Are books going the way of the dinosaurs?

Alexander Turcic · 10-08-2006, 12:04 PM

Thanks to raevyn1 who dropped this one into my inbox today: John Dvorak hosted Neil Gaiman and Dan Farmer on his last videocast Crankygeeks and devoted about 3 minutes to a brief discussion on the future of e-books and on publishing them online. No super-brilliant insights, but it's interesting to glimpse what well-known writers think of the shape of things to come. Excerpt:

Quote:

JD: Sony's e-book reader just came out. Do you do any of the e-stuff?
NG: I do some of the e-stuff. The only thing I really like e-books for is reading in the dark when you have like a wife fast asleep in the bed next to you who really doesn't want you to turn on a bedside lamp.
DF: Books are dinosaurs. We love books because we have this emotional attachment. When we grow up we love learning from books and they mean so much to us (I've written one myself). But kids these days they're going to say good-bye to books as soon as there is a good reader. I don't want to carry this book around I want to carry something that has all my books. When I am in the kitchen I want all my cook books in the one reader.
JD: E-book readers will continue to fail because they are inconvenient. There is no way you can flip through.
DF: You are suffering from the mentality of the ? of the present software. We are going get passed these technological limitations. I agree, we don't have any good ones right now. It will happen. It is deterministic. These things [pointing at a book] are gone. Within our lives - the kids will be laughing at us. They are already laughing at us!

JD: What do you think about the idea of publishing online for free and selling in the background?
NG: Fine. I don't have a problem with it at all. I think that the Internet for an author is the best advertising tool in the world... The main reason [why NG doesn't give out his books for free online] is because I have sold the rights to the books, the copyright, to the publishers, and I don't have the rights to put them up online myself.

Neil Gaiman is the award-winning SFF author of Anansi Boys, American Gods, and Neverwhere, just to name a few. I highly recommend you to check out his journal where he interacts with his readers and provides all sorts of insights into the world of a writer.

This Crankygeeks episode is offered for download in various video formats.

Pride Of Lions · 10-08-2006, 02:49 PM

I don't see how people can think paper is dead. I love my PDA for it's eBook capabilities, but paper is still very much alive to the non-bleeding-edge, other-side-of-the-Digital-Divide people.

And for when electricity isn't available. Just today the utilities companies were working outside and my power was off for a bit. Sure I have 1.1 million books on my Axim, but only limited power. Since it was daytime, I could have my pick of my paper library without worrying about running out of juice. Luckily, the power was restored within a few hours, but what if I needed reading for days at a time without electricity? Everytime I travel, I read my eBooks and articles, but I always have paper books at the ready for just such an emergency.

johnnaryry · 10-08-2006, 03:32 PM

I agree with you fully, paper is long from dead. Every time I use my T3 to read in a public place, I end up having the "what's that/what are you doing conversation" with at least one other person. Almost invariably they are very surprised about the existence of ebooks.

doctorow · 10-09-2006, 03:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic

NG:The only thing I really like e-books for is reading in the dark when you have like a wife fast asleep in the bed next to you who really doesn't want you to turn on a bedside lamp.

Noticed how this fits into our discussion How important is a backlight to you? Someone should invite Neil to join us

lordvetinari2 · 10-09-2006, 04:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NG

The only thing I really like e-books for is reading in the dark when you have like a wife fast asleep in the bed next to you who really doesn't want you to turn on a bedside lamp.

Some days, only some, I am glad I am single.

Jake · 10-09-2006, 10:34 AM

Good discussion as far as it goes, I guess. But we're still looking at "the book" chiefly in the context of fiction / pleasure reading. And the same arguments and ideas keep getting presented over and over. What about "re-inventing" the book? Do we even yet know what a "book" is in the digital context? I'm getting tired of the warm, cozy "I like the feel of paper, smell of books etc." kind of argument. Equally repetitive is the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" crowd. Given the potential of digital texts for education and research the paper "book" *is* broken. Enough with the nostalgia.

Believe it or not, e-books (or e-texts etc.) can (potentially) be far more powerful (and may I say useful?) than paper books. They can "talk" to other books, show you their contents instantly, announce themselves when they are published, *show* you a medical procedure in video while describing it and referencing other literature sources in print. They can put in your hands (literally) copies of rare source documents you would need several lifetimes (and the travel budget of Bill Gates) to find, if you ever could. Footnotes can link to the actual source in addition to commenting. Can your print book instantly size the type larger for these 50 year old eyes of mine? Can I carry around 100 print novels, 5 fat print dictionaries and an entire print encyclopedia set in the palm of my hand? We have not even scratched the faintest surface of what "digital books" or "digital publishing" could mean. Personally, I'm not so much interested in the death or continued life of paper books, but the nearly limitless potential of digital ones.

rmeister0 · 10-09-2006, 10:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jake

Believe it or not, e-books (or e-texts etc.) can (potentially) be far more powerful (and may I say useful?) than paper books. They can "talk" to other books, show you their contents instantly, announce themselves when they are published, *show* you a medical procedure in video while describing it and referencing other literature sources in print. They can put in your hands (literally) copies of rare source documents you would need several lifetimes (and the travel budget of Bill Gates) to find, if you ever could. Footnotes can link to the actual source in addition to commenting. Can your print book instantly size the type larger for these 50 year old eyes of mine? Can I carry around 100 print novels, 5 fat print dictionaries and an entire print encyclopedia set in the palm of my hand? We have not even scratched the faintest surface of what "digital books" or "digital publishing" could mean. Personally, I'm not so much interested in the death or continued life of paper books, but the nearly limitless potential of digital ones.

...until the company that makes the device that can read the book in that locked format the publisher sold it to you in goes belly up and nobody buys them out. Until your hard drive crashes and you discover that your backups are unreadable and the publisher won't let you download the books again without paying full price for them. Until the software publisher arbitrarily decides that the software reader you paid them for is actually a pirated copy and they deactivate it on you. Until you buy your seventh computing device and the software publisher decides you have reached your maximum allowance of activated devices and refuses to allow you to activate any more.

These are all problems paper books don't have, but these are very real problems electronic texts have today . The issue isn't black and white, and no matter what potential electronic texts have, these issues which plauge the digital world that don't exist in the analog world are always going to hold people back.

Jake · 10-10-2006, 11:05 AM

Gosh, I do not mean to imply for a minute that anything is cut and dried.

Our nascent world of digital publishing is the wild west with all its attendant limitless possibilities and dangers. Nothing is certain and everything is up for grabs. We live in a very "gadget-oriented" time, especially in terms of e-books. And it is a great temptation to frame things in that context - hard drives crashing, massive power failures etc. Electronic paper is making so many advances daily, I find it difficult to track. When we talk about "re-inventing the book" it may be useful to remove hardware considerations for a bit (difficult as that is to do at this point). I can hear it now - "But you can't separate discussion of the two." Oh yes we can, and some day we must. At what point will the hardware cease to drive the software? I believe it will happen. Electronic paper may well become ubiquitous. What then? Goodbye device, hello commodity.

So, what does the future re-invented digital book look like? (not book reading device!) What features and capabilities are embeded? Those of us who are scholars, scientists, librarians or researchers have very different needs than pure pleasure readers. Publishers (and even e-book gadget makers!) need to and (even want) to know what these are. Who will drive that discussion? Them or us? Right now there is a lot of second-guessing going on. Maybe that is necessary at this stage of the game. There needs to be a vision.

I have to laugh because it almost seems sometimes like some folks expect digital publishers and users to throw up their hands and say "Ok, experiment failed, let's go back to paper". Ain't gonna happen. I don't know if p-books are "dead". But it's exciting to be around the neighborhood these days, and things are just heating up.

Steven Lyle Jordan · 10-14-2006, 06:34 PM

I think one of the reasons it has been so difficult for the industry to provide a hardware reader that satisfied the public, is that no one has defined the software needs of the reader... that is, what is it gonna read? If we let the reader determine what we read on it, we're putting the cart before the horse. We should develop the content first, so the readers can be created for those criteria.

And in terms of that criteria: I think the digital realm's ability to present text, video, audio, interactive content, and links to related material, suggests that the digital book of the future will most closely resemble a web site. Textbooks, news periodicals and reference material will most closely resemble sites like Discovery.com, C|Net or CNN, with searchable sections, cross-linking, encapsulated video and audio segments, and interactive animations.

All that capability for e-books will likely help to evolve the non-textbook e-book to more closely resemble entertainment magazines, with colorful graphics and additional multimedia content that add value to the text content. (They will probably include animated ads as well, but we'll deal with that little annoyance later.)

And finally, there may be some further interaction in terms of being able to influence the material, ala Wikipedia, such as participating in live discussions, voting in polls, or providing data that might update published data, making the e-books even more timely.

How's that for an e-book laundry list?

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
A Noobs Guide to Borrowing E-Library Books and Installing non Kobo Bookstore Books	bamelin	Kobo Reader	17	01-07-2012 04:11 PM
Free books (Kobo) - 20 Dorchester Publishing Books (Romance, Horror, Thriller etc.)	ATDrake	Deals and Resources (No Self-Promotion or Affiliate Links)	15	09-24-2010 07:01 PM
Two free books (kobo) from Francesca Lia Block [BOOKS DELETED BY AUTHOR]	koland	Deals and Resources (No Self-Promotion or Affiliate Links)	11	04-08-2010 06:03 AM
Free books from Open Books to celebrate 'Read An E-Book Week'	Kelly Huddleston	Deals and Resources (No Self-Promotion or Affiliate Links)	10	03-08-2010 12:24 PM
Living History: Ben Franklin and dinosaurs.	Reyben	Writers' Corner	41	08-20-2009 10:15 AM

10-08-2006, 02:49 PM	#2
Pride Of Lions just kinda geeky Posts: 381 Karma: 30 Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Oakland, California Device: iPhone	I don't see how people can think paper is dead. I love my PDA for it's eBook capabilities, but paper is still very much alive to the non-bleeding-edge, other-side-of-the-Digital-Divide people. And for when electricity isn't available. Just today the utilities companies were working outside and my power was off for a bit. Sure I have 1.1 million books on my Axim, but only limited power. Since it was daytime, I could have my pick of my paper library without worrying about running out of juice. Luckily, the power was restored within a few hours, but what if I needed reading for days at a time without electricity? Everytime I travel, I read my eBooks and articles, but I always have paper books at the ready for just such an emergency.

10-08-2006, 03:32 PM	#3
johnnaryry Connoisseur Posts: 84 Karma: 194 Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Lexington KY, USA Device: 64GB Apple iPad 3 WiFi, 32GB Apple iPhone 4S	I agree with you fully, paper is long from dead. Every time I use my T3 to read in a public place, I end up having the "what's that/what are you doing conversation" with at least one other person. Almost invariably they are very surprised about the existence of ebooks.

10-09-2006, 10:34 AM	#6
Jake Renaissance Man Posts: 45 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Seattle Device: Sony Reader	Good discussion as far as it goes, I guess. But we're still looking at "the book" chiefly in the context of fiction / pleasure reading. And the same arguments and ideas keep getting presented over and over. What about "re-inventing" the book? Do we even yet know what a "book" is in the digital context? I'm getting tired of the warm, cozy "I like the feel of paper, smell of books etc." kind of argument. Equally repetitive is the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" crowd. Given the potential of digital texts for education and research the paper "book" is broken. Enough with the nostalgia. Believe it or not, e-books (or e-texts etc.) can (potentially) be far more powerful (and may I say useful?) than paper books. They can "talk" to other books, show you their contents instantly, announce themselves when they are published, show you a medical procedure in video while describing it and referencing other literature sources in print. They can put in your hands (literally) copies of rare source documents you would need several lifetimes (and the travel budget of Bill Gates) to find, if you ever could. Footnotes can link to the actual source in addition to commenting. Can your print book instantly size the type larger for these 50 year old eyes of mine? Can I carry around 100 print novels, 5 fat print dictionaries and an entire print encyclopedia set in the palm of my hand? We have not even scratched the faintest surface of what "digital books" or "digital publishing" could mean. Personally, I'm not so much interested in the death or continued life of paper books, but the nearly limitless potential of digital ones.

10-10-2006, 11:05 AM	#8
Jake Renaissance Man Posts: 45 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Seattle Device: Sony Reader	Gosh, I do not mean to imply for a minute that anything is cut and dried. Our nascent world of digital publishing is the wild west with all its attendant limitless possibilities and dangers. Nothing is certain and everything is up for grabs. We live in a very "gadget-oriented" time, especially in terms of e-books. And it is a great temptation to frame things in that context - hard drives crashing, massive power failures etc. Electronic paper is making so many advances daily, I find it difficult to track. When we talk about "re-inventing the book" it may be useful to remove hardware considerations for a bit (difficult as that is to do at this point). I can hear it now - "But you can't separate discussion of the two." Oh yes we can, and some day we must. At what point will the hardware cease to drive the software? I believe it will happen. Electronic paper may well become ubiquitous. What then? Goodbye device, hello commodity. So, what does the future re-invented digital book look like? (not book reading device!) What features and capabilities are embeded? Those of us who are scholars, scientists, librarians or researchers have very different needs than pure pleasure readers. Publishers (and even e-book gadget makers!) need to and (even want) to know what these are. Who will drive that discussion? Them or us? Right now there is a lot of second-guessing going on. Maybe that is necessary at this stage of the game. There needs to be a vision. I have to laugh because it almost seems sometimes like some folks expect digital publishers and users to throw up their hands and say "Ok, experiment failed, let's go back to paper". Ain't gonna happen. I don't know if p-books are "dead". But it's exciting to be around the neighborhood these days, and things are just heating up.

10-14-2006, 06:34 PM	#9
Steven Lyle Jordan Grand Sorcerer Posts: 8,478 Karma: 5171130 Join Date: Jan 2006 Device: none	I think one of the reasons it has been so difficult for the industry to provide a hardware reader that satisfied the public, is that no one has defined the software needs of the reader... that is, what is it gonna read? If we let the reader determine what we read on it, we're putting the cart before the horse. We should develop the content first, so the readers can be created for those criteria. And in terms of that criteria: I think the digital realm's ability to present text, video, audio, interactive content, and links to related material, suggests that the digital book of the future will most closely resemble a web site. Textbooks, news periodicals and reference material will most closely resemble sites like Discovery.com, C\|Net or CNN, with searchable sections, cross-linking, encapsulated video and audio segments, and interactive animations. All that capability for e-books will likely help to evolve the non-textbook e-book to more closely resemble entertainment magazines, with colorful graphics and additional multimedia content that add value to the text content. (They will probably include animated ads as well, but we'll deal with that little annoyance later.) And finally, there may be some further interaction in terms of being able to influence the material, ala Wikipedia, such as participating in live discussions, voting in polls, or providing data that might update published data, making the e-books even more timely. How's that for an e-book laundry list?

Advert

Advert