The once and future e-book: on reading in the digital age

ars technica ^ | February 1, 2009 | John Siracusa

[MrEdd]

I was pitched headfirst into the world of e-books in 2002 when I took a job with Palm Digital Media. The company, originally called Peanut Press, was founded in 1998 with a simple plan: publish books in electronic form. As it turns out, that simple plan leads directly into a technological, economic, and political hornet's nest. But thanks to some good initial decisions (more on those later), little Peanut Press did pretty well for itself in those first few years, eventually having a legitimate claim to its self-declared title of "the world's largest e-book store."

Unfortunately, despite starting the company near the peak of the original dot-com bubble, the founders of Peanut Press lost control of the company very early on. In retrospect, this signaled an important truth that persists to this day: people don't get e-books.

A succession of increasingly disengaged and (later) incompetent owners effectively killed Peanut Press, first flattening its growth curve, then abandoning all of the original employees by moving the company several hundred miles away. In January of 2008, what remained of the once-proud e-book store (now called eReader.com) was scraped up off the floor and acquired by a competitor, Fictionwise.com.

Unlike previous owners, Fictionwise has some actual knowledge of and interest in e-books. But though the "world's largest e-book store" appellation still adorns the eReader.com website, larger fish have long since entered the pond.

[TChris]

How god is it for recent publications? I’m studying fr a National Security degree and have to read a lot of new, non-fiction.

There are over 230,000 titles now.

230 results for "National Security" at Amazon.

I think they have new releases immediately, as far as I have seen.

[TChris]

Meh. Get back to me when there’s an e-book reader with a photo-level color display.

Really? Does your computer have a color photo-level display? No.

Does that mean it's useless, and you can't read it? No.

How many paperbacks have you read with colored text? Me neither.

B&W for actual reading is just fine. And the display on the Kindle is VERY high resolution.

[stayathomemom]

I love to read myself to sleep, but often end up dropping the book on the floor when I doze off. Could it withstand this? Also, the few times I have tried to have my computer next to the bed to check some thing in the middle of the night, I find I have problems reading the screen sideways, a problem I don't have with books. I suppose being able to hold it at any angle would solve this problem? Is there any advantage to having one if almost all the books I read are borrowed from the library?

[SamAdams76]

Now when we can get Free Republic on Kindle, that would be something. I would definitely buy a Kindle then.

[Redcitizen]

I’m waiting for the pop up E-book reader.

[aposiopetic]

Bibliophile ping

[ApplegateRanch]

How is it on the john, in the tub, and for ease of flipping back & forth? Type face/size?

Last "electronic book" I tried is the Franklin Bookman, so I wouldn't have to lug (and perhaps damage) a Bible while I was traveling a lot. My wife bought it for me around 15 years ago.

I rarely even think about it, let alone use it; instead I pick up a 5 pound large print edition....

[shorty_harris]

The device I have weighs slightly more than a paperback book. You can hold it at any comfortable angle. There's a function to turn the text 180 degrees, so you can hold it with either hand and still use the page up and down buttons (it reverses their operation, too). I haven't dropped it yet, but it seems solidly built, and I imagine it could easily withstand a fall from the bed to the carpeted floor.

If I could check out books from the library and download them to this device, it would be absolutely perfect. I know my local library has ebooks that can be checked out, but their selection is very limited, and they are in a format that's incompatible with my device. There is third-party software that will convert various formats to the one used by my device, but results are not always the best, and it's a pain having to do that anyway.

[ApplegateRanch]

Forget it; sorry I asked the previous!

$360, plus just as much money for each book to read on it, as I pay for paperbacks or used HBs anyway.

And no batteries to go dead; other people’s servers to go down; too many places around here that I can’t get reception—tied to wires; I’ll stick to print.

[cyborg]

I am all for e-books especially in school. Most of my textbooks from nursing school were a huge waste of trees. In fact, my cat is having fun batting them around the basement floor till I pick them up. I still like reading trade paperbacks though. I’ve never take my palm pilot (or future Apple iphone) to the beach or the worse yet...the sauna.

[Dustbunny]

Sounds good.

Shame that it costs about $300. more than we could ever afford.

The written word from the library is the only way we can go.

[RikaStrom]

I’ve dropped it, it can withstand the shock. Wouldn’t recomment dropping it in the water, but it also withstood a rain storm I was caught in. :-)

Nice thing about the memory chips, if you accidentally get them wet, just let them dry for a couple of days, wipe them off and they are good as new.

I love the device. With the GEBLibrarian download, a lot of different formats can be converted for use with the ebook.

RS

[AnAmericanMother]

For business, yes. Use a laptop all the time. No point in killing all those trees just for LAW books.

For pleasure, no. There's something about turning the pages of a book that's very satisfying in and of itself.

The textbook publishers aren't going to be happy about this development, though . . . . .

[wildbill]

But...but what will I use to wipe off the boogers and earwax if not the printed paper page of library books?

[wildbill]

I agree about using them for text books. Since professors often use their class syllabus to promote the sales of their own books, these small publishing run books are outrageously expensive.

If the professors could set them up as ebooks—without a publisher-they could make their fortunes without costing the students and arm and a leg.

Of course, the down side of this is the requirement of “publish or perish” within the academic community where professors have to show that a reputable publisher has put their obscure tome on its publishing list.

[coder2]

Been seriously considering getting one of these for my daughter... She reads constantly and she is running out of space for all her books.

She's a college freshman now and some of the rare spare time she gets, she just loves to open a book.

Sounds like there are a number of options out there, guess I'll have to do more research on these and make this her birthday present...

Thanks for posting the article, very interesting.

[truth_seeker]

I am considering a netbook.

First choice right now is MSI Wind 432. $429.99 plus tax from Amazon, Microcenter, Office Max.

Are the book formats suitable to download to such a device? Or do the various ebook formats force you to obtain a proprietary device?

It has a 10” screen.

It is also a fully features notenook computer, sans CD/DVD slots.

[MrEdd]

You just need appropriate reader software for whichever format the book you want is in. look at the forums and wiki at mobileread.

http://www.mobileread.com/

The primary reason for dedicated devices is that the non-backlit E-ink technology can give you a ten or twelve day battery life. Netbooks do just fine for reading.

[Melian]

The vision impaired have been fighting publishers for years in the courts. In recent years, publishers have been forced to provide the electronic files to the visually impaired community. They fought it tooth and nail, and even now they often provide the electronic text in a format that has not been cleaned up yet. This makes it harder for the visually impaired person to read it or emboss it onto paper.

The visually impaired read electronic books with a screen reader, or with a device called a BrailleNote. One textbook in braille can fill several boxes. Now a blind student can carry tons of books around in his BrailleNote. The Internet, self publishing, and DAISY files are going to force great changes in the years to come. Publishers will be dealing with the same problems that newspapers are now.

[rmlew]

Wait a few months. It uses an single core Intel Atom 230 on a crippled 945g chipset. Graphics suck and its is slow.
Today, Nvidia has started to ship its Ion/9400m chipset paired with dual core Intel Atoms 330. It can do high definition and basic gaming.
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3509