The observations that Mr. Siracusas makes are in line with my own. I started reading on my Palm III just a few days after I got it. That device was followed by a Handspring Prism, then a Trieo 300 and a host of other devices. In 2006 I got a Sony E-Reader 500, and last year I got a Kindle from Amazon.
All along the way I tried to share my love of ebooks and my conviction that most of the dead media we consume today should be distributed in digital format. The bibliophiles have insisted that dead tree media is better, with poetic allusions to the feel and smell of paper, while the anti-DRM crowd have decried the inability to lend books to others or sell them at the used book stores. At no point in time have either camp explained why I should get my news from a dead tree copy of the New York Times, or why the planets valuable resources should be used to produce items that will be read once then thrown away.
3 comments:
I've never really thought about getting into ebooks but your article is intriguing. It certainly might be the way to deal with all the fiction literature that I like to read and re-read. (I have books that are falling apart and I'm wondering about replacing them.)
On the other hand, how do devices like the Kindle handle graphics? A lot of my library are research materials, for example books on illuminated manuscripts. If a book like that was available as an ebook would I be able to download the pictures to my computer and make a print out?
The short answer is "not very well." If graphics are displayed at all they are gray scale.
The Kindle is a device meant for text, and I think it does a good job. But even as much as I love mine I'm not fooling myself as to its abilities. This is still very much a 1.5 device.
As for keeping a library, that's easy, because Amazon keeps a copy of everything you buy, and you can download any of it again anytime you like. I've actually started to pick up books that I know I'll be reading again, such as Christopher Moore's "Lamb" and William Goldman's "Princess Bride."
But the way I see it the real value of ebooks is that they eliminate the need to process resources to distribute time sensitive information. Honestly, every year a new math textbook? Why cut down trees for that when it would be trivial to simply update a file? Every day a new copy of your local newspaper? Recycling is nice, but it's not as good as not consuming the resource to begin with.
I sent my sister the URL. She's way into ebooks (she has some ebook thingy).
We've been to various conventions where there are authors and publishers. She always asks about electronic versions of books and almost all of the publishers and most of the authors go, "Huh??". A few knew what she was talking about.
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