An article in Newsweek describes how libraries and paperbacks brought reading to the people then laments the possible death of libraries and paperbacks with the arrival of eBooks.
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/08/05/f...libraries.html
Newsweek surprised me with its "book" nostalgia. I think the editors overlooked what eBook readers can be when they write:
Quote:
|
Something of the same argument might be made for books, or for the tactile pleasure of holding and reading a well-made book. At its simplest, a book is a tool, or an information-delivery system, if you will, and it does what it does supremely well. To conceive of a world without physical books is to conceive of a world somehow diminished.
|
For me novels are works of art and although I agree with the sentiment that they should be treasured and enjoyed in and of themselves, I know that eBooks do not
have to exclude the tactile pleasure of holding a book or the visual delight of reading a well-made one.
I prefer buying my book reader devices without a cover. There are beautiful covers available for every taste. My own preference is the Oberon covers, and I always have trouble deciding which design to get. (At the price of the new Kindle, I might end up with more than one.) Indeed, there are other cover makers: there are smooth leather covers and cloth ones too in every color of the rainbow. There are skins and sleeves in incredible variety: there is no reason not to have a book reader customized to the owner's sense of style, something to be proud of and even to treasure. And that brings us to the condition of the books inside.
Frankly, while there are some beautifully formatted eBooks there are also too many poorly made ones. Some publishers seem to think that their only role in the process is to guard the copyrights and maybe check the author's spelling, but some of the eBooks we've seen made me doubt the editor bothered to run a spell check much less had a chance to display a sense of style when formatting the eBooks they sell. In fairness, the quality of pBooks seems to be suffering lately too.
There are a few exceptional eBooks and I think those of us who use vendors like Amazon or B&N to buy our books ought to use the customer remarks section to compliment a book that is well set and criticize those that are done badly.
The publishers seem to be at odds-and-ends over how to approach the change to eBooks. I think that the answer for publishers is to measure up to the best of what they have always done. Treat these books as the works of art that they are. As suggested by the Newsweek article, what we do now will be plain to see for future generations. Let's insist on beautiful books.