5 reasons why the Nook spin off gets B&N closer to bankruptcy

Barnes & Noble announced this morning it is beginning “strategic exploratory work” to separate its rapidly growing Nook digital business. If you follow our blog, you're probably not that surprised - as we reported again and again on the B&N Bankruptcy Index series, B&N behaves for a long time like the Nook is its core business and not its 703 bookstore.

So you're probably wondering - would this spin-off will help B&N to avoid bankruptcy? Actually, I believe it only gets them closer to this unfortunate faith. Here's five reasons why:

1. B&N bookstore business is declining and B&N has no clear strategy how to transform it back from a liability to an asset. Frankly, this announcement only demonstrates that B&N is giving up on the brick and mortar stores and putting all its energy and resources just into the Nook. Don't believe me? Just count look how many times B&N mentions its bookstores in its press release from today (hint: less than one).

2. B&N is focusing all of its resources on one egg - the Nook. It's a good egg, but even if it will have a bright future as B&N is expecting it's still too risky, especially in a market where your competitors are are Amazon and Apple.

3. B&N doesn't have the deep pockets Apple and Amazon have. Just look at the balance sheets of these three and compare how much cash each of them has - Amazon has $2.8 billion, Apple has $9.8 billion, while B&N has $23 million in cash and cash equivalents (latest figures available). Now, who do you think has a better chance to develop better tablets and e-readers in the near future?

4. Bad management - B&N would have a much better chance if it would have spun off its management instead of the Nook. Why it's a bad management? How else you can call a management that takes an asset like 700+ bookstores and makes almost zero efforts to save it from bankruptcy?

5. "Mr. Lynch said Barnes & Noble doesn't see itself as a competitor with Apple, as it focuses more on digital reading, but said internal research shows customers prefer the Nook over the Kindle." (Wall Street Journal) I wish I have a faith in a company that this is the worldview that directs its strategy and this is the quality of research data it uses. Unfortunately I really can't.

To learn more on our B&N index series visit Barnes and Noble Bankruptcy Index on our website.

You can find more resources on the future of bookstores on our website at www.ecolibris.net/bookstores_future.asp

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Working to green the book industry!

Top 100 book apps: Subtext - It's a community in the pages of your book

Since we believe in the digital future of books as a way to reduce eventually the footprint of books, we also believe in apps. Book apps are integral part of the digital age of books and we want to share with you some great book apps we find and thus we are assembling a list of the top 100 book apps.

In order to get into our list apps need to both book/ebook related and affordable - we choose only apps that are either free or cost less than $2.

So every Monday we will update you with a new app on out list of top book apps. Today we're happy to introduce you with a book app that believes that reading together is better. Our app today is Subtext by Subtext Video. This app is for the iPad and it's free.

Here are more details about the Subtext app:
Reading together is better—especially with access to the world’s largest collection of books! Subtext powers the first community in the pages of ebooks. With Subtext, you can engage in conversations with friends, authors and experts and access all types of information and multimedia—right in the margins of your books. It’s like sitting in your living room reading a book surrounded by your friends, the author and, if you’re up for the extra company, the most interesting people in the Subtext community. A totally new reading experience!

“...the app is just lovely to use.” —Gizmodo ‘App of the Day’

“...Subtext goes beyond the ‘enhanced ebook’ to actually offer an enhanced reading experience...” —VatorNews

“I love context when I’m reading, and if there is author commentary to be found, I’m not above scouring the Web to find it. Subtext pulls in this kind of supplementary information automatically...” —TechCrunch

Subtext from Subtext Video on Vimeo.

Last week's book app - Beatles Yellow Submarine

You can check top 100 book apps at http://www.ecolibris.net/bookapps.asp. As you'll see, this list is in work, but we promise to update it every week until we'll have all 100 book apps.

You're also welcome to check our list of 100 green apps.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Check our special holiday offer!

10 ways to green your reading on 2012

We're joining the long list of 2012 lists, but hopefully you will find our list valuable. This is a list of 10 simple things you can do to make your reading more sustainable. If every reader will do even just one thing of this list, we'll have a much more sustainable book space by the end of the year. If you have more ideas, please feel free to offer them!

10 Ways to Green Your Reading in 2012:

1. If you read more than 5-6 books a year and don't throw away gadgets after one or two years to get a newer version, buy yourself an e-reader or a tablet.
2. Buy (at least) one book at your local independent bookstore.
3. Get a book or an ebook at your local library.
4. Download an audiobook.
5. Join the sharing economy, using BookMooch for worldwide book swapping or an ebook lending service.
6. Buy from publishers with meaningful environmental policies.
7. Buy book from a self-publishing author.
8. Read your child (nephew/cousin/grandson) a green book (you can start with the great Little Green Books series).
9. Educate yourself and buy one book or ebook on a green topic.
10. Plant a tree with Eco-Libris for every book you read, now part of the Earth Day Network's A Billion Acts of Green campaign!

Happy New Year!
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Plant a tree for every book you read!

Fourth Year assessments of Eco-Libris planting partners are available now online

This is our last post for 2011 and just like we did in 2008, 2009 and 2010 we dedicate it to announce that the annual assessments (2010-11) of our planting partners are now available online!

Here's a little bit more about these assessments: As part of our pledge to quality service to our customers, we decided at the beginning of our operations to conduct annual assessments of our planting partners.The two main goals of these assessments are: 1. to verify the quality of the planting operations and to make sure the high standards we promise to our customers are kept and 2. to provide our customers with details on the tree planting operations they support to balance out their books.

This is the fourth year we're conducting these assessments. Right now, two of them (SHI and AIR) are available online, and the third one (RIPPLE Africa) will be available within couple of weeks.

You are invited to read them (see links below) and also visit our planting partners' websites to learn more about them. Links to past assessments for each of our planting partners, as well as links to their websites, are available on our planting partners page.

Here are links to the two reports that are currently available:

AIR's assessment

SHI's assessment

We will keep you posted of course with more data, photos and videos from the planting operations! Thanks again to our planting partners and to everyone that was involved in the work on the assessments.

Photo credits:

Photo 1: SHI, Panama

Photo 2: AIR, Guatemala

Happy New Year!
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Top 100 green apps - GasHog: The Fuel Economy Tracker for iPhone

We are creating a list of the top 100 apps that will help you go green as part of our effort to promote a more sustainable lifestyle. Apps become an integral part of our life and a valuable tool and we believe we should also take advantage of them when it comes go greening up our life.

Every Friday we update you with a new app on the list, and today we're happy to introduce you with an app that will help you to track the fuel economy of your vehicles.

Our app is GasHog from Adair Systems. This app is for iPhone and iPad and it costs $0.99 (we only include in our lists apps that cost less than $2).

Here are more details about GasHog App:
GasHog is a utility for iPhone and iPod Touch to track the fuel economy of your vehicle. GasHog allows you to enter the odometer reading and the amount of fuel added every time you add fuel, and it automatically calculates the fuel economy of your last tank, as well as historical averages. Additionally, GasHog offers tips for improving the fuel economy of your vehicle.






















GasHog's features include:
- Simple and quick entry of odometer reading and fuel added
- Support for multiple vehicles
- Fuel cost tracking
- Support for English and Metric units, separate units for distance, fuel and economy
- International support with numbers and dates formatted to local custom
- Integrated tips for improving fuel economy
- Historical fuel economy statistics (last tank, last 30 days, last 6 months, all time)

GasHog does not require Internet connectivity for any of its features, and operates in areas with no mobile or WiFi coverage.

You can check top 100 green apps at http://www.ecolibris.net/greenapps.asp. As you'll see, this list is in work, but we promise to update it every week until we'll have all 100 green apps.

Last week's green app - Green Schools Revolution -The Game.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Plant a tree for every book you read!

Audiobook for the holidays - part 4: The Angel Esmeralda: Nine Stories by Don Delillo (and a giveaway!)

Today we end our December series 'Audiobook for the holidays'. In the lasteeks we introduced you to Boomerang by Michael Lewis and Our Choice by Al Gore and Rin Tin Tin by Susan Orlean. Today we're excited to introduce you to a collection of beautiful nine short stories written by the award-winning American author and playwright Don DeLillo between 1979 and 2011.

Our last audiobook on this series is:

The Angel Esmeralda: Nine Stories by Don Delillo, read by Mercedes Ruehl, Heather Lind, Aaron Tveit, Michael Cerveris and Peter Friedman.

The audiobook is published by Simon & Schuster Audio. Here's an excerpt from the audiobook:

Here's more about "The Angel Esmeralda":

From one of the greatest writers of our time, the first ever collection of brilliant short stories, written between 1979 and 2011; chronicling—and foretelling—three decades of American life.

Set in Greece, the Caribbean, Manhattan, a white collar prison, and outer space, these nine stories are a mesmerizing introduction to Don DeLillo’s iconic voice, from the rich, startling, jazz-infused sentences of his early work to the spare, distilled, monastic language of the later stories.

In “Creation,” a couple at the end of a cruise in the West Indies can’t get off the island. In “Human Moments in World War III,” two men orbiting the earth hear American radio, a half century ago. In the title story, nuns working the violent streets of the south Bronx, confirm the neighborhood’s miracle, the apparition of the dead child, Esmeralda.

Nuns, astronauts, athletes, terrorists, and travelers, the characters in The Angel Esmeralda propel themselves into the world and define it. DeLillo’s sentences are instantly recognizable, as original as the splatter of Jackson Pollock or the luminous rectangles of Rothko. These nine stories describe an extraordinary journey of one great American writer—and are a perfect introduction to the author whose prescience about world events and ear for American language changed the literary landscape.

The audiobook is available on Amazon: http://amzn.to/nvNYNe and on iTunes: http://bit.ly/rLYYoA

GIVEAWAY ALERT!!

We're giving away two copies of this audiobook, courtesy of the publisher, Simon & Simon audio!

How you can win? Very simple. All you have to do is to add a comment with the name of your favorite short story author. We will have a raffle on Wednesday, January 5, 2012, 5:00PM EST between all the readers that will add their comments by then. The winners will be announced the following day.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

My article on Triple Pundit about the help SFI certification gets from Maine Governor Paul LePage

Here's an update on a new article I published today on Triple Pundit with the latest news on the new battleground between SFI and FSC certifications.

This time it's Maine, where Governor LePage signed an executive order directing that that “any new or expanded state buildings shall incorporate ‘Green Building’ standards that give certification credits equally to forest products grown, manufactured, and certified under the Sustainable Forestry Initiative Standard, Forest Stewardship Council, American Tree Farm System, and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification systems.”

The article is entitled 'Maine’s Governor Helps SFI Win an Important Battle Over FSC'. Here's the first part of the article:

I have to admit that I got it wrong. Last September, I wrote here about the battle between the competing forest products certification Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Forest Stewardship Council (SFI). I thought that the fact that seven large companies decided to reject the SFI certification meant that SFI is going to lose this battle, unless it worked with environmental organizations to improve its credibility. I didn’t take into consideration one factor that can change this balance of power and help SFI swiftly recover: friendly politicians.

To read the full article go to http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/12/sfi-wins-battle-fsc-maine-timber-friendly-governor/

Links to other articles I wrote for Triple Pundit can be found at http://www.triplepundit.com/author/raz-godelnik/

To read more on the fight between FSC and SFI, visit our website at http://www.ecolibris.net/SFI_or_FSC.asp

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Plant trees for your books!