And because it can lie flat and you can scroll through the pages with one finger, it's good for reading at the table, too. (Just avoid greasy finger foods if you don't want to smear the screen.)
Saturday, January 30, 2010
e-books (part 2)
There does seem to be one use where an e-book (on a small device with a backlit screen) is handier than a paper book -- reading in bed. It's small, it glows, and it keeps your place if you fall asleep holding it.
Monday, January 18, 2010
e-books
I've been trying to give e-books a try, really I have. I can't justify paying the price of a dozen or so hardbacks for a machine to do what can be done for free with a lamp or a sunny window, but the library has e-books that can be read on a home computer and now there's a free Kindle reader for the iPhone.
Actually, I've been reading e-books since the early days of CD-ROMs. One of the earliest apps for the new (and at that time still very slow) format was a CD full of plain-text public domain works. And as any follower of this blog knows, I'm a big fan of Project Gutenberg. The difference with the new systems is that they include new books. And they scroll from side to side instead of up and down.
Supposedly, e-books are cheap, around ten bucks a pop. But that's not truly cheap to someone who remembers 65-cent paperbacks. For that matter, I strongly resist paying anything to read any book just once. I pay money for books I want to keep -- for the rest of my life, and be able to pass down to any great-grandkids I might have in the future. So for e-books I need to find modern books I'll want to read over and over, but only in the next few years. Or things I'd like to have a second, portable copy of. The problem is, every time I think of such a title, it turns out not to have an e-book version. Or it's one of the over-ten-dollars books.
The public library subscribes to netLibrary, which allows patrons to check out books to read on their home computers for a limited time. Sounds like a good deal, except that they have next to nothing I want to read even once -- except for public domain titles I can read at Gutenberg without the hassle of signing in, and download to keep for more than two weeks. Maybe I was doing something wrong, but browsing for books less than a year old brought up nothing at all, and I couldn't find any fiction, either.
So for now I'll go back to reading Poe's "The Unparalleled Adventures of One Hans Pfaal" for free online.
Actually, I've been reading e-books since the early days of CD-ROMs. One of the earliest apps for the new (and at that time still very slow) format was a CD full of plain-text public domain works. And as any follower of this blog knows, I'm a big fan of Project Gutenberg. The difference with the new systems is that they include new books. And they scroll from side to side instead of up and down.
Supposedly, e-books are cheap, around ten bucks a pop. But that's not truly cheap to someone who remembers 65-cent paperbacks. For that matter, I strongly resist paying anything to read any book just once. I pay money for books I want to keep -- for the rest of my life, and be able to pass down to any great-grandkids I might have in the future. So for e-books I need to find modern books I'll want to read over and over, but only in the next few years. Or things I'd like to have a second, portable copy of. The problem is, every time I think of such a title, it turns out not to have an e-book version. Or it's one of the over-ten-dollars books.
The public library subscribes to netLibrary, which allows patrons to check out books to read on their home computers for a limited time. Sounds like a good deal, except that they have next to nothing I want to read even once -- except for public domain titles I can read at Gutenberg without the hassle of signing in, and download to keep for more than two weeks. Maybe I was doing something wrong, but browsing for books less than a year old brought up nothing at all, and I couldn't find any fiction, either.
So for now I'll go back to reading Poe's "The Unparalleled Adventures of One Hans Pfaal" for free online.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
brevity is the soul of ...
... broadband being down.
(sent from a cell phone, which is awkward to type on)
(sent from a cell phone, which is awkward to type on)
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
honestly free
Honestly free is completely free, available to those literally without a penny. "Free" (small print: with shipping and handling and/or sales tax) is a LIE; it is not free.
Honestly free doesn't require setting up an account (even a free one), logging in, or using a password.
Honestly free does not ask you to do anything special. There are no ads, no surveys, no competition, no need for luck, no roundabout routes to get to what you want. It is not "free if you buy ...." It is not "you can win ...." It does not have to be earned or won in any way.
Honestly free has no subscription fees, entrance fees, or parking fees.
Honestly free is not a trick to get people to want more. It is not a preview and certainly not a teaser. It provides enough to be truly useful or entertaining. It is not artificially cut short; it is not snatched away after a certain date or a certain number of uses.
Honestly free leaves you alone afterwards. It does not ask for your gratitude, opinion, or recommendation. It does not follow you with ads or requests of any kind.
Honestly free is completely anonymous. It doesn't ask for an i.d., or proof of age or residence. It doesn't ask for your zip code.
Ideally, in an honestly free situation, the most despised, totally penniless, physically repulsive, foreign person with political, religious, and sexual views which are anathema to the community will be treated the same as the most beloved home-town-golden-boy movie star.
Let me head off an obvious argument here: I'm talking about free to the individual using the object or service. Yes, these things are usually paid for by taxes or philanthropy. This type of pre-payment is inherently different from individual pre-payment for specific goods or services. You must pay taxes for the town library and park whether you use them or not. And people who have paid no taxes -- the homeless, visitors from other cities, even scofflaws who don't pay their taxes (till they get caught and put in jail) can use them, too.
The typical public library provides some honestly free services. Many (most?) have a free parking lot and are within walking distance of many of their patrons. A homeless person with completely empty pockets can come in, take a book or magazine or newspaper from the shelf, and sit there and read it, undisturbed.
Honestly free doesn't require setting up an account (even a free one), logging in, or using a password.
Honestly free does not ask you to do anything special. There are no ads, no surveys, no competition, no need for luck, no roundabout routes to get to what you want. It is not "free if you buy ...." It is not "you can win ...." It does not have to be earned or won in any way.
Honestly free has no subscription fees, entrance fees, or parking fees.
Honestly free is not a trick to get people to want more. It is not a preview and certainly not a teaser. It provides enough to be truly useful or entertaining. It is not artificially cut short; it is not snatched away after a certain date or a certain number of uses.
Honestly free leaves you alone afterwards. It does not ask for your gratitude, opinion, or recommendation. It does not follow you with ads or requests of any kind.
Honestly free is completely anonymous. It doesn't ask for an i.d., or proof of age or residence. It doesn't ask for your zip code.
Ideally, in an honestly free situation, the most despised, totally penniless, physically repulsive, foreign person with political, religious, and sexual views which are anathema to the community will be treated the same as the most beloved home-town-golden-boy movie star.
Let me head off an obvious argument here: I'm talking about free to the individual using the object or service. Yes, these things are usually paid for by taxes or philanthropy. This type of pre-payment is inherently different from individual pre-payment for specific goods or services. You must pay taxes for the town library and park whether you use them or not. And people who have paid no taxes -- the homeless, visitors from other cities, even scofflaws who don't pay their taxes (till they get caught and put in jail) can use them, too.
The typical public library provides some honestly free services. Many (most?) have a free parking lot and are within walking distance of many of their patrons. A homeless person with completely empty pockets can come in, take a book or magazine or newspaper from the shelf, and sit there and read it, undisturbed.
Monday, November 30, 2009
the multi-taskable book
Recently, while engaged in a weeding project, I noticed that if there were several books on a topic, the big, thick one -- even if the thick one was the most respected title about the subject, or even a well-known classic -- would be scheduled for withdrawal because it had not circulated in the past couple of years.
"Lazy kids," I thought. "They see research as work and just want to get it done as soon as possible."
What was more surprising was how many big, gorgeous, picture books were going unread.
Then I realized that I -- a nerd who likes to study in depth -- would probably reach first for the slim YA volume divided into short chapters with lots of pictures. And how many of the coffee table books I'd glanced at, intending to get to them someday, but never had time to read.
What both scholarly books and coffee-table books (if one is to truly escape into their literary worlds) have in common is that they demand a long block of undivided attention. And long blocks of undivided attention are as rare as saber-toothed tigers these days.
Blame it on ever-faster-moving visual media shortening our attention spans, or economic and social changes that leave people with fewer and drastically shorter blocks of free time, but many people don't have as many opportunities as they used to for sitting at a desk or with a book on their lap for long enough to really get into it.
Some of the lure of watching tv or surfing the net is the colorful blinkenlights. But also there's the fact that people can have the tv going and be doing something else. Those cute cat pics or that online video or the chat with a friend are just a browser tab-click away from the e-mail or document you must write. In short, not only are the rivals of books shiny and exciting, but they allow for multitasking.
O.k. So what can be done to make books more multitasking-friendly? (For now we'll ignore the trend toward 500+ page books and interminable series; those are on the other end of the spectrum, read by people who do have large blocks of free time.)
We already have audiobooks. These allow for hands-free "reading," but the problem is that many people (myself included) find it difficult to maintain auditory attention. I miss parts, and then find it hard to go back and fill in the gaps.
We have e-texts. It's nice that they can be opened in another window or browser tab and therefore be switched back and forth to and from, but not all have quick and easy ways of bookmarking one's place (some do). And many of the free ones (i.e., public domain) are from a time when long periods of concentration were taken for granted (e.g., Sir Walter Scott's paragraph-long sentences).
What's needed is built-in redundancy, the kind of that can be seen from the corner of one's eye and register in the subconscious.
So -- I forsee literature that, like t.v. shows, a reader can look away from multiple times and still keep track of the story or information. Perhaps books will adapt the magazine article layout in which a key concept is repeated in large, bold type in the center of each page.
Chapters should be clearly titled for easy access, and divided into short and well-titled subchapters. -- Shorter chunks for shorter attention spans. (This has actually been going on for some time. Contrast 19th century works with 20th century ones, and you'll notice that fiction from the 1920s on tends toward breaks of about the length of movie scenes.)
Mutitasking-friendly texts would also provide all online reading (or listening) with quick and easy (and perhaps even hands-free) pausing and bookmarking tools.
The format of literature has changed in the past, and it may have to change again, but it doesn't have to disappear. The written word is a tough, adaptable species.
"Lazy kids," I thought. "They see research as work and just want to get it done as soon as possible."
What was more surprising was how many big, gorgeous, picture books were going unread.
Then I realized that I -- a nerd who likes to study in depth -- would probably reach first for the slim YA volume divided into short chapters with lots of pictures. And how many of the coffee table books I'd glanced at, intending to get to them someday, but never had time to read.
What both scholarly books and coffee-table books (if one is to truly escape into their literary worlds) have in common is that they demand a long block of undivided attention. And long blocks of undivided attention are as rare as saber-toothed tigers these days.
Blame it on ever-faster-moving visual media shortening our attention spans, or economic and social changes that leave people with fewer and drastically shorter blocks of free time, but many people don't have as many opportunities as they used to for sitting at a desk or with a book on their lap for long enough to really get into it.
Some of the lure of watching tv or surfing the net is the colorful blinkenlights. But also there's the fact that people can have the tv going and be doing something else. Those cute cat pics or that online video or the chat with a friend are just a browser tab-click away from the e-mail or document you must write. In short, not only are the rivals of books shiny and exciting, but they allow for multitasking.
O.k. So what can be done to make books more multitasking-friendly? (For now we'll ignore the trend toward 500+ page books and interminable series; those are on the other end of the spectrum, read by people who do have large blocks of free time.)
We already have audiobooks. These allow for hands-free "reading," but the problem is that many people (myself included) find it difficult to maintain auditory attention. I miss parts, and then find it hard to go back and fill in the gaps.
We have e-texts. It's nice that they can be opened in another window or browser tab and therefore be switched back and forth to and from, but not all have quick and easy ways of bookmarking one's place (some do). And many of the free ones (i.e., public domain) are from a time when long periods of concentration were taken for granted (e.g., Sir Walter Scott's paragraph-long sentences).
What's needed is built-in redundancy, the kind of that can be seen from the corner of one's eye and register in the subconscious.
So -- I forsee literature that, like t.v. shows, a reader can look away from multiple times and still keep track of the story or information. Perhaps books will adapt the magazine article layout in which a key concept is repeated in large, bold type in the center of each page.
Chapters should be clearly titled for easy access, and divided into short and well-titled subchapters. -- Shorter chunks for shorter attention spans. (This has actually been going on for some time. Contrast 19th century works with 20th century ones, and you'll notice that fiction from the 1920s on tends toward breaks of about the length of movie scenes.)
Mutitasking-friendly texts would also provide all online reading (or listening) with quick and easy (and perhaps even hands-free) pausing and bookmarking tools.
The format of literature has changed in the past, and it may have to change again, but it doesn't have to disappear. The written word is a tough, adaptable species.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
bookworm heaven
Group of 25 Major Research Libraries Offers Full-Text Search to 4.6 Million Digitized Volumes
(Nov. 20, 2009 Chicago Tribune)
Hathi Trust is a scanned-book repository similar to Google Books, but in this case it's run by libraries.
With this site plus Project Gutenberg and Google Books, I have access to enough nerdly, obscure works to keep me happy to the end of my bookwormish life.
The interface is easy to use. The options for narrowing a search are far more numerous than those on the Gutenberg, and give more relevant and consistent results than Google. Books are displayed one page at a time, and, on a very slow connection, take a mildly annoying but not unacceptable time to load .
Unlike Google (sometimes, albeit only in annoying PDF format) and Gutenberg (always, in robust and convenient plain text and HTML), there doesn't seem to ever be any option to quickly download an entire book for offline reading. There is, however (with the inconvenience of setting up an account and logging in every time), a way to set up a "personal collection" on the site, and bookmark pages. Gutenberg is still the best site for collecting your own supply of portable books on a flash drive.
(Nov. 20, 2009 Chicago Tribune)
Hathi Trust is a scanned-book repository similar to Google Books, but in this case it's run by libraries.
With this site plus Project Gutenberg and Google Books, I have access to enough nerdly, obscure works to keep me happy to the end of my bookwormish life.
The interface is easy to use. The options for narrowing a search are far more numerous than those on the Gutenberg, and give more relevant and consistent results than Google. Books are displayed one page at a time, and, on a very slow connection, take a mildly annoying but not unacceptable time to load .
Unlike Google (sometimes, albeit only in annoying PDF format) and Gutenberg (always, in robust and convenient plain text and HTML), there doesn't seem to ever be any option to quickly download an entire book for offline reading. There is, however (with the inconvenience of setting up an account and logging in every time), a way to set up a "personal collection" on the site, and bookmark pages. Gutenberg is still the best site for collecting your own supply of portable books on a flash drive.
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