, video, and interactivity in such a fashion that it may even become a new standard for personal consumption of stories and books. I also like the concept of nonlinear storytelling on the iPad, something that books simply cannot do well in their current configuration.

Finally, I’m intrigued by the potential for the iPad as a comics reader. Digital comics finally make sense given the color capacity of the iPad. This will be fodder for a subsequent post on digital comics.

Related articles

• What happens to Kindle, eReaders if iPad 2 uses Mirasol? (ireaderreview.com)
• Top 5 eReader events of 2011 (candidates) (ireaderreview.com)
• Kindle Vs Nook Vs iPad (pctechmojo.com)
• Can You Read Ebooks From the Library on Your iPad? (brighthub.com)
• Nook Color vs Kindle vs iPad – comparison of the reading experience (ireaderreview.com)
• eReader Showdown: The nook Experience (mustbeawesome.com)

Image courtesy of Barnes & Noble

The very first e-reader I purchased was Barnes & Noble‘s nook. Despite how much I loved the e-reading experience, I almost immediately regretted the purchase. Since the nook‘s release, TONS more companies have jumped into the e-reader market, all competing for the best experience, the most dollars spent, and the loyalty of millions of customers who are now entering this burgeoning market. Within the year, prices had dropped on the nook dramatically, and Amazon retaliated with the release of its cheap, easy-to-pick-up Kindle 3.

That said, the nook demonstrated one key thing that many tech reviewers have ignored: the propensity for cheap simplicity in the design. In the last year, consumers have proven out that they want an affordable e-reading experience: cheap books, cheap devices. We have already seen several e-readers fold due to overcomplicated designs and limited access to inexpensive books. The thing I enjoy the most about the nook is how SEAMLESSLY it fits into my existing lifestyle.

The nook FEELS like a disposable device. It’s heavier than the Kindle and lighter than the iPad, still ideal for one-handed reading. I immediately took to using it at the gym, where it received more than a fair share of bumps and dings. Despite the rough treatment, the nook still performs exactly how I want it to: as a handy-dandy, easy-to-use mechanism for delivering printed content.

I LOVE the e-reading experience. It’s a blast for me to be able to rapidly switch between books on a single platform that I can carry around with me. (The Kindle beats out the nook for ultra-portability, however.) I find myself reading more and reading faster due to the simplicity of the experience. I can power through half a book in a 1-hour workout, and I often finish engrossing reads on flights or train rides. The nook really makes for an AWESOME e-reading experience. The E-Ink display of the nook is easy on the eyes and never tires me out. The color touchscreen (now a little outdated) is a great method for book shopping. My biggest complaint with the device has to be the glitches in the software. To be fair, most of this has been ironed out by now, but it made for some pretty annoying times for the early adopters.

Barnes & Noble did a great job thinking about user experience when designing the first generation nook. I was very intrigued to learn that within 1 year, B&N had announced their next generation nook, the Nook Color. This device looks (and costs) more like a stripped down tablet — fully touchscreen and wired for internet use right out of the box. This is an interesting choice for B&N. In effect, they’re giving up on inexpensive and simple and trying to compete more in the tablet arena. I think this is where Amazon is going to win in this market (seemingly confirmed by the insane sales numbers for the Kindle this holiday season).

Daniel Pink wrote about how “abundance” will drive prices down on goods to such a degree that consumers will focus more and more on aesthetics and design. B&N was on to something with the nook’s simple yet elegant design. However, the Nook Color signals B&N’s intent to be all things to all consumers… but is this really possible at such a low price point and design spec? Time will tell.

{Note: I write this post (while long overdue) to meet the requirements of Gizmodo’s eval criteria for a new staff writer. Any tips, connections, or advice in my pursuit of that goal would be appreciated.)

Related articles

• Kindle, Nook Color, and value for money (ireaderreview.com)
• Amazon says Kindle holding its own against tablets (financialpost.com)
• Kindle Color – How soon will Amazon release Kindle Color? (ireaderreview.com)
• Nook Color Review (web2learning.net)
• Could Nook sales be within striking distance of Kindle sales? (ireaderreview.com)
• Amazon: Tablets Aren’t Kindle-Killers After All (dailyfinance.com)
• Barnes & Noble’s New Nook Color: Comfortably Mainstream (dailyfinance.com)
• The Best Handheld eBook Reader: Holiday Gift Guide (brighthub.com)
• Which Is the Better eReader: Nook or Sony? (brighthub.com)
• Kindle is Amazon’s all-time best-selling product; Kobo and Nooks sell out during holidays (techvibes.com)
• Amazon: many iPad owners also buying Kindles (news.cnet.com)

I discovered Goodreads a couple years ago and found it instantly addictive. It’s a social network for sharing, organizing, and commenting on books. You can create your own shelves on which to hang books you’ve read, are currently reading, or mark to read. You can also invite your friends to join the service and opt in to see what’s new in their streams. So if they write a review or rate a certain book, it will pop up in your stream, you can decide if you want to check it out or not, and add it to one of your own shelves.

I bring Goodreads up for a number of reasons. The first is that when I first started using it, I had to go back in my mind and think about ALL the books I’ve read. This was a hard job for and English major who’s forgotten more books than he cares to admit. I’m still woefully behind in adding things to my library. Still, this is a great mental exercise that forced me to organize my reading for the first time ever. I could now see how many non-fiction versus fiction books I had read, for example, or if I was missing a certain book in a series or family of writers. The task of cataloguing puts a lot of things in perspective for me, and I find that I am recognizing patterns in this volume of data that I once had not previously seen. This is a GREAT exercise that will help you measure your pattern recognition abilities, something which futurist Venessa Miemis calls an essential skill for 21st century thinking.

Courtesy of an-inkling.com

Secondly, as a social animal, I am finding all kinds of value in the connections I make on Goodreads. In many cases, these connections are very different from the ones I have on other social media. For example, I don’t have a relationship with the guy I buy comic books from, Don Alsafi of G-Mart Comics in Chicago. Well, at least our relationship has been defined simply by my buying comics from him. However, once we became connected on Goodreads, we’ve exchanged quite a few different ideas about books we’ve either read or want to read. Most of this happens without us having an actual conversation, or at least the conversation is marked simply by signifiers in one of our ratings or reviews of the books we read. But these signifiers are not directed at any one connections. They are free and open to the community. So I’m basically getting a free window into Don’s mind regarding the books he’s read. We skip the conversation and get right to the information: PLANETARY is fucking AWESOME. Got it. Moving on. I like the elegance of this network, which is not to say there’s not plenty of interactive conversation in Goodreads’ network of groups. Plus, you can always make a comment on someone’s review or rating.

Finally, the last reason I bring up Goodreads is that one of my AWESOME readers recently asked me why I don’t do more book reviews on Must. Be. AWESOME!!! The answer’s pretty simple: I review every book I read on Goodreads. The writeups can range from a paragraph to more detailed to only a rating, but I find that for books, it’s easier for me to put my thoughts into a single space that has already been catalogued, tagged and organized rather than creating new content for this space.

So if you’re looking for my thoughts on any number of books, feel free to follow me on Goodreads. I’m still working out how I can get a good Goodreads widget set up to flow my content there to my blog (most of the WordPress plugins are dismal), so if you have any good ideas on that, let me know. Otherwise, I do have my Goodreads feed connected to Twitter and Facebook too, so reviews and ratings will occasionally pop into those streams as well (sporadically, though, because of the unevenness of the interfaces).

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{I’ve been thinking a lot on how to best approach book reviews here at Must. Be. AWESOME!!! I maintain a separate space on Goodreads for managing and reviewing books. However, some of those books do cross the threshold into true expressions of AWESOME, and I’ll be sharing some of those here on the blog. For everything else I’m reading (or about to read), check me out under username “Dufour” on Goodreads.}

I respond well to influencers who surprise me. I get bored easily by “normal” content, and I yearn for batshit insane, crazy GONZO stuff that will both entertain me and feed my head. Earlier this year, Andy Nulman wrote a book that totally did that: POW! Right Between the Eyes: Profiting from the Power of Surprise.

Nulman really speaks to me. He’s loud. He dresses funny. He comes from a comedy background. He’s irreverent to the point of annoyance. But he’s wily enough to have figured out that there’s something to this surprise marketing thing, and through his book (and accompanying blog), he’s staked a claim as the purveyor of all things Surprise.

The book itself contains plenty of hardcore, actionable lessons that marketers, PR peeps, social business strategists, and others can use to inject a little craziness into their otherwise boring, stale, or usual campaigns. Nulman even spends a little time dissecting what surprise is on the emotional register and how the physical displays of surprise make one more susceptible to suggestion. He’s not a scientist by any means, and I believe from his stated research that it’s probably only Google-deep, but such an understanding of the science of surprise is just enough background for the reader. This is not an academic or scholarly read. It is an AWESOME one. Nulman wisely spends most of his print time focusing on the fun stuff.

Nulman uses his background in comedy as a launching point to analyze why traditional marketing sucks so bad and why crazy, gonzo tactics of the type he describes are so effective. I have long maintained that entertainment is the most effective way into a person’s good graces, and Nulman entertains the crap outta his readers. His writing style is fun, provocative, and completely in line with his stated purpose. I respect an author who so brazenly ignores many of the common rules of writing and blazes his own trail with his own voice. Nulman surprises you on every page, whether it’s a pithy remark about a competitor’s shit-ass marketing scheme or an entertaining analysis of a certain brand’s methods in surprise. Plus, in keeping with his theme, Nulman pulls out the stops with a really cool surprise ending to the book that catapults its engagement from the printed page to other media.

Some of Nulman’s passages may come off as self-aggrandizing and downright egotistical. That’s OK. Be ready for it. Embrace it. You have to accept that the guy who lives by The Art of Surprise is going to be a little shameless in the self-promotion department. While it can be tiring reading about all the cool things that have happened to Nulman that put him on this path, you will still learn some valuable lessons from his overhyped hyperbole.

One of the more interesting aspects of Nulman’s roll-out for POW! involved his blog, on which he wrote about Surprise and presented examples of Surprise marketing in action. For quite a while leading up to the book’s release, the blog was a great place to get real world studies (albeit brief ones) of what makes something an effective mechanism for Surprise. However, shortly after the book’s publication, Nulman began posting less… and less… until finally his regular content dried up to virtually nothing. He has since admitted that he was unable to maintain the blog to any degree of regular value for his audience and thus decided to close up shop. This became an interesting and value-laden lesson for me: using a blog as an experimentation ground for book content and then a marketing vehicle for that book has its advantages and disadvantages. Nulman sits at the other end of the spectrum from blogger-turned-author guys like Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, who not only developed multiple social media streams to promote and market their book Trust Agents but also continue to engage with people on those new and preexisting networks.

That criticism aside, POW! Right Between the Eyes is still an AWESOME book, business or otherwise. It’s filled full of good ideas to use if you’re a dirty influence peddler like myself, and it’s entertaining and fun to read if you’re not.