DIGITAL READERS: BEWARE!: Jellybooks' code candy.js "is code embedded inside an ebook to track how users actually read" - and such data's being collected not only by Jellybooks but by "a growing list of others"

[Image Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/Snow_White%2C_c1919_%285686351086%29.jpg]

In October 2014, I posted Lisa Tolliver On Air and Online: DIGITAL READERS: BEWARE! Adobe Digital Editions 4 Spies On Users (And They're Not the Only Ones) - Includes "Who's Reading Whom? (Be afraid. Be very afraid.)", a short horror story.

This next installment in the DIGITAL READERS: BEWARE! saga was prompted by Andrew Rhomberg's article in DBW, "What Code Is Revealing About Readers" (31 July 2015) describing (actually, boasting about and promoting) Jellybooks' code, candy.js, "code embedded inside an ebook to track how users actually read", and announcing his new monthly column, Audience+Insight, that will "detail how acquiring, editing, positioning, promoting and marketing are all being reshaped by data—collected by Jellybooks and a growing list of others—about the ways consumers actually read books".

The article reminds me of the following famed stories:

• The Trojan Horse, the well-known, oft-told legend from the Trojan War about the subterfuge the Greeks used to enter the city of Troy and win the war, nowadays often used in other contexts, as well
• The poisoned apple the wicked stepmother gives Snow White 
• The forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that Satan gives Eve, and that Eve shares with Adam, causing the couple's banishment from Eden and spiritual death
• Poisoned candy myths

See the excerpt and link to the article below:

"What Code Is Revealing About Readers"

By: Andrew Rhomberg | July 31, 2015http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2015/what-code-is-revealing-about-readers/

There’s a brave new world in book publishing, and it’s being shaped by and around audience insights. Not only are publishers becoming more adept at using data to work smarter, but code and algorithms are also getting better at gathering information and executing tasks without the help of humans.

At Jellybooks, we recently developed a piece of code called candy.js, which is embedded inside an ebook to track how users actually read. Penguin Random House UK was among our earliest partners in a pilot program of the technology, and the insights we gathered were fascinating. The question now becomes what story this data tells us and what impact it might have.

To explore, I’m kicking off a new monthly column called “Audience+Insight” that will detail how acquiring, editing, positioning, promoting and marketing are all being reshaped by data—collected by Jellybooks and a growing list of others—about the ways consumers actually read books.

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Who's reading/listening to/watching whom? #2

Dr. Seuss, Happy Birthday to You!

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss, happy birthday to you!


(March 2, 1904-September 21)

“The more that you read,
The more things you will know.
The more that you learn,
The more places you'll go.”
― Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!



“Young cat! If you keep
Your eyes open enough,
Oh, the stuff you will learn!
The most wonderful stuff!”
― Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!    



“I can read in red.
I can read in blue.
I can read in pickle color too.”
― Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!



“You have to be a speedy reader because there’s so so much to read.”
― Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut! -->

LIBRARY STORIES: "The Library Policeman"

I can't think of Stephen King's novella, "The Library Policeman" (the third story in the 1990 collection Four Past Midnight) without thinking of Gus Hasford's Library Book Theft Charges. Or vice versa. 

LIBRARY STORIES: Gus Hasford's Library Book Theft Charges

Are you, too, a fan of Gus Hasford's novels?

• The Short-Timers (1979) ISBN 0-553-23945-7
• The Phantom Blooper (1990) ISBN 0-553-05718-9
• A Gypsy Good Time (1992) ISBN 0-671-72917-9

Or of the award-winning film Full Metal Jacket (1987), based on Hasford's first book?

Wikipedia: Gustav haford - First novel and film

In 1978, Hasford attended the Milford Writer's Workshop and met veteran science fiction author Frederik Pohl, who was then an editor at Bantam Books. At Pohl's suggestion, Hasford submitted The Short-Timers, and Pohl promptly bought it for Bantam.^[5]
The Short-Timers became a best-seller, described in Newsweek as “The best work of fiction about the Vietnam War”.^[1] It was adapted into the 1987 feature film Full Metal Jacket, directed by Stanley Kubrick. The screenplay written by Hasford, Kubrick, and screenwriter Michael Herr was nominated for an Academy Award. Hasford's actual contributions were a subject of dispute among the three, and ultimately Hasford chose to skip the Oscar ceremonies.^[1]

This story has long haunted me:

Wikipedia: Gustav Hasford - Library books theft charges

In 1988, shortly before the Oscar ceremony, Hasford was charged with theft after campus police from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California, found nearly 10,000 library books in his rented storage locker. At that time, he had 87 overdue books and five years of the magazine Civil War Times checked out from the Cal Poly-SLO library; the materials were valued at over $2,000.^[6]

Hasford's book collection included books borrowed (and never returned) from dozens of libraries across the United States, and from libraries in the United Kingdom and Australia. Others were allegedly taken from the homes of acquaintances. Among them were 19th-century books on Edgar Allan Poe and the American Civil War.^[6] He had obtained borrowing privileges at Cal Poly-SLO as a California resident, but submitted a false address and Social Security number. In 1985, he had borrowed 98 books from the Sacramento, California public library, and was wanted for grand theft there.^[6]

Hasford initially denied the charges but eventually admitted possession of several hundred stolen books, and pled nolo contendere ("no contest") to possession of stolen property. He was sentenced to six months imprisonment (of which he served three months) and promised to pay restitution from the royalties for his future works.^[6]

Hasford claimed that he wanted the books to research a never-published book on the Civil War. He described his difficulties as "a vicious attack launched against me by Moral Majority fanatics backed up by the full power of the Fascist State."^[6]

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