Friday, January 13, 2006
E-books Part II
Okay. Deep breath. Here it is, it will hit the market this spring. This thing, with its "Impressive, Paper-like Display." Is this what our society has come to? Apparently so, because here it is. It resembles a pop-tart more than a book (apologies to the hard-working design team at Sony, but it's just not my cup of tea, I am not gadget-minded. I might like it better if it looked even more like a pop-tart, come to think of it). However, on the bright side, things like THIS are still being produced! Now we're talking! Hallelujah! Long live the BOOK!
The first item sells for between three and five hundred dollars, by the way. The second item sells for thirteen thousand dollars. I'd rather have the second. I covet the second, let's just come right out and say it.
I'll be on a mini-vacation until early next week. Cabin fever, and the January Thaw, are upon me and I'm heading for the hills for a few days. I'm sure I'll buy some books somewhere along the way.
The first item sells for between three and five hundred dollars, by the way. The second item sells for thirteen thousand dollars. I'd rather have the second. I covet the second, let's just come right out and say it.
I'll be on a mini-vacation until early next week. Cabin fever, and the January Thaw, are upon me and I'm heading for the hills for a few days. I'm sure I'll buy some books somewhere along the way.
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An academic checks in: E-books and Google Book Search are in no way replacements for sitting by the fire in your favorite armchair.
However, if it is only information you are seeking and not a good read, what could be better than sitting by the fire in your favorite armchair and doing research for your new book? The majority of academics to properly do their research must either travel long distances to pore over rare materials, or must hunt down books which are in copyright but out-of-print.
Publication of most academic treatises is paid for by the author, these low print-run tomes are prohibitively expensive for libraries to purchase, and are obsolete in just a few years' time.
Downloadable e-books and virtual libraries for this problem are slick as a whistle.
However, if it is only information you are seeking and not a good read, what could be better than sitting by the fire in your favorite armchair and doing research for your new book? The majority of academics to properly do their research must either travel long distances to pore over rare materials, or must hunt down books which are in copyright but out-of-print.
Publication of most academic treatises is paid for by the author, these low print-run tomes are prohibitively expensive for libraries to purchase, and are obsolete in just a few years' time.
Downloadable e-books and virtual libraries for this problem are slick as a whistle.
# posted by 
: 4:33 PM
: 4:33 PM
Hey spats... I concur, this is an ideal use for e-books. I want new technologies to aid research; I just don't want publishers (and Sony and Google) to get caught up in thinking that this is the only way that information should be made available to the reading public. I've seen umpteen stories on the news and in print about the availability of information, but I haven't seen much of anything that differentiates between information for researchers and books for general readers. I know I tend to be overly sentimental when it comes to books, but I see what's coming and I'm apprehensive. Of course, if the new-book industry crashes and burns, or goes mostly digital, book lovers will take refuge in used bookshops like mine, so I'm not *too* worried.
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