My dad gave me a Kindle for Christmas. I love it. It made me want to cry just opening it because it's something that I've considered getting, but would never buy for myself. With a child you stop thinking anything over about $25 is worthy of your own wants, so it wouldn't have ever happened. Since then I've downloaded a bazillion free titles and even a couple of games my daughter and I can play together. I've also been checking out a few samples of books that I'm not sure I want to read. A sample gives you the first however many pages of a book without purchase (like standing in the bookstore)--enough to wet your whistle or turn you off entirely from buying the book.
Well, I was thinking about Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. I've read other stuff by Hurston, but wasn't sure about getting this one since I would have to pay for it. So, I downloaded the sample with introduction by Edwidge Danticat (who I also enjoy as an author). Here's the problem: 100% of the sample is the introduction! I'd like to think someone at the wheel could make it so samples were the actual text of the story and not the first physical pages of the book, but I know that ship sailed with computer automation in control of just about everything these days.
I'm not mad, just disappointed. It's no secret Amazon has had some questionable issues in the past like selling pedophile how-to books and allowing authors to post 43 positive reviews of their own books to boost their star rating, but this is disappointing on a different front. If I went into an ice cream shop and wanted a sample they wouldn't show me the cone, they would give me some of the ice cream. Likewise, I don't want to sample an introduction to a literary work, I want to sample the actual work. Granted, this is the first sample where this has been a problem, but something tells me it won't be the last...
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