How the E-Book will change the way we read and write

Moejoe · 04-22-2009, 09:43 AM

Wall Street Journal Article - http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123980920727621353.html

Quote:

With books becoming part of this universe, "booklogs" will prosper, with readers taking inspiring or infuriating passages out of books and commenting on them in public. Google will begin indexing and ranking individual pages and paragraphs from books based on the online chatter about them. (As the writer and futurist Kevin Kelly says, "In the new world of books, every bit informs another; every page reads all the other pages.") You'll read a puzzling passage from a novel and then instantly browse through dozens of comments from readers around the world, annotating, explaining or debating the passage's true meaning.

Taylor514ce · 04-22-2009, 10:08 AM

I disliked this article, mainly because he generalized unique features of a particular device to e-books as a whole, invalidating his conclusions. If all Readers were Kindles and Amazon the only vendor, then the article may have had some value.

Then too, he blithely extended Amazon's bookstore to Google's endeavors, with no thoughtful discussion of the pros and cons of Google "ranking" books... all in all, it was a fluffy gush piece on how much he likes his Kindle.

robynebr · 04-22-2009, 03:21 PM

In a way, I'm glad I don't have a Kindle with it's auto-online status, so I'm forced to hold off on my impulse buys until I'm at a desktop.

I can see his point (about buying more and reading less) - we are a world of impulse buyers. But I think many of us are the same avid readers as before, especially those of us who always kept a selection of books around just in case our mood changed. (The "bedside stack" reader.)

RE: paying per chapter, that's just a strange concept. But it does bring to mind the old "serial publishing" of novels.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Windows Read & Write Int Memory (HD) on V3ext, but Firmware Don´t	pinheiro.leandro	OpenInkpot	0	05-09-2010 10:42 AM
Do eBooks Change What You Read?	schroedercl2	News	44	02-16-2010 09:52 PM
WSJ Article on Ebooks Changing the way we read and write	robynebr	News	0	04-22-2009 03:16 PM
WSJ: How the E-Book Will Change the Way We Read and Write	anurag	News	0	04-21-2009 01:03 AM
Richard from Read/Write Web	ricmac	Introduce Yourself	4	12-19-2004 09:03 PM

04-22-2009, 10:08 AM	#2
Taylor514ce Actively passive. Posts: 2,042 Karma: 478376 Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: US Device: Sony PRS-505/LC	I disliked this article, mainly because he generalized unique features of a particular device to e-books as a whole, invalidating his conclusions. If all Readers were Kindles and Amazon the only vendor, then the article may have had some value. Then too, he blithely extended Amazon's bookstore to Google's endeavors, with no thoughtful discussion of the pros and cons of Google "ranking" books... all in all, it was a fluffy gush piece on how much he likes his Kindle.

04-22-2009, 03:21 PM	#3
robynebr Zombie Gourmand Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Oregon Device: Iliad	In a way, I'm glad I don't have a Kindle with it's auto-online status, so I'm forced to hold off on my impulse buys until I'm at a desktop. I can see his point (about buying more and reading less) - we are a world of impulse buyers. But I think many of us are the same avid readers as before, especially those of us who always kept a selection of books around just in case our mood changed. (The "bedside stack" reader.) RE: paying per chapter, that's just a strange concept. But it does bring to mind the old "serial publishing" of novels.

Advert