Bibliofile

Well-Stoked Fire

Amazon has launched its India Kindle store, which means you can read books on Kindle (which costs about 7K) and pay in rupees. It’s already plugging bestselling authors like Chetan Bhagat and Amish on its storefront. Penguin recently announced it’s putting about 250 of its titles as e-books, all of which will soon be available in Kindle. There’s some good news for authors as well, as Amazon has opened its Kindle Direct Publishing, where e-book writers can get their royalties in rupees credited to their accounts. Will this make e-reading catch on like fire in India, or are we still too used to the feel of papyrus?

Explosive Laden

What exactly happened in Abbotabad on May 2 last year when US Navy seals killed Osama bin Laden? One of them, writing under the pseudonym Mark Owen (who has since been revealed as Matt Bissonnette), present at that point in the 3rd floor room of the building, is going to tell it as it happened. No Easy Day is slated to be out on 9/11. But isn’t there an indecent haste and won’t the book jeopardise the SEALS’ MO? It can, and if Bissonnette reveals too much about weapons and tactics he can be charged with criminal offence.

Yarn Yawn

Overheard at a launch party: what is going to be the dullest book event ever? Sudheendra Kulkarni’s 763-page tome, Music of the Spinning Wheel, to be released by former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam at Gandhi Smriti, New Delhi, in the presence of L.K. Advani, Arun Shourie, Shashi Tharoor and Dr R.A. Mashelkar.