“eBooks Are Stupid”
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/feb/20/ebooks-are-stupid-hachette-livre-arnaud-nourry
It looks like a come-on, or just one more excuse from a paper-purveyor.
But actually, the first word that came to mind was ‘Logos’ (after you read his point).
And absent my ignorance, Logos is really the cat’s meow of electronic book publishing (even outside its market).
And my absolute favorite is CitedBy, with second place, Information panel. Searches are not ‘that’ unusual. But CitedBy is just so perfect (sorry, Libby).
"If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.
Comments
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When he laments the lack of creativity in ebooks, I wonder if he wants animated dancing girls to come out and do the Can-Can while they highlight a passage?
macOS (Logos Pro - Beta) | Android 13 (Logos Stable)
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I didn't go back and re-read the article, concerning the potential for can-can girls.
But a good many on the forum go back to the early PC days, and the period during which a lot of attempts were made to leverage the new technology. And, from what I could see, most fell flat. Success was most often in convenience. I think the Lotus spreadsheet really illustrated the principle. The predecessors to Word.
But in 'books', convenience is hard to beat ... the eBook. A TOC, mark your place, change the lighting or font. Highlight and add a note. And buy again, and again.
Kindle has tried several times to up-value the book experience. For me, I've not seen the value. Maybe Goodreads, etc.
Although Logos seems to outstrip other electronic distributors, they still have trouble with simple 'Bible' needs. The eyes. Maps. Quick lookup/search without a geek degree. Bible class stuff.
"If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.
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I do not know about all that, but I know this. I would not swap my Logos Bible library for paper books. No way.
I am out of town preaching revival services this week. And I have practically my entire library with me on my laptop (and smartphone). I can search my library in seconds. I can copy and paste into sermon notes and other documents.
I love paper books, and some special books I want in paper, mostly for sentimental reasons. I love to sit in my study surrounded by books on my shelves. After all, some of my paper books I literally sold blood to buy in my poor seminary days. I would never discard those books.
But overall, and for practical reasons, I will stick with ebooks for the most part. And when I am old (don't say it), I will take my entire library to the nursing home with me.
"In all cases, the Church is to be judged by the Scripture, not the Scripture by the Church," John Wesley0 -
The article makes several valid points including the fact that ebooks should be 40% lower than paper price. If this was the case they would still make a healthy profit since there is no printing cost and encourage growth. Kindle is the worst kind of ebook in my mind I can tell you several times I have wanted a snippet nothing grand just a sentence or two to share with a friend. There is no good way to copy it... yes there is a share option but it clumsily sends a link the receiver must follow and if it is not all on one page you need send more than one link... Fortunately the DRM is so weak it is easy to convert them into a more usable format. Another issue I have had with Kindle is rights are not consistent. I recently got a new phone and was installing all my books and one refused to download... calling up I was told most books allow you her right to install it on 99 devices (excessive but nice to know)... This one work allowed 4 devices, meaning that my Computer and old computer sitting in my Library iPad old iPhone had used up all four... It was easily to have them delete my old iPhone but consistency would be ideal. eBooks will gain a larger and larger foothold as our lives become more and more digital. Some may have no desire to read a book on their phone, but I would bet most owners of a tablet find ebooks ideal on it. It makes sense as many schools now require a child to have a tablet (I have heard of divisions that provide them and others that simply say you must have them). eBooks and eTextbooks are in many ways a much better purchase for a school board they do not need to be replaced (textbooks yes when they are deemed out of date but in a subscription model the textbooks can always be uptodate and never need replacing). Books are much like portraits they use to be hand made, then they became more automated like with a camera... and now in the same way many of us never print off or print off very few of our photos there will always be a place for "printed" books but I do not see them being dominate in 50 years...
-dan
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