It does not take a genius to realize that college bookstores rip off students. We all don’t want to pay more than we have to for our textbooks. With Student for iPhone, college goers can save a few bucks. At the end of the semester, they will have the option to sell their things back to Amazon. As a part of Amazon Student program, students will get 6 months of free Prime membership.

We have not had too much success with Amazon’s trade-in program. But this app is a step forward for Amazon and has the potential to save students a few bucks on their textbook costs.

iPad For Dummies: the title of this book may not be that tempting, but this book does cover a lot of things on iPad. It shows you how to get the most out of your iPad (reading, playing with apps, …).

Kindle DX For Dummies: a practical book that shows you how to use your Kindle DX, create content for it, access e-mail, use its Internet connection, and do all kinds of other things with it.

Kindle Shortcuts: a handy e-book that covers a lot of Kindle-related information. It shows you how to get more out of your Kindle and lets you know where to get content for your device. May not be for advanced Kindle users though.

Publish on Amazon Kindle with the Digital Text Platform: it’s a free e-book for those of you who want to get started with Kindle publishing. It’s not comprehensive by any means but gives you a head start.

e-Book Publishing DIY: gives you a nice overview of what writing an e-book is all about. If you are new to online publishing, this is a good guide to get you started with your new career.

Thankfully, Apple iPad and Amazon Kindle are very easy to use e-readers. Regardless, the above guides should give you the information you need to get more out of your e-reader(s).

Have you ever wished you could read some of those top foreign works but do not have the time to pick up a new language? There are many among us who only read books that are in our very own language. It never hurts to read works from other countries to get familiar with other cultures. That’s where AmazonCrossing comes into play. It’s a new program launched by Amazon that aims to bring rising new works from other cultures to the English-speaking audience. Amazon is expected to use its customer feedback and interactions on its foreign-language sites to identify top works and translate them to English. You can think of it as the international edition of Amazon Encore.

At Amazon.com, we’re fortunate to have customers who have introduced us to outstanding works from other countries and cultures, and we want to share these books with our English-speaking customers. With this in mind, we’re proud to announce AmazonCrossing, which will introduce readers to emerging and established authors from around the world with translations of foreign language books, making award-winning and bestselling books accessible to many readers for the first time.

The King of Kahel by Tierno Monénembo is the first foreign book that will be making its debut in Kindle store as a part of this program. It will be available in paperback and Kindle format.

It is not clear how Amazon intends to expand this program. Translating works from a foreign language to English is not that difficult for a company such as Amazon. It does take some time though. How many of these books can Amazon possibly translate each year? The idea is very solid, however. Steve Jobs may believe that people do not read anymore. Those of us who do read will now have a chance to get our hands on top international titles as well.

Details are still a bit sketchy about AmazonCrossing. While Amazon has roughly explained how it intends to choose foreign books to translate to English, it would be nice if more details are released in that regard. Still, you can contact Amazon to let the company know which works you’d like to buy on Amazon.com.

Please feel free to share your favorite foreign-language work.

Penguin Books is one of many publishers that are expected to bring their dynamic content to the iPad. The company is expected to increase its sales from 4% to 10% thanks to the market that is being created by Apple. The publisher is pretty ambitious with its plan. As John Makinson, the company’s chief, put it, Penguin Books’ focus will be on dynamic content and innovation:

We will be embedding and streaming audio, video and gaming into everything we do. This will present us and the platform owners with technology challenges…. The definition of the book itself is up for grabs.

Those are exactly my thoughts. What we have come to accept as a “book” may not be the best way to consume content and pick up new information. Some people, including myself, will still prefer regular books to dynamic books. But these companies can’t know what consumers are willing to pay for unless they try different things. This dynamic platform that Apple is working on and will soon be replicated or adopted by other retailers will allow for more innovation and better quality content quality to make way to the market. Besides, consumers could have more ways to communicate with publishers and make themselves heard. Book 2.0 is not going to work for everyone. Nevertheless, it’s the future, so we may as well give it a chance.

A few months ago, I wrote a post about how Amazon Kindle would level the playing field and allow more people to get their work published and reach a wider set of audience. At the same time, I concluded that we need to take the good with the bad. After all, if you allow everyone to bring their work to the Kindle platform, you are going to get a few very good books, lots of mediocre ones, and a few terrible ones. But shouldn’t Amazon at least check to see what’s being sold for the Kindle?

Take a look at the above book. The purpose of the book is to show you why you should buy a Kindle (instead of a Sony Reader). But here is the thing. Why would you want to buy such a book when you need a Kindle to read it? I am all for books that provide some value, but the above book should be a post on a blog and not a book in the Kindle store. It’s exciting to see Amazon allow everyone to get their work out in front of the community of Kindle owners. But Amazon has a responsibility to protect the interest of its customers. I am sure most Kindle owners are smart enough to ignore these books, but it’s very discouraging to see folks abuse the system and try to make quick bucks by selling junk for the Kindle platform (and if you think this is bad, wait till you see the support website for this book).

There is a good chance that Amazon will continue to allow folks to publish junk for the Kindle. And I am sure most Kindle owners will see through these works and won’t fall for them. But wouldn’t it be nice if Amazon took some time to clean up its Kindle store?

Your take: should Amazon take action and ban junk books and their authors?

One of the complaints that I get from people who either own Kindle or plan to buy one is their need to have real books in their hands as well. People tell me that they use their Kindles all the time but having the paper version of their favorite books allows them more flexibility to read them whenever, wherever. You can take your Kindle almost anywhere these days. Obviously it’s very portable and the battery lasts for a considerable amount of time. But sometimes you may be in the mood to read the real book. Maybe you just want to share your paper book with someone or you just want proudly display it in your library. Whatever the case, Amazon has a great opportunity to make more money by providing combo book deals to its customers.

Wouldn’t it be fun if you could add both paper and Kindle editions of a book to your shopping cart and save money on your combo deal? This is not for everyone. I am sure a few of you rather save money and just get the Kindle edition. I also know a lot of Kindle purists who refuse to touch a paper book ever again. In reality, the demand for combo deals will be there regardless of what you think of paper books. And if your Kindle purchase helps you qualify for free shipping over $25, that would be even better, wouldn’t it?

What do you think?

I had a very interesting discussion with a colleague of mine about the difference between experiencing a real book versus reading one on Kindle. Now, he is a late adopter. He bought his Kindle before it went out of stock. But he brought up a very interesting point. He told me that he uses Kindle for technical books but for novels he prefers to read the real thing. Now, I am not going into the details behind his reasoning but there is a good argument to be made here. A lot of people still connect better with a real book than an eBook. If you ask these folks, they talk about how they have more fun reading a paper book than a Kindle book.

I don’t necessarily agree with the above argument but here is my question for you. If  there was only one book that you wanted read, would you rather read it on a Kindle or would you prefer the real thing?

Great book for any start-up owner. Not yet released to the Kindle, but I am hopeful.

Now is gone is a must read marketing book. Unfortunately, it’s not released to Kindle store yet.

Must read social media book. Haven’t seen it in the Kindle store yet.

Classic businss book for companies which want to improve their processes and accelerate their growth.

This may sound corny. But I like Obama books. They are full of hope and inspirational messages. This guy can talk!

Your Take

What are your favorite books that are not on Kindle? I could’ve picked some classic books that I’d like to see on Kindle, but at the end of the day, I don’t read classic books too much these days. But which books would you like to see in the Kindle store?

So I was checking Amazon today, and I probably saw 30 or more books about iPhone 3G and how to use iPhone 3G to do all kinds of things. So I thought, what about Kindle? Why doesn’t Kindle get any love from publishers? Well, it seems there is a book on Kindle (though in the Kindle edition). The books is called “the Amazon Kindle FAQ.” Here are the topics covered:

• Kindle Basics, From A to Z
• Whispernet FAQs
• All about the Experience with E-Ink
• Traveling With Kindle
• Kindle, battery, and energy consumption
• How to handle Multiple Kindles
• Where do I get content?
• Kindle Shortcuts and hidden features

Now this is all not bad at all, but I wish it was for free. I mean Amazon should have one of these babies out for a cent or two.

I don’t know about you, but I check the Kindle store every single day for the newest titles. What I have noticed is a surge in the number of independent books published with the Kindle platform. I am talking about the self-published ebooks that you could only find on ClickBank before the Kindle. As you know, ClickBank has simply some of the worst premium content available on the planet. More than 90% of titles available on Clickbank are pure garbage. Now the Kindle platform has enabled these publishers to bring their works to Amazon customers.

Does Amazon Kindle platform open the door to garbage books? Absolutely. There is no doubt in my mind that we will have more useless books available in the market. But are we worse of because of it? I don’t think so. The more options we readers have, the better we are off. And for every 90 trash books out there, there are 10 very valuable books that would have never made it to Amazon had it not been for the Kindle. Kindle is truly a platform for innovation (in publishing). Some use it to spread garbage, but if you search enough, you’ll find those rare gems that make it all worth it.