Books
Seattle Car Dealer’s Memoir Recounts Building the Internet’s First Auto Marketplace
Balle Balle Radio™ Entertainment Desk
Martin S. Rood, a longtime Seattle-area automobile dealer, has published a memoir about founding DealerNet, which he describes as the first automotive online marketplace and one of the earliest commercial ventures on the internet. The book, titled "First Click: The Story of DealerNet The World’s First Automotive Online Marketplace," was published through Christian Faith Publishing.
According to the announcement, Rood’s path into e-commerce began in 1994 with a postcard invitation to a University of Washington seminar on the World Wide Web, at a point when few Americans had any direct experience of it. He had no background in programming or software development, the release states, but moved to put his Nissan and Volvo inventory online, a step he says had not been attempted before in the auto trade.
The memoir recounts the practical obstacles of that period: skeptical reporters, uncooperative internet service providers, and the basic work of explaining what a browser was to people who had never used one. Rood went on to found four more software and internet startups over the following decade, per the announcement, and the book also touches on his community involvement, including his role in his local church.
The narrative connects DealerNet’s rise to Seattle’s emergence as an early hub of internet commerce, a period that preceded Amazon’s growth in the same city. "This book captures not just the story of DealerNet, but the electricity of being present at a genuine inflection point in history," Rood said in the announcement. "I wanted readers to experience the uncertainty, the late nights, and the exhilaration of building something the world didn’t yet understand."
The publisher positions the book as a memoir for entrepreneurs and technology audiences, framed around risk-taking and timing as much as the mechanics of the business itself. "First Click" is available through major booksellers and online retailers including Amazon, Apple iTunes, Google Play, and Barnes and Noble.
Studio CarryOnHarry finds the more interesting story here less about the book itself than the window it offers into how ordinary, non-technical business owners stumbled into building internet infrastructure before anyone had a name for what they were doing.
Read more People’s Choice stories on Studio CarryOnHarry. Reporting via Live News Vault.
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Br. Chris Sweeney, SC, published "Ride for Reid: 6,000 Miles for Love, Faith, and Family," documenting a cross-country cycling expedition undertaken to raise awareness and support for his nephew Reid, who has Down syndrome. The book is out now through Covenant Books.
Sweeney, a member of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart for 34 years, rode from Florida’s coast to California’s redwood forests, a route the book describes as roughly six thousand miles. According to the publisher’s description, the trip included searing heat, freezing cold, mechanical breakdowns, saddle sores and a crash just miles from the finish.
Before the ride, Sweeney spent decades teaching in Catholic high schools across Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, followed by twelve years as a missionary in Mozambique, where he worked on farming projects, grant writing and feeding boarding students at his school. He holds a bachelor’s degree in physical education from the University of New Orleans and a master’s degree in Catholic School Leadership from the University of San Francisco.
The publisher describes the book as combining travelogue, memoir, and spiritual reflection with candid observations on faith and encounters with strangers during the journey. "Every mile reminded me that we are never truly alone, and that love is the most powerful fuel on any journey," Sweeney said, according to the announcement.
"Ride for Reid" is available through Covenant Books and major retailers including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google Play and the Apple iTunes Store.
Studio CarryOnHarry sees this as part of a familiar but durable genre, the faith-driven endurance memoir, and one where the specificity of Sweeney’s own background, missionary work, decades of teaching, a family motive, gives it more grounding than most.
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Br. Chris Sweeney, SC, has published "Ride for Reid: 6,000 Miles for Love, Faith, and Family," a book recounting a solo cross-country cycling trip he undertook to raise awareness and support for his nephew Reid, who has Down syndrome, according to the publisher, Covenant Books.
The book follows Sweeney’s route from Louisiana to California, passing through Florida’s coastline, mountain passes, and what the publisher describes as searing heat and bone-chilling cold along the way. The announcement states Sweeney faced mechanical failures, saddle sores, and a crash just miles from the finish line before completing the roughly 6,000-mile journey.
According to the book’s synopsis, the project began as a way to honor Reid, described as a boy whose smile could light up a room, and grew into what Sweeney frames as a broader meditation on faith and service to others. The publisher categorizes the book as part travelogue, part memoir, and part spiritual reflection, pitched at cyclists and general readers alike.
Sweeney is a member of a religious community, indicated by the "SC" designation following his name, and the book situates his physical endurance test within a framework of Christian faith throughout the ride.
For Studio CarryOnHarry, the story worth watching isn’t the mileage, it’s whether a personal fundraising ride like this translates into sustained attention or support for Down syndrome advocacy beyond the book’s release.
Read more People’s Choice stories on Studio CarryOnHarry. Reporting via Live News Vault.
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