Traveling and a hectic schedule have kept me from acknowledging --- and celebrating --- the 10th Anniversary of Amazon.com. I have decided belated is better than skipping this occasion since I think this anniversary deserves to be acknowledged.

Remember when you would hear the word Amazon and think only of a river in Brazil? Ha, if you are a book lover, I am betting the river is a distant second thought these days.

I remember when Amazon was just starting out. They launched about 2 months before we had our first conceptual meeting about The Book Report Network. Rumblings about a company that would sell books online did not cause any ripples at the beginning. Remember 1995? I am betting that few of you were online then even for email. There were about 500,000 people using AOL; Prodigy and Compuserve were the big competition. You know ancient times, like, the Stone Age.

People could not grasp HOW this was going to work. After all, readers only shopped in STORES for books. Readers needed to SEE the books. Readers needed to TOUCH the books.

Yes, early reports about Amazon were about its doomed future.

But there were some of us...who..."got it." We knew there were parts of the country where the bookstore was a wire rack in the drugstore. There were people, who for a whole host of reasons, could not leave the house to shop for books. And we knew that no physical bookstore --- no matter how huge those superstores got --- was going to be able to carry as many books as a virtual one.

Thus, when Amazon announced their Affiliates program about six months after we launched our first website on AOL, we signed up. Packrat that I am, I still have our first usage report, which told us how much people bought, in a file someplace. I came across it a few months ago and realized how we have grown up together.

Why did we like this program and adapt it from the start? We loved that our readers were able to click --- and buy --- if the mood struck them after they read a Bookreporter.com review or feature without our having to handle the fulfillment.

Yes, I do remember one of my original partners coming to me with a concept that we could ship books from our back office if we had a credit card account. I thought about taking orders, packing them up, shipping, taking returns and --- panicked. This was a much better alternative. Especially since I knew that I, not Murray, would be doing all the steps outlined above.

Along the way, Amazon became much much more. Sure, they added music, videos and what seems to be an endless number of other stores. But they also became THE resource for authors, editors, agents and publishers --- as well as readers. I cannot count how many times a week we say, "Let me look it up on Amazon." Want to see a cover jacket? Check Amazon. Want to see every book and every version of it by an author? Check Amazon. And for readers, Amazon provided a place to learn more about a book they heard about on television or read about in the paper --- and then to post their own review.

For those who gripe that Amazon takes sales away from small indy stores, etc, I think about how many times I have looked up a book online, yet bought it at a local store . Why? Because I wanted the book --- and didn't want to pay for one-day shipping. But I also will admit there are times I just sit down and order whatever I want knowing I will have my own personal Christmas the day that box arrives.

I loathe taking time to shop, and those who shop with me know what a whirlwind this experience is as a result. Shopping online takes the stress out of holiday shopping, allows me to send presents throughout the year to get to recipients on the right day without my dealing with the post office and ensures that I have....selection.

A couple of weeks ago I was talking to a publisher who had missed meeting Jeff Bezos at his booth at Book Expo America the year he and his wife were driving cross-country deciding what business to start. He spoke of missing this encounter with all the regret of missing a moment in history. He's right. He did.

More Random Musings

Travel and summertime have given birth to a new set of random musings, so here you go.

When I was in Colorado having dinner with a friend, I found someone who had not heard of THE DA VINCI CODE or Dan Brown. After I got over my amazement that this book had slipped someone's notice, we went outside where my friend showed me the irrigation system she had built on her property to ensure her flowers and plantings were adequately watered. I realized that I may know Dan Brown and THE DA VINCI CODE, but I never was going to be able to create my own irrigation system.

Great fun in both Beaver Creek and Denver chatting books with my friends, Laura and Starr. I realized I could be a book concierge. Tell me what you like and I bookishly will suggest new titles. Quite fun! It beats my days at Mademoiselle where I spewed fashion and beauty tips!

Shannon Maughan, who reviewed HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE for us, shared this story with me. Last Friday night she was at her local Barnes & Noble in suburban Pittsburgh with a friend, the friend’s 13-year-old daughter and the daughter’s pal for Harry Potter festivities and to purchase reserved copies of the book. While the eager crowd was pretty content with getting tea-leaf readings by Professor Trelawney, admiring fellow costume-wearers, making wands, and receiving free Harry specs, one obnoxious teenage girl sought to ruin the night for everyone. The girl marched into the store at about 11:40PM carrying a large poster board declaring “TKTKTKT DIES.” There was no missing the sign, and people just sort of disbelievingly stared at her as an oddity. She proceeded to walk through the store (infuriating and disgusting Shannon), not speaking a word. Obnoxious Girl’s spoiler did indeed turn out to be accurate, which Shannon said clouded her reading experience. Our thought...what would possess someone do such a thing? Shannon followed up with the store and asked how they handled it. They said that the Obnoxious Girl's spoiler sign was confiscated and that she was asked to please "behave herself" if she chose to remain in the store. I am very ticked off at the anonymous Obnoxious Girl.

While on my way to Denver I saw an author, whose name I did not catch, doing a book signing in the airport bookstore. Considering the delays that seem to abound at airports, this is a clever way to help travelers pass time.

This gave me an idea for all my author friends who have grueling book tours. The next time a flight is delayed the stewardess can announce that an author is on board and flight and they can do a reading while the plane is on the tarmac, or explain their inspiration for the book. It has to be better than just sitting there.

Is it just me, or has the legroom on planes shrunk? I cannot even cross my legs. I am pretzel person. I, who am addicted to answering email, never even pull out my laptop when I fly since if I do, I end up with the thing pressed against the seat in front of me and my stomach. Instead, I read. And yes, I suppress the urge to flip on my Blackberry at 30,000 feet and just take a wee peek at the mail. No, I have not cheated and done this, but I HAVE thought about it.

Wi-Fi is a joke. I am not kidding. It's a joke. I have checked into more hotels where the Wi-Fi does not work than I want to think about. I want to call hotels and say, NO Wi-Fi, instead tether me to high-speed that I know works. I actually checked out of a hotel in Denver and complained abt the No-Fi. They said...we have never heard this before. Okay, come on folks, when the Wi-Fi is No-Fi, you have to say something!

One more complaint. Hotel rooms need to think about the following when plotting outlets: Laptop, cellphone, Blackberry, hairdryer. To run these I do not want to have to disconnect clocks, lamps or other lighting. I find that my choices are, use my laptop or use the light. Not a good choice. Likewise turning on the TV should be simple. People are traveling. They do not want to read a manual. They want to turn on the TV. We do not need 210 channels if we cannot figure out HOW to turn ON the TV!

Pure heaven was at Beaver Creek. I do not mean the mountain view...I mean the front desk clerk who ran a power cord out to the pool for me when my laptop was losing juice so I could write the newsletter. He was tipped WELL!

Last Sunday I had the pleasure of hearing Nancy Pearl, the author of BOOK LUST and MORE BOOK LUST give a speech at the American Library Association Conference. She talked about her lifelong love of reading that started in the library in her town when she was a girl.

It got me to thinking back to my library when I was a child. I grew up in Bloomfield, New Jersey. The library was downtown on a main street. I remember the children's services were downstairs and the adult services were upstairs for many years. I can recall the blonde wood of the bookshelves, the card catalog case, the green vinyl chairs for "comfortable reading" and the bespectacled (always bespectacled) librarians. I can remember the shelves where my favorite books were. I can picture crouching down to find my favorite books by Ruth Wolfe. From across the room I could tell you if A TRACE OF FOOTPRINTS was in stock. I loved that library.

Eventually the town raised money for a new adult library and a HUGE building was constructed for this about 50 feet from the old space. The children's library moved upstairs and the basement rooms became meeting rooms. I remember being so happy to move to this new space when I was old enough. Sure, I loved the charm of the old space, but there was something about graduating to this new venue that was just amazing to me. There were two floors --- and a balcony. I think I could draw a diagram of where each section was even today. And this is many years later.

In this library I did hours and hours of research on Simon and Garfunkel. Go ahead and laugh at this. I seriously spent hours in front of the microfiche reading old articles about them and remember spending dimes that I had hoarded to print these same pieces. I joke that I honed all my research skills with S&G. I learned about the New York Times Guide to Articles as well as other vast volumes of catalogued research work. I also learned how to write great bibiliography notes. When I was old enough I would take the bus downtown to hang out at the library. It was very grownup to do this!

Bloomfield also had a bookmobile. I remember running down the street when the bookmobile pulled up and waiting on line to get in. I can remember the hum of the generator. And there too, I can remember where the books were shelved. I also can remember being asked by a librarian if my mother knew I was reading a certain book one week. Who remembers what it was. I remember responding, "Oh, yes." I also remember thinking it would be very cool to be the person who drove the bookmobile. Of course, I was the same child who wanted a Country Squire station wagon with wood on the side for our family car. I know, such strange ideas I had. We never had that station wagon, which is probably why today I drive an SUV.

On that bookmobile I found more books to keep me reading all summer long. And I can remember checking those books out and as the stamp hit each card, I knew I was closer to reading a book I wanted to read. It was heaven.

We moved to Cedar Grove, New Jersey when I was in high school. The only thing I missed from my old town was the library. This one was not as large. Sure they could borrow things from other branches, but that was not the same. In high school I spent a lot of time in the Montclair Library, which was HUGE. Whoa. Once again it was a library like Bloomfield, but even cooler since it was older and had an attitude from that.

The town I live in now has a friendly library. My sons love to go there. I spend many nights at the checkout counter talking books with the librarians. Since I started this company books arrive at the office, so I do not have that same need to run to the library (in fact, friends tell me my house is better stocked than the library with no fines or waiting lists). I do always check what is on the reserved shelf and I love to see my favorite books and authors there.

One weekend I took my sons to the main branch in our county. It was huge. They literally stopped in the doorway and gazed around mesmerized by all the books. I knew that look so well. Which is why I still try to get there when we can. It's more impersonal than the town branch, but oh, those books!

The one library I never warmed up to was the library at Fordham University where I went to college. I loved the architecture of it, but it seemed too quiet, too impersonal, too structured, with too many rules. I think I went there less than 20 times in all my years at college. Instead I would spend time in the bookstore. I loved that place. It's interesting on how a place can have a mood that makes all the difference.

Would love to hear about your own library experiences. Drop me a note and share.