The other day I read a news article about a British journalist just released from a Singapore jail. He had published a book about that country's judicial and political corruption in regard to the death penalty. Impressed and intrigued, I was able within a few clicks to download a free sample chapter of his e-book. I read it immediately and then decided to buy, which I did with one further click. A final click saw the e-book downloaded into my iPad's ever-expanding Amazon Kindle library. (I also use Apple's own iBooks app).
And all this done in the wee small hours, in bed, in Brazil, a country still stuck in the paper book era and with a very limited range of English-language titles.
E-books have now overtaken traditional book formats on Amazon and there is no turning back. Of course, they should have preceded music into the digital domain - how hard is it to digitise words ?! We bloggers go from thought to worldwide published word in the blink of a half-thought.
But the book publishing industry was even more protectionist and myopic than the music industry. Such poor business judgement ! I have already spent vastly more on these kind of impulse e-book purchases than I would have done waiting for an opportunity to visit the right country and the right book store for the desired paper-and-print book. In all likelihood I would have jotted down the title and then simply forgotten about it.
The icing on my e-book cake is that I can read them without any illumination other than my iPad or iPhone's back light; they weigh nothing, take up no space and can be stored as back-ups in the Cloud; I can check word definitions using the in-built dictionary; I can make notes and highlight sections just by dragging my finger or typing; I can see where other people have highlighted, thanks to yet more Kindle cleverness; and I can turn pages with the lightest of finger taps (on the iPhone reading is a one-handed experience, perfect for standing up in a crowded tube carriage).
It's an almost utopian reality for anyone who likes reading. So spare me the Luddite nonsense about the smell and feel of "real" books ! I quite like both (and have some heaving bookshelves in my London flat) but nowhere near enough to want to turn the clock back. Books were never meant to be objects of desire over and above their role as disseminators of information, to be dispersed far and wide, and as quickly as possible. Hmm ... sounds familiar.
Apologies (again!) to all who have tried and failed to post comments. It's exasperating because I have triple-checked my blog's settings and can confirm that comments are set as open to anyone and everyone. Can only assume it's a gremlin in the Google engine.
ReplyDeleteComment from Jon:
ReplyDeleteIn Africa, most countries have huge tracts of the country with no telephone landline, but few countries there have no mobile phones. The technology has skipped a generation. In SP English speaking books and newspapers were never largely available (outside of the English bookshop on the Paulista and a couple of select newspaper stands in the Jardins). The internet makes the city more connected to the world, though the masses don't seem to be particularly plugged in. The problem with the internet devices however is that they attract attention in SP like moths to a flame. Walk in Praca da Se with your ipad prominently displayed and would you feel safe? If you don't feel safe then in SP are these devices truly portable?
test
ReplyDeleteJust tested comments, see above, and it worked. Chose "Anonymous" from the drop-down label.
ReplyDeleteOh wow, the test comment appeared and then disappeared !
ReplyDeleteOk, seems my blog's overzealous spam filter is causing this problem. I just clicked "not spam" on the test comment and it reappeared.
ReplyDelete