Amazon's profits

The headline "Why Amazon is Losing $410 to $810 Million this Quarter" led me to an article in SupplyChain247 with the image shown below.

 It took a third look before I found the line on the baseline to see how trivial Amazon's profits were.  I remembered advice given by Ken Olsen, founder of Digital Equipment Corporation.  After confessing that he hadn't known what the word entrepreneur meant he said that the people who were willing to finance a young business were old.  They expected the business to showprofits during the time they had left on earth.

Times seem to have changed.  Profitless businesses are given sky-rocketing valuations.  Olsen is long gone now.  DEC was purchased by Hewlett Packard.  He'd probably be as mystified as I am by the money and services available today.

Bookshelf Porn

An article in the April 25, NY Times Magazine, "On Their Death Bed, Physical Books Have Finally Become Sexy" by Mireille Silcoff mentioned the web site bookshelfporn.com. which consists of pictures of books and book shelves.

Links from that site lead to tumblr.com ("I Have Bookworms"), a Zurich hotel's library, and book art.  It isn't clear how to get the books from the top tier from the hotel's library.  (A more fastidious person might wonder about dusting them, but it was an afterthought for me.)

The sight of all the the books makes my heart skip a beat and then there's the twinge of sadness for the knowledge that I'll never be able to read even the good ones.

Most of the images are from book stores and libraries, but there are occasional images from private homes.  The crux of the Times article was that physical books were now perceived as a status symbol to be displayed as backdrops in advertising layouts or demonstrations of culture in shelter magazines.

There's so much to say about the non-reading culture, those who don't want to read.  I think I get an insight when I visit a home where the books devoted to religious piety, promoting "perfect health", or "food porn". I have no interest in reading them.  Is that the non-reader's attitude to all books?