"So this is Christmas, and what have you bought?"

In my case, over the past couple of weeks, I bought an Amazon Kindle for myself, and the special edition three-volume set on the history of Chanel as a gift.

While both are, ostensibly, reading material, the polar opposite nature of the two got me to thinking about the lifespan of books as we know it.

Since the launch of the Kindle (and its Sony eBook / Barnes & Noble Nook brethren), old and new media alike have been abuzz about how the device heralds "the future of books!" (Check out this piece from the New Yorker.)

Well, after toying around with the Kindle, and gingerly handling the quilted-leather-bound Chanel set (that's it at left), I have a slightly different opinion.

Kindle is indeed the future, namely the future of reading.  It's ideal for novels, textbooks, newspapers, nonfiction and all other tomes or periodicals that actually need to be read.  It provides a most necessary service to those of us who want to simplify and unclutter our lives, and what it in turn does for the environment, more specifically our forests, should guarantee Jeff Bezos a Christmas card from Al Gore and David Suzuki for the rest of his life.

But the Kindle will not, as many fear, kill books. (Won't kill magazines either, as this article shows...but I digress.)

Frankly, I think the Kindle will open up a new market for books that are not necessarily meant to be read, like the aforementioned Chanel box set. 

The Chanel books are published by Assouline, a ten-year-old French company that, as is says on its website, creates "fine illustrated books, luxury editions and an exquisite gift line dedicated to fashion, photography, art and design."  The books range in price from a $40 bio of chef Daniel Boulud to the Goyard Trunk, which houses 100 of Assouline's signature Memoire photo-biographies on art, fashion, design and architecture in a trunk from luxury luggage maker Goyard, and will set you back a mere $20,000.

(I bought the Chanel box at a bookstore called Librissme, a most tony spot where I actually put on white gloves to handle some of their volumes, including a $10,000 history of golf that was housed in its own plexiglass-covered coffee table.  Check out this joy-to-walk-into, anti-Borders below.)

The Kindle will give new life to books like "The Light in Darkness," my friend Lawrence Kirsch's new fan-sourced, photo-filled tribute to Bruce Springsteen (that's it at right), the follow-up to his best-selling--and now unavailable-- "For You Bruce."  For as good as the Kindle may be with words, it can't capture the thrill of looking at crisp, sharp, emotional photos of a band, a landmark, a child, a puppy or a historical event. 

As publishers flock to the electronica of the Kindle, passionate entrepreneurs like Lawrence will find--and fill--a tangible, tactile gap in the marketplace.

The Kindle will also give new life to books like this:  Electronic Popables, an interactive pop-up book that sparkles, sings, and moves.  Check it out below:

The great thing about all the above is that in a world of disintermediation (have you spoken to a typesetter or record-store owner lately?), there is most definitely a future for the world of publishing...one where books and reading both live, but in most cases, independantly and mutually exclusive.

I am the proud father of two incredible, unique young men: 

• My younger son Hayes, at 19, is wise and toughened well beyond his years. He has a sparkling creative mind and applies it with the nimbleness of his hands as he goes about learning and performing his passion of designing innovative, expectation-bending high-end furniture. 
  
• My elder son Aidan is independent, adventurous and equally creative, expressing himself more flamboyantly than his somewhat more-subdued brother.  Aidan's tools are words, ideas and social interaction, and he melds them together into something special with every project he takes on (and with every outfit he wears).

Today is Aidan's 22nd birthday, and the best birthday gift is the one he's given himself...and has chosen to share with the digiterati.

Speaking objectively now, I gotta say that Aidan's recent wordsmithing at Posterous.com, a blog called "Journal of a First-Time Entrepreneur," is among the most insightful, honest, raw, endearing and frightening writing on the web.

Subtitled "A GenY's Adventures in Entrepreneurship," Aidan is painstakingly and perhaps too-openly documenting the daily trials and tribulations of launching an Internet-based start-up called Youphonics. More than just diarizing it, he summarizes each post with homework/action items and the all-important lessons learned.

As someone who has gone through a couple of these himself, and who has counseled dozens of others in their start-up dreams, I find this full-bodied exposure to be incredibly heartening, educational and sometimes just juicily voyeuristic.  When I spoke at a youth entrepreneurship conference in Toronto a couple of weeks ago, I urged the brilliant kids there to jump into this blog head first.  It's that good.

I don't know where Aidan's Youphonics project will land up--it could be a game changer, an expensive lesson, or somewhere on a thousand points in between those two extremes.  But I do know three things:

1. "Journal of a First-Time Entrepreneur"should be required reading for anyone wanting to start--or are in the throes of starting--their first business.
2. I regret not doing the same thing during my times doing the same thing.
3. If all else fails, Aidan will have at least documented a story that could find life as a book, speech or college course.

But, knowing Aidan, I don't think all else will fail.

Read this. Go back and start at the very beginning.  And pass it on to someone young you know who can benefit from it.

And know why I'm proud of him as an individual, not just as my son.

Andy Sernovitz' Supergenius Word of Mouth Marketing Conference on December 16 in Chicago, to be exact.

Ho hum.  A speaking gig.  So what else is new, right?

Well, the reason why I'm going is.

At first, when Andy asked, I had to say no...too busy, too much to do, a TV network to launch, too close to Christmas, too cold in Chicago.  Too many excuses.

But then, I took a look at the all-important "who else is coming."

And that's why I'm going.

Many times, jeez MOST times, I'll bolt a conference as soon as I'm off stage.  This is not ego speaking, but reality.  As I said before, too much to do, etc.  What I try to do is balance is what I can learn sticking around vs. what I can accomplish by leaving.  Leaving usually wins.

But given the task ahead of me--launching TXT-TV--Airborne Mobile's four-years-in-the-making, big hairy project of 2010--and seeing who else is speaking here, the day is a major-league learning opportunity.  Case studies from mega-brands like Coke, Starbucks, Domino's and Maker's Mark bourbon.  Numerous social networking experts. Live "Will It Blend" demos from Blendtec's George Wright.  Timely, too, given the aforementioned network launch. (And any time I can hang with fellow speakers Mitch Joel and Saul Colt, and my Chicago-based buddy Jim Fannin, well...)

As oft-mentioned here and in my Pow! book, Sernovitz is the world-wide maestro of word-of-mouth.  Since I changed my "vote" from no to yes, he's been peppering me and all the other speakers with ways for us to promote said conference via word-of-mouth methods like live interviews, special discounts (see photo below) and bribery, like the blatantly-promotional (and ostentatiously-colored) t-shirt he's getting yours truly and others to wear and blog about (see photo below again).

So consider me playing along in promoting the conference. 

And consider yourself promoted to.

But frankly, you're secondary. 

This time, for perhaps the first time, I'm doing it for me.

.

I had a blast.  I learned a lot...about me, and about the intelligence of the audience (it was primarily composed of parents of students who were in town for homecoming week.

It's coming to YouTube soon, but the school just sent me this link to preview it.

If you got an extra minute or 51...enjoy!

What's the best way to get kids to brush their teeth, especially after eating treats?

Free samples of toothpaste and funky toothbrushes, right?

Wrongo!

This stroke of genius from Colgate and Young & Rubican Thailand (of all places).  They replaced the sticks of ice cream and cotton candy with gentle, but VERY effective toothbrush-shaped Surprise cause-and-effect reminders that say, simply, "Don't forget."

Such is the story of Maya Gilbert who, along with two friends, has put together a company called "Surprise Industries," which--as she puts it--"crafts surprise experiences in NYC."  (To paraphrase the ancient Red Rose Tea slogan, "Only in New York, you say?  Pity...").  According to Ms. Gilbert, she got the idea by visiting the Something Store (found here and featured in my Pow! book), but said that the real, word-of-mouth-generating win would be from concocting life-altering experiences instead of a random product at your doorstep.

Sound crazy?  Well, these guys seem to be busy planning everything from flight school to sword swallowing (check out their insanely busy schedule), and you never know what you're embarking in or on...until you get there.

Response has been great, so check out the video below (which does a way better job of selling the concept...and the thrilled delightful response to it).

And then hit Maya up for a franchise for your town.

Surprise Industries Teaser from Surprise Industries on Vimeo.

Like all Canucks with a more-than-modest modicum of national success under its belt, Tim Hortons is trying to crack the American market, and as a patriotic compadre, I wish I could wish them well. 

But I'm scared.  Here's why:

This one hurts, guys, as you have become a deserved and much beloved icon above the 49th parallel, but trust me, there is NO WAY you're gonna do it, not a Timbit's chance in a meatgrinder, with a namby-pamby, dull, say-nothing slogan like:

Tim Hortons: 

Where Quality Meets Value

I couldn't believe it when I first heard it, thinking that is was some sort of parody or Canada-bashing joke.  But no, there it was, confirmed in a somewhat biting article in Brandweek.

Not that "Always Fresh" is a work of creative genius, but "Where Quality Meets Value"?  That could be the slogan for 10,000 nondescript, dull, uninspiring businesses, from a corner shoe store to a wholesale meat packing plant.  This is the anti-slogan, one which must've been composed by a mole being surreptitiously funded by Dunkin' Donuts, Starbucks or Krispy Kreme...and being high-fived as I write this.

Holy jeez.  Someone PLEASE tell me this is some mistake.  In the meantime, I think I'll drown my sorrows and say my prayers over a single-single.