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Is this a good thing?
I am a great fan of technology, really I am. I'm always interested in new software and updated hardware, in advancements that let me see or hear more clearly. I think the internet is the great invention of our time. But some things make me nervous, and Amazon is one of those things.
They've got some new features, in case you didn't know. The hugely powerful software they use to scan books also gathers some rather startling information. Look, for example, at the entry for Byatt's Possession. About half way down the page you'll see a heading called Citations, and under that, a list of all the books mentioned in the novel. For example:
Principles of Geology (Penguin Classics) by Charles Lyell ◦ page 298, and page 497
There is a link to the currently available edition of this book, as well, for your shopping convenience.
Amazon is also providing what they call SIPs, or statistically improbably phrases. Their definition:
Amazon.com's Statistically Improbable Phrases, or "SIPs", show you the interesting, distinctive, or unlikely phrases that occur in the text of books in Search Inside the Book. Our computers scan the text of all books in the Search Inside program. If they find a phrase that occurs a large number of times in a particular book relative to how many times it occurs across all Search Inside books, that phrase is a SIP in that book.
Here's an example of such phrases from Niven's Ringworld Engineers (click for a larger version). You'll note that you can also search inside this book -- for example, you could look up "immortality drug," ask for the page it's on, and read it in context.
Not all books have these features enabled. If you'll notice, under the picture of the cover you'll sometimes see this phrase: "Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book." Of course, Amazon has to have permission from the publisher (and, I'm hoping, also from the author) before they run amok among the pages. My novels do not have this feature. As far as I know, my publisher just decided not to allow it, which, I guess, is good. I think.
I make a case, whenever possible, for supporting local independent bookstores, but I do use Amazon. I use it as a reference work, to look up titles and editions and availability. These new features are also promising. If I know that someplace in Novel X the author uses the phrase 'xxx' -- say I remember because it was a strong image or evocative piece of dialogue -- I have two choices if I want to find it again. I can sit down and page through the whole novel again, or ask Amazon to search for the phrase.
So yes, there are some services Amazon offers that a small independent bookstore cannot. On the other hand, nobody from Amazon has ever reached out of the computer to pet my dogs or give them a treat. Nobody from Amazon has ever asked how my daughter is doing or if I have an opinion on the neighborhood ballot to stop further construction of condominiums.
I have this sense that I'm the little kid playing on the sidewalk and Amazon is the stranger with candy. It's really good candy, too. Chocolate and hazelnuts and French nougat. I need to keep reminding myself why it's not good for me. Because it's not. I'm almost positive.
March 23, 2005 02:14 PM
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