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Thursday, October 23, 2008

Two Completely Unrelated Bits of Book News

posted by on October 23 at 12:00 PM

Moby Dick has been designated as the official state book of Massachusetts. What would Washington state’s official book be?

(Cough-cough-
bill_gates_-_the_road_ahead_01.jpg-cough-cough.)

And the new Gphone doesn’t seem to have an e-reader on it yet, but Galleycat points out a neat function it does have:

“Barcode Scanner allows you to ‘scan’ a book’s barcode using the phone’s camera, then brings up its Amazon page or a nearby retail location on Google Maps. We tried it on a few review books we have lying around (including some that aren’t out yet), and it worked every time.”

That’s a great idea.

RSS icon Comments

1

Yes, such a great idea that it's been on Blackberry phones for some time. I have a pal who has used one to comb pawn shops and resell rare/OOP goods on his online shop for years.

Posted by Sam M. | October 23, 2008 12:13 PM
2

other phones have had programs that do the same thing for quite a while now.

Posted by Tiffany | October 23, 2008 12:14 PM
3

If you could scan the barcode, then it must mean that you already have the book in your hand. So why would you want to know the location of a nearby retail store? So you can buy two copies? It sounded cool at first, but it seems an unnecessary, if somewhat novel app.

Posted by android | October 23, 2008 12:16 PM
4

Dear lord, please let Washington's state book be something with dignity, and not one of Tom Robbins' post-hippie pieces of hazerai.

Posted by --MC | October 23, 2008 12:18 PM
5

@3, the purpose is to see what the book is selling for, to see if you can make a profit on it. Dedicated gizmos doing this have been around for years. You'll see them in places like the Library sale.

Posted by Fnarf | October 23, 2008 12:21 PM
6

I kind of like the G1...or at least Android. The bar scanner idea is to find cheaper products, and I've been seeing lots of developers claiming to work on e-readers. Developers can start posting their work in the Android Market Monday.

As per state book, something by Sherman Alexie, I personally like Reservation Blues

Posted by Jaye | October 23, 2008 12:23 PM
7

I didn't know Blackberries had them. Consider me chastened. And Fnarf: presumably for the average person, the idea is to read reviews of the book that aren't just blurbs.

Posted by Paul Constant | October 23, 2008 12:24 PM
8

Sherman Alexie wouldn't be a bad choice. Raymond Carver pretty well captures a lot of people's experience in Washington as well (sadly, for them), but he's technically not a native.

The Gphone bar code reader is one of the coolest apps going IMO. Works for (price) comparison shopping on almost anything.

Posted by Dougsf | October 23, 2008 12:31 PM
9

Ah, that makes sense too. And of course most valuable books don't have barcodes. Still, "bookhunter" is pretty much my dream job, so let me have my fantasy.

Posted by Fnarf | October 23, 2008 12:32 PM
10

@3:

What I will do with it, now that I know it exists, is use it to add books to my amazon wish list to keep track of them, and then go home later and and log into spl.org and place holds on them. I currently have to do this manually. A barcode scanning app will be GREAT. :D


Posted by violet_dagrinder | October 23, 2008 12:35 PM
11

Please, Paul, stop calling it the "Gphone." Please.

Posted by N | October 23, 2008 12:41 PM
12

What, nobody wants to nominate "The Egg And I"?

Although, personally, I'd go with "Another Roadside Attraction"...

Posted by COMTE | October 23, 2008 12:42 PM
13

It's a great candidate for the Washington state book because the cover has got some of both Eastern and Western Washington. In the foreground is a man who built a global business giant in Western Washington, and in the background is what looks like nearly every road in Eastern Washington.

Posted by Q*bert H. Humphrey | October 23, 2008 12:52 PM
14

Nomination, Washington State Book: Jack Cady, The Off Season

Posted by bd | October 23, 2008 1:34 PM
15

I can understand the barcode reader for booksellers, but for most average people, it seems a lot easier to just go to amazon's website and enter the book title. I have no idea how easy it is to use the android phone web browser though. I like the fact that the app exists though. I want a google phone.

Posted by android | October 23, 2008 1:35 PM
16

I vote for Tim Egan's The Good Rain.

Posted by daytrpr | October 23, 2008 2:24 PM
17

wrong. it should be Snowcrash, you fuckers.

Posted by josh b | October 23, 2008 2:38 PM
18

It's a great idea, but the Japanese do it better with the QR code.

Posted by An Andy | October 23, 2008 3:56 PM
19

Microserfs

Posted by some fucking guy | October 24, 2008 2:39 PM

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