Yesterday Amazon.com surprised no one, announcing the its new Kindle 2. Shipping later this month, the e-reader features a battery that will last two weeks, more contrast on the black-and-white screen than the previous iteration, faster wi-fi connections, more memory, a smaller size and a function that reads the text aloud (not the audiobook version of the text). The new Kindle costs $359, the same as the old Kindle, and begins shipping February 24.

In addition, as expected, Amazon said that it will offer Ur, a new work by Stephen King, exclusively on the Kindle 2.

The audio capability caused at least some questions. Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild, told the Wall Street Journal that this was "an audio right, which is derivative under copyright law." An Amazon spokesperson countered that customers would not confuse text reading with the audiobook.

Several publishers criticized Amazon's current pricing structure, which is to sell most e-books at $9.99.

Speaking with the Wall Street Journal, Markus Dohle, CEO of Random House, noted that his company has "a lot invested in our digital technology. And e-books are still a very small business--less than 1% of revenue."

Carolyn K. Reidy, CEO of Simon & Schuster, told the New York Times. "I don't believe that a new book by an author should ipso facto be less expensive electronically than it is in paper format."

Bezos argued to the contrary, saying, that "readers are going to demand that [e-books are cheaper than printed books], and they are right because there are so many supply chain efficiencies relative to printing a paper book."

The Authors Guild's Aiken predicted that Amazon will put pressure on publishers and authors rather than raise prices, saying, "The thought that there might be one very dominant player who could squeeze most of the profits out of this new market is frightening for authors and publishers."

Newsstand sales of magazines fell 11% to 43.37 million in the second half of 2007, while total circulation, which includes subscriptions, fell only 1%, according to Audit Bureau of Circulation figures quoted by the Wall Street Journal. The slump in newsstand sales is the fastest in decades.

Celebrity gossip and women's general-interest magazines had the most severe drops in newsstand circulation.

Among the reasons for the fall: the recession; people shopping less; increases in cover prices; and some publishers' discounting of subscriptions. Altogether the trend "presages a long-term restructuring of the industry," the Journal said.

---

Tracy B. Atkinson, owner of Pages Bookstore, Flint Mich., was the subject of a Flint Journal article about her commitment to her community.
 
"It goes back to my original belief in opening the bookstore, that people want downtown to succeed and that in order for that to happen, local people have to invest," said Atkinson, who opened her bookshop in 2004. "I want to be part of the solution. . . . It's become much more than a bookstore. We really want to be part of the community."

---

Salon's Video Dog toured New York Comic Con with author and graphic designer Chip Kidd acting as guide. At the sold-out convention, held over the weekend at the Javits Center, Video Dog noted that "Kidd, who has an extremely successful career designing book covers, is here promoting his latest work, Bat Manga! The Secret History of Batman in Japan. He seems like less of an artist or an author at 'The Con' than a fan, providing a deadpan running commentary as we pass booths selling corsets, comics and swords."

Look for more Comic Con coverage in Shelf Awareness later this week.

---

Are you koumpounophobic? "People who are scared of buttons must lead terrible lives," author Neil Gaiman muses in a delightfully unsettling promotional video (via Boing Boing) released in conjunction with the new film adaptation of his book, Coraline.

---

The next Barnes & Noble Recommends pick is Dog on It by Spencer Quinn (Simon & Schuster), which goes on sale today.

"Dog on It is the first volume in Spencer Quinn's new mystery series featuring the charming detective duo of private investigator Bernie Little and his dog Chet," Jaime Carey, B&N's chief merchandising officer, said in a statement. He called the book "a dog lover's mystery filled with laughs."

Under the program, B&N staff choose a book that B&N "recommends unconditionally, believes is 'unputdownable' and is especially appropriate for book discussion groups." B&N will host reading group discussions of Dog on It in select stores and offer free reading group guides.

---

The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood is criticizing Scholastic book clubs for including non-book items in its book club offerings, the New York Times reported. For example, the group said 14% of the material offered through two Scholastic book clubs were not books and another 19% were books sold with stickers, posters and toys.

Susan Linn, director of the Campaign, said, "The message that children get when books are marketed with other items is that a book in and of itself isn't enough. And what it does is encourage children to choose books based not on the content but on what they get with it."

Judy Newman, president of Scholastic Book Clubs, told the Times that many of the items were books sold with stickers and other small objects designed to engage students who "may not be traditional readers." She noted that even a jewelry kit has a reading component in the instructions.

About 75% of all elementary school teachers participate in the book clubs and about 20% of Scholastic revenue comes from the book clubs, Scholastic said.

---

Arts book publisher Phaidon Press has bought Cahiers du Cinéma, the legendary monthly film magazine, and its book publishing program from le Monde. The book division publishes titles on a range of cinema subjects, which the new owner said, "perfectly complements Phaidon's existing activities."

Mark Indelicato, who stars in the Ugly Betty TV series, read José! Born to Dance, as part of Making Books Sing Day at the Greenwich Village Barnes & Noble in New York City January 24. Photo: Laura Goglio.

At the Winter Institute on Saturday, Robert Spector discussed his upcoming title, The Mom & Pop Store: The Power and Endurance of the Small Indie Trader, which Walker & Company will publish in September.

Acknowledging that many booksellers don't particularly like the title, Spector joked about the book "whose name cannot be mentioned." But then he defended the phrase "mom and pop," which has often been used derogatorily. With the title, he said, "I'm honoring my own mother and father," who, when Spector was a child, owned a butcher shop in a farmers' market in Perth Amboy, N.J.

"People know what you mean about a mom and pop store," he said. (He defines the term to include a range of familial relationships as well as friendships.) He argued that such retailers are "not unsophisticated" and there's "nothing nostalgic" about them. Mom and pop stores are "a big thing," he continued. "Most people [in the country] are employed by small businesses." He added, "Let's reappropriate the term."

In the introduction to his book, he noted that "mom and pop store" is a relatively new expression--the OED's first usage is from 1962--and stated that mom and pop stores "are important not only for the food, drink, clothing, and tools that they sell us, but also for providing us with intellectual stimulation, social interaction, and connection to our community. Mom & pop stores are about neighborhood, about community, about my taking care of you and your taking care of me."

Calling himself an SOB--"son of a butcher"--whose illustrious ranks include Shakespeare, Nat King Cole, Marcel Marceau, Antonin Dvorak, Julian Schnabel and Paul Castellano, Spector said that only much later, "I realized that working in the shop shaped my life and taught me life lessons and all kinds of practical wisdom."

The author of The Nordstrom Way, The Nordstrom Way to Customer Service Excellence, Amazon.com: Get Big Fast and Category Killers, Spector said that "the last thing I thought about writing about was my father and working in the farmers' market. My father was smart, but he was not an educated man. He couldn't define irony, but if told I was writing a book about working in the market, he would get it immediately."

For his new book, Spector said he traveled around the country the last few years, looking for "great independent stores." Among the operations he discusses in the book are three bookstores ("I'm no fool"): Village Books, Bellingham, Wash., Politics and Prose, Washington, D.C., and Octavia Books, New Orleans, La. He noted that some of the best advice he received from Jack Covert and 800-CEO-READ, which was to "get booksellers to sell your book." As a result, he has channeled bulk orders for his previous business books through 800-CEO-READ and the University Book Store in Seattle, Wash., where he lives, and when giving talks, "I've made sure indies were selling my book in the back of the room."

Most mom and pop retailers have a "singular entrepreneurial vision," he said. "They have to be special and bring something interesting to the table. They work hard and will do whatever it takes. They are passionate about what they do." Moreover, he said, "they have adapted to change in order to survive." In fact, he joked, "after the apocalypse, only cockroaches and mom and pop stores will survive. They're the only ones who can live on small sustenance."--John Mutter

Tomorrow morning on the Today Show: Henry Louis Gates, Jr., editor of Lincoln on Race and Slavery (Princeton University Press, $24.95, 9780691142340/0691142343).

---

Tomorrow morning on Fox & Friends: Thomas Woods, author of Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse (Regnery, $27.95, 9781596985872/1596985789).

---

Tomorrow on the Diane Rehm Show: Martha Sandweiss, author of Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line (Penguin Press, $27.95, 9781594202001/1594202001).

---

Tomorrow on the Tavis Smiley Show: Greg Mortenson and his daughter, Amira, discuss the Young Readers edition of Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Journey to Change the World . . . One Child at a Time (Puffin, $8.99, 9780142414125/0142414123).

---

Tomorrow night on the Jim Bohannon Show: Bernie Ilson, author of Sundays with Sullivan: How the Ed Sullivan Show Brought Elvis, the Beatles, and Culture to America (Taylor, $21.95, 9781589793903/1589793900).

---

Tomorrow night on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Daniel Sperling, co-author of Two Billion Cars: Driving Toward Sustainability (Oxford University Press, $24.95, 9780195376647/0195376641).

The prizes keep rolling in for Slumdog Millionaire, based upon Vikas Swarup's novel Q&A. At Saturday's Writers Guild of America awards ceremony, Simon Beaufoy took the best adapted screenplay honor, Variety reported. On the TV side, Kirk Ellis won WGA's long form adaptation award for HBO's John Adams, based on David McCullough's biography.

Slumdog Millionaire also emerged as the top winner at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards. The Guardian noted that the film took seven prizes, including best movie and best director (Danny Boyle). Beaufoy picked up another best adapted screenplay honor as well.

Other book-to-film adaptations winning BAFTAs were The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, based on a story by F. Scott Fitzgerald (three awards, though none in major categories), and The Reader, based on Bernhard Schlink's novel (Kate Winslet for best actress).

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, February 17:

While My Sister Sleeps by Barbara Delinsky (Doubleday, $25.95, 9780385524926/0385524927) explores a family's grief after an Olympic marathon contender suffers a heart attack and falls into a coma.

Heart and Soul by Maeve Binchy (Knopf, $26.95, 9780307265791/030726579X) follows a doctor who opens a heart clinic in a diverse Irish community.

The Second Opinion by Michael Palmer (St. Martin's, $25.95, 9780312343552/0312343558) is a medical suspense novel about physician siblings whose father is critically injured after a hit-and-run.

Accountable: Making America as Good as Its Promise by Tavis Smiley and Stephanie Robinson (Atria, $19.99, 9781439100028/1439100020) uses examples to show how major political issues manifest themselves in communities.

Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy by Peter S. Canellos (Simon & Schuster, $28, 9781439138175/1439138176) is a biography of the senior Senator from Massachusetts.

Novelist Tim Farrington has written a candid memoir about his lifelong struggle with depression. He's not a scholar, not a therapist, not a theologian. "I'm more like a veteran, I suppose: a guy whose ass has been on the line, [with] some stories from the front." Nor does he draw a simplistic equation between depression and the dark night of the soul. He acknowledges the imprecision; he's not writing for those who want precision, but for those whose "maps have given out."

Depression began to creep into his life with classic late adolescence timing. He discovered Zen meditation at the same time, and spent his senior year of high school thinking his melancholy was simple realism--depression was the logical answer to the world. "I took long walks and thought about death and the suffering of innocents. I wrote bad poetry. I did not go to Stanford."

As he wrote and worked, he saw no way out of depression. It seemed the price he had to pay for art, in the grand tradition of modern writers. He joined an ashram in Oakland, where he discovered the Christian mysticism classic, The Cloud of Unknowing. And by the end of his first year, "I'd had it with my damned kundalini. All I wanted was for my soul to simplify itself and for my mind to shut up." John of the Cross's Dark Night of the Soul and the American Psychiatric Association's DSM became his faithful companions, while he tried to figure out if he was "making [his] blind way to God though the cloud of unknowing or was just clinically f***ed up."

After years of depression, despair and grief, he found himself capable at last of knowing and surrendering to God's mercy. Over the decades, he'd been "shot full of Haldol to break a mania, swaddled in sedatives to blunt the breakage, and spoon-fed lithium to reconstruct a durable decorum." He finally decided to try antidepressants, and one day soon after, he noticed how beautiful the trees looked in the February light; it seemed like forever since he had noticed trees. He asks, would his dark night have ended without drugs? Perhaps, but certainly not when it did. He concludes that the dark night is not about suffering to suffer per se but is about a certain work of the soul being accomplished (which can include realizing that a pharmacy can be an outpost of heaven).

A Hell of Mercy is a book to be read slowly and more than once. Filled with the wisdom of one who is making a difficult journey--"The vast country of human suffering remains what it has always been, the wilderness in which the soul must travel."--it is a meditation on finding meaning in dark times, in times of grief, and the gifts of grace and trust.--Marilyn Dahl

Shelf Talker: A candid memoir about a lifelong struggle with depression, written with wisdom and wit, from an author who sees his dark night of the soul as a gift from God.