Sony Reader demo: "The God Delusion"

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I was in Walmart the other day looking at the Sony Reader (a device like the Kimble sold by Amazon that lets you store and read thousands of books on one device). And what book did they use to demo the product? An excerpt from The God Delusion.

I was looking at this device at a Borders bookstore a couple weeks before and that was not the book in the demo. I wonder if retailers have a choice as to which book is used or if The God Delusion is the default. Apparently there is little concern about offending anyone who believes in God these days, even by companies who sell to them.
 
milimac said:
I was in Walmart the other day looking at the Sony Reader (a device like the Kimble sold by Amazon that lets you store and read thousands of books on one device). And what book did they use to demo the product? An excerpt from The God Delusion.

I was looking at this device at a Borders bookstore a couple weeks before and that was not the book in the demo. I wonder if retailers have a choice as to which book is used or if The God Delusion is the default. Apparently there is little concern about offending anyone who believes in God these days, even by companies who sell to them.
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That’s pretty weird. I would imagine that, regardless of the religious views of those in these corporations, they would have the sense not to choose a title that could so easily alienate a large chunk of the general populace.

Perhaps it was just some Walmart clerk’s idea of a joke (something unique to the store you saw it at)? At least, I would hope that’s what it was.
 
Joe_5859 said:
Wow, that’s pretty sad. I think I would be less offended if they put an excerpt of The DaVinci Code rather than The God Delusion. I really can’t think of many books that would be more offensive to include than that book.
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I was trying to remember what the sample audio book was on my old Rio mp3 player. After you mentioned The DaVinci Code, I remembered that was it.

I wonder how much of this is intentional and how much is just indifferent cluelessness. I would think that marketing would put some thought behind what sort of books to include in a demo, which makes me think it’s more intentional.
 
FYI - just a side note…

Ben Stein made a great documentary called 'Expelled" and at the end he interviews the Author of the God delusion and really exposes his hate for people of faith and gets him to contradict his own scienece/beliefs.
 
milimac said:
I would think that marketing would put some thought behind what sort of books to include in a demo, which makes me think it’s more intentional.
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Yeah i would of went with something like Shakespeare or just some Science Fiction. I was seriously considering a Sony Reader and this incident just seriously turned me off to it.
 
milimac said:
I was trying to remember what the sample audio book was on my old Rio mp3 player. After you mentioned The DaVinci Code, I remembered that was it.

I wonder how much of this is intentional and how much is just indifferent cluelessness. I would think that marketing would put some thought behind what sort of books to include in a demo, which makes me think it’s more intentional.
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I wonder, too. I’m sure they’re just pulling books off of the New York Times Bestseller list, but there are a lot of books on that list and I doubt they include all of them. You’d think they’d have the sense to weed out ones like this.
 
All Sony wants to do is sell Readers and then electronic books. The Reader comes with about a dozen books already loaded. They choose a wide range of books in an effort to reach as many people as possible. If a demo Reader is showing Dawkins, it’s only because the last guy to look at it clicked on Dawkins from the contents page.

Don’t like dawkins on the demo? OK. Use the button on the lower right side to get to the menu, and choose another sample from the contents page and the next guy to look at the demo will see what you selected.

Buyers of the Reader get to download 200 classics for free. The bible is one of them.
 
WillieWonka said:
All Sony wants to do is sell Readers and then electronic books. The Reader comes with about a dozen books already loaded. They choose a wide range of books in an effort to reach as many people as possible. If a demo Reader is showing Dawkins, it’s only because the last guy to look at it clicked on Dawkins from the contents page.

Don’t like dawkins on the demo? OK. Use the button on the lower right side to get to the menu, and choose another sample from the contents page and the next guy to look at the demo will see what you selected.

Buyers of the Reader get to download 200 classics for free. The bible is one of them.
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I remember the menu button, but recall some sort of error that it was an unauthorized function in demo mode. I had the same thought of switching it to some other book, but it wouldn’t let me.
 
Am I the only one who thinks book publishers are nuts to “go digital”?
Did their marketing geniuses survey the music industry & say, “Yeah, we want that!”?
 
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