Stuff Geeks Want

So here comes Barnes & Noble to the e-reader market just in time for the holidays but just as estimates come out that 10 million electronic book readers will be sold worldwide in 2010.

The Nook eBook reader is actually Plastic Logic’s QUE eBook reader to compete with rival Amazon’s Kindle line. The device, which has a six-inch display, is the same size and price as the standard version of Amazon’s Kindle and will ship in November. You can pre-order now.

Specs: 8.5 x 11 inches, less than a third of an inch thick, weighes 11.2 ounces, a 3.5 inch color touchscreen LCD at the bottom of the display to browse through book covers, 2GB of storage (about 1,500 eBooks), and battery life of up to ten days without recharging with wireless off. You can also use it as an MP3 player to listen to audio books or music. The nook holds about 26 hours of audio and a has a built-in mono speaker as well as a stereo headphone jack.

As for availability of book titles to buy and download (via WiFi and through AT&Ts 3G network), B&N plans on offer out of the gate more than one million e-books for sale when the Nook is released. Amazon has roughly a third of the inventory of B&N (so, take that).

But in one of the stupidest moves we’ve seen in some time, B&N has decided not to sell the Nook through it’s more than 700 brick-and-mortar stores. You’ll be able to play with a demo unit but not actually buy one to take home. Booksellers will order a device for in-store customers from the BN.com website to be shipped to their home. For whatever reason – small stock, security, whatever – it defeats the purpose of having a demo unit customers can play with and end the experience with no instant gratification. Dumb beyond belief!

Buy for $259 from Barnes & Noble

He tackled school lunches in Britain. Now he’s taking on the challenge of America. Celebri-chef Jamie Oliver will have a reality show next year on ABC trying to loosen the belts of fatties in Huntington, West Virginia (America’s so-called fattest city).

But before that pleasing site, he’s just come out with a new cook book that ties into the show…Jamie’s Food Revolution: Rediscover How to Cook Simple, Delicious, Affordable Meals. The premise of the book is that cooking good food from scratch saves money and your health.

The recipes cover a wide range of dishes from breakfast to dinner with hundreds of close-up photos of each recipe in a step-by-step format. There’s a whole section dedicated to 20-minute meals with lots of comfort food and gorgeous vegetable dishes.

Buy for $26 from Amazon

He’s one of the best selling authors of his generation and Dan Brown fans couldn’t be happier today for the release of his newest book in six years. The Lost Symbol looks set to do for Freemasonry what The Da Vinci Code did for the Catholic Church.

Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon – the character played by Tom Hanks in the film adaptations – returns to speak at the US Capitol. He soon finds he’s been lured to Washington under a false pretext, only to find the severed head and hand of his friend Peter Solomon right above the Capitol Crypt and more importantly right below the dome art that depicts George Washington, founding father and Freemason. It’s then that Langdon’s 12-hour battle begins.

Brown’s at it again, taking us on another thrilling and entertaining rollercoaster ride.

Buy for $16 from Amazon

So Walt Disney Company buys Marvel Comics. What’s so special that’s worth paying $4 billion for Iron Man and Spider-Man?

Check out The Marvel Vault: A Museum-in-a-Book with Rare Collectibles from the World of Marvel for a trip down memory lane.

Written by long-time Marvel freelancers and former staffers Roy Thomas and Peter Sanderson, The Marvel Vault reproduces many of the rarely seen productions from a storied history: a reproduction of the 1976 Howard the Duck for President button, a replica of the first Marvel Comic Convention program, and a whole page of Marvel Value Stamps.

This is the kind of book that makes you feel like a kid again and makes you wish you had a kept a few of those treasured comic books in mint condition.

Buy for $41 from Amazon

I learned about this New York Times best-seller just today, from the review it received on the supernerd haven, Slashdot.

And I actually purchased the book (via 1-click, no less!) without having even read the review… if that tells you how much I probably need this book.

Anyway, I went back and skimmed the Slashdot review after my order was placed and it looks like the money will not be wasted.

Now I just need to find the time to read it!

Buy from Amazon for $11.90

My wife and I are considering moving to Costa Rica, or some other country sometime in the next five years, just to get away from the “rat race” that is America.

What better book than this? Getting Out: Your Guide to Leaving America. It includes chapters on “Visas, Residency, and Work Permits”, “Foreign Citizenship and How to Get It”, “Work and Study Options Abroad”, “Choosing a Country: How Do They Stack Up?”, “The Top 50 Expat Meccas”, “Doing It: How to Begin, What’s Involved, and Where to Turn” and more.

What’s this got to do with being a geek you might ask? All I need to work these days is a phone (Skype) and an internet connection, and I’m sure I can find those just about anywhere I really want to live…

I’m so looking forward to being an expat. Are you? Get the book… then start making it happen:

$13 or so from Amazon.com

What does every true geek want?

The ability to get things done quickly and efficiently.

The book “Getting Things Done” by David Allen has got to be the most useful productivity book I’ve ever read, and I go back and re-read it at least once a year.

With this book you’ll learn how to process information quickly, accomplish tasks that are important to you, and how to be a better leader of yourself, and others.

It truly is an amazing read, and I’d highly recommend it for anyone.

Paperback for $9.
Hardcover for $17.

No geek can be complete without a solid compilation of Douglas Adams’ legendary tomes. We’re a fan of the The Ultimate Hitchiker’s Guide (Deluxe Edition), which packs five of Adams’ novels plus a lesser-known short story into one leather-bound volume, complete with gilt-edged pages and golden ribbon bookmark.

This 832-page volume includes:

• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
• The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
• Life, the Universe and Everything
• So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
• Mostly Harmless
• Young Zaphod Plays it Safe (Short Story)

How much would you expect to pay for such a collection? It’s a lot less than you think: just $15.66 from Amazon.

The cover photo (on the right) does a bad job of conveying the craftsmanship of the deluxe edition, check this Amazon customer photo for a better view of what you’re buying.

Heather Armstrong is a super blogger and total geek. Thus, every true geek should buy the book that was just published with her name on the cover: Things I Learned About My Dad.

The hilarious and heartwarming collection of stories of “everything dad” features original stories from lots of other bloggers, including Alice Bradley (Finslippy), Doug French (Laid Off Dad), Maggie Mason (Mighty Girl), Matthew Baldwin (Defective Yeti), Sarah Brown (Que Sera Sera), and more…

If you’ve got a dad, and read blogs, you should buy this book. Not just to support the writers, but to be a part of this decade, and to have something to point back to and say “I remember when”.

Price: Currently $12.92 from Amazon.com

Oh, and if you contact Heather though her “contact me” page at dooce.com, and ask her if you can mail it to her for her signature, she’s offered to sign any books sent to her, which I think is totally cool.

Amazon set out to deliver an entirely new class of device when they started designing the Kindle three years ago. I have to say that they’ve succeeded.

My boss has a Kindle, and he let me borrow it for a weekend, and I have to say the thing is pretty damned slick. The hardware is a joy to hold, and the screen is a pleasure to read. The software has that “just works” quality that you’ve come to expect from Apple.

The fact that you can read the first chapter of a book before you buy it is really cool, letting you “sample the wares” so to speak, just like you were in a real bookstore, except you were sitting on the beach, or on the bus or train, or chilling at home. You can also start a newspaper subscription with a two-week trial, before you commit… and then if you like it, whenever you want to read the newspaper you’ll have it with you (without all those ink stains on your thumbs and fingers).

There are 110,000 books, newspapers, magazines and blogs available on the Kindle, so, go to Amazon.com, and watch the video about it if you haven’t yet, and then start thinking about when you’re going to order yours.