Why We’ll Never Have Innovative E-Books

[Freeshadow]

just have a look at that here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...7&postcount=26

the ST is already on the way to hit the fan...

[Toxaris]

Originally Posted by Salgueiros

Of course technical books are different, for example seeing 3-D molecular structures in a 2-D screen is frequently complicated, and video (or a hologram, who knows?) could improve the learning value of the ebook.

Actually, 3D molecular structures are already on 2D paper for many, many years... I remember reading chemical literature from the 1920's with stereoscopes in it. If you look at it correctly, you see a perfect 3D representation of the molecule. Looking at it takes some practice, but it works without the need of special glasses or anything.

[Cyberman tM]

Originally Posted by Freeshadow

As for your soundtrack idea - If a writer needs such a thing to suck the reader in to his story - he shouldn't write books, but moviescripts.

What if the author has a clear concept in his head that heavily depends on the reader actually knowing what the author is talking about?

Not everyone has the same range of experiences. The book might still be good, but with the added knowledge of some random information, it might be a bit better.

Example: Stephen King, Dark Tower series. In the City of Lud, I think - a very loud drumbeat is played throughout the whole town.
A character identifies it as the drum beat of ZZ Top's "Velcro Fly" song.

Do you need to know that song? Not really, it's more or less just background information.
Does it help appreciate the situation? I'd say hell yes.

(Note: I actually didn't read the books. I just read ABOUT them and this situation specifically and happen to know the song.)

--

Originally Posted by elcreative

I don't use my eReader for those, I use a tablet, a computer and, if out and about, a smartphone...

We had that discussion in another thread, didn't we?

It is rather insulting to talk of "bound pages of e-ink" and rejecting digital when you are writing for a group of people that, overall, probably embrace more leading tech than most... early adopters of eReaders, tablets etc.

Is that so?
The impression I got - and still get - is that for many in this thread the idea of a digital book is only accepted as long as it stays as close as possible to the printed original.

Anything that goes beyond pure text - and perhaps pictures - is considered heresy.

[EowynCarter]

What if the author has a clear concept in his head that heavily depends on the reader actually knowing what the author is talking about?

Not everyone has the same range of experiences. The book might still be good, but with the added knowledge of some random information, it might be a bit better.

Example: Stephen King, Dark Tower series. In the City of Lud, I think - a very loud drumbeat is played throughout the whole town.
A character identifies it as the drum beat of ZZ Top's "Velcro Fly" song.

Do you need to know that song? Not really, it's more or less just background information.
Does it help appreciate the situation? I'd say hell yes.

(Note: I actually didn't read the books. I just read ABOUT them and this situation specifically and happen to know the song.)

I mostly read in the metro, i couldn't be bothered to put headphones on.

Is that so?
The impression I got - and still get - is that for many in this thread the idea of a digital book is only accepted as long as it stays as close as possible to the printed original.

Anything that goes beyond pure text - and perhaps pictures - is considered heresy.

Guess most of us are afraid of the possible abuse. And everything that goes with it. Compatibly issues, slowness...

[Cyberman tM]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

I mostly read in the metro, i couldn't be bothered to put headphones on.

Good point. So do I, btw.
Which would of course make it necessary to fail gracefully. Which of course leads to the below quote:

Guess most of us are afraid of the possible abuse. And everything that goes with it. Compatibly issues, slowness...

So am I, don't get me wrong.

There is much that can go wrong and likely will. But it doesn't mean the idea of it is inherently evil.

Even with pure text we have enough examples of bad books. Wrong formatting, poorly scanned, etc...

Doesn't make the idea of digital books any less valid or good.

[Salgueiros]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

Actually, 3D molecular structures are already on 2D paper for many, many years... I remember reading chemical literature from the 1920's with stereoscopes in it. If you look at it correctly, you see a perfect 3D representation of the molecule. Looking at it takes some practice, but it works without the need of special glasses or anything.

Actually, i did not say they are not represented on paper. You just have to look into any good chemistry or biology (even a old one) book too see drawings of 3D molecules. And I know very well that 3D molecules are represented in 2D paper because... i see them everyday and i even draw them. That is part of my research. However, it is sometimes complicated to make my students visualize the molecules, or the mechanisms/reactions some of those molecules are involved (particularly proteins). A molecule is a bit easier to draw and interpret (can be complex, but is static), but a mechanism/reaction is more difficult, since it involves changes in the structures of the molecules involved and relative movement. And in the last decades chemistry and biology at the molecular level made huge advancements because precisely we are able to see, control and change what happens at that level, something we could not do some 50 years ago.

Some of those mechanisms are rather complex and even bright students sometimes have trouble mapping the 2D drawing into a 3D model. That is what I was referring to as a potential good idea for a enhanced feature ebook. Got it?

[elcreative]

Originally Posted by Cyberman tM

What if the author has a clear concept in his head that heavily depends on the reader actually knowing what the author is talking about?

Not everyone has the same range of experiences. The book might still be good, but with the added knowledge of some random information, it might be a bit better.

Example: Stephen King, Dark Tower series. In the City of Lud, I think - a very loud drumbeat is played throughout the whole town.
A character identifies it as the drum beat of ZZ Top's "Velcro Fly" song.

Do you need to know that song? Not really, it's more or less just background information.
Does it help appreciate the situation? I'd say hell yes.

(Note: I actually didn't read the books. I just read ABOUT them and this situation specifically and happen to know the song.)

Sorry, that'd be hell no! No way do I want a soundtrack when I'm reading... that's what imagination's for... Now instructional non-fiction (especially learning a language) is another matter

Originally Posted by Cyberman tM

Quote:
Originally Posted by elcreative
I don't use my eReader for those, I use a tablet, a computer and, if out and about, a smartphone...



We had that discussion in another thread, didn't we?

So, it is still relevant to this topic... fiction and non-fiction are produced with differing aims and thus can make use of different approaches... just because this may have been raised in another topic doesn't invalidate it here and not everybody reads every topic or posts in it...

Originally Posted by Cyberman tM

Is that so?
The impression I got - and still get - is that for many in this thread the idea of a digital book is only accepted as long as it stays as close as possible to the printed original.

Anything that goes beyond pure text - and perhaps pictures - is considered heresy.

Not heresy just unnecessary for most people's needs, you may need all these "wonderful" add-ons but most people reading for entertainment etc have and use their imagination to fill in more detail... and it's usually better than having someone else clutter the pleasure of reading with unwanted add-ons...

[Freeshadow]

well the pure text is the main ingredient of a usual book.
If you ruin the steak it doesn't matter any longer how good the sauce is.

[JSWolf]

I'll be going on a cruise later this year and I won't have internet access. How would streaming content do me any good? It would do me no good at all. I don't want to pay for a 3G/4G connection just to get content I don't actually want just to be able to read a book.

I can see this as being good for kids. But I am not a kid and I don't want videos & audio. I don't want to stream. I just want to read. Give me static pictures. Give me text that atkes me to another place. But don't give me multi-media.

[Freeshadow]

maybe we are just doomed and the next class of devices will be analphabereaders

[Jack Tingle]

When a competent publisher finally shows up on the ebook scene, many years from now, and puts into ebooks all the useful things authors and publishers have put into paper books over the last thousand years (concordances, indices, tables of contents-figures- tables, references, etc.) I'd be very happy to have you innovate still further and include some yet-to-be-determined-thing.

I'm not holding my breath.

Regards,
Jack Tingle

[Frida Fantastic]

Most of us here in mobileread mostly read fiction ebooks. Multimedia makes sense for a lot of non-fiction (even if it is just basically like a bunch of monetised websites), but we haven't seen that done well in fiction form. I'm open to seeing where that goes, but I think it's a different market. The most "interactive" ebook I'm going for at the moment is a Choose Your Own Adventure book with hyperlinks I'm posting a review of one soon and boy, I don't miss all that page-flippin'.

[William F]

Originally Posted by hughes

Do innovations in epublishing beyond text excite you as an author or as a reader?

To be blunt, no. I'm not a visual artist, I'm a storyteller. My contribution to society is to take people to a world that exists purely in the imagination via words. It's a collaborative effort that requires me to give the readers enough information to allow their own imagination to fill in the blanks, without forcing them lock step into my personal vision. That's what makes books come to life in a reader's mind, his personal interpretation and attachment to the material.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by William F

To be blunt, no. I'm not a visual artist, I'm a storyteller. My contribution to society is to take people to a world that exists purely in the imagination via words. It's a collaborative effort that requires me to give the readers enough information to allow their own imagination to fill in the blanks, without forcing them lock step into my personal vision.

I certainly wish you'd remind some of your brothers in arms about the "collaborative effort" part. Because one of my favorite genres is going down the toilet (for me anyway) because of a rising trend in authors who feel the need to micromanage my experience of their personal vision under the guise of "world-building." It's like they're afraid I'll get their vision "wrong" or something. My imagination gets pissed when the author tries to do everything for it.

[corona]

One thing that seems to be getting lost in the shuffle here is that ebooks are in some ways a step backwards. Some of this possible "innovation" might just be things pbooks have been good at for a very long time, like maps and charts. Am I the only person who has found a few ebooks very hard to follow because I couldn't simply flip to a map for a few seconds to figure out what was going on in the narrative?