Apparently you can annotate these ebook readers. And they have a
search function which would be handy...
There is presently much more to be concerned about re digital
publishing with the Google Books settlement. The deadline for the
"opting out" option is next week, before the final deal is approved in
court - and my agent points out this: "The services provided for in
the Settlement are only available in the USA. Libraries in Australia
won’t have access to subscriptions offered by Google, and individuals
won’t be able to access full texts or downloads for example.
Rightsholders in Australia, Canada and the UK are subject to the
settlement yet those countries will not benefit from the Project."
Empire corporatism, much?
Ursula Le Guin has noisily resigned from the American Society of
Authors in protest against their caving into Google; the French are
going their own way, etc. Basically, unless you choose to opt out - by
next week - Google will have the right to digitise your content
whether or not you want them to. Some coverage:
http://www.thebookseller.com/news/110222-agents-offer-authors-mixed-advice-on-google.html.rss
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/philip-hensher/philip-hensher-googles-book-deal-has-left-me-confused-1870949.html
http://www.thebookseller.com/news/110319-trade-divided-over-googles-opt-out-.html
On Sat, Jan 23, 2010 at 10:51 AM, Halvard Johnson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> The nice thing about a book is that you can pick it up
> and thump somebody on the head with it without
> worrying, as with a laptop, that it will never work again.
>
> Hal
>
> "Publicity is like eating peanuts. Once you start
> you can't stop."
> --Andy Warhol
>
> Halvard Johnson
> ================
> [log in to unmask]
> http://sites.google.com/site/halvardjohnson/Home
> http://entropyandme.blogspot.com
> http://imageswithoutwords.blogspot.com
> http://www.hamiltonstone.org
>
>
> On Fri, Jan 22, 2010 at 1:39 PM, Mark Weiss <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> For me the biggest loss (aside from the sensual qualities of the book)
>> would be the constant doubling back to previous passages that I find myself
>> doing, my memory of a particular thickness of book rather than anything
>> remotely searchable. A trivial instance: in Bolanos Savage Detectives I
>> noticed, and marked in the margin, an obvious misjudgment in the
>> translation. Talking to a fellow translator, I founnd it approximately by
>> its place in the book and then precisely by the dot I'd put in the margin.
>> More seriously, when I need a citation in the midst of writing I can usually
>> find it quickly on my bookshelves, even if I've forgotten the precise
>> wording of the passage, and I can do this with probably a couple of thousand
>> books. And of course that doubling back, to inravel the magic the writer
>> used to get the characters, plot, whathaveyou, to where it's arrived.
>>
>> Which is to say that kindle's not likely to replace the second hand
>> bookstore.
>>
>>
>> At 12:42 PM 1/22/2010, you wrote:
>>
>>> Ah Patrick
>>>
>>> SF & away we go! I see that, but some of us will still want that
>>> smell, maybe recycled paper, though?
>>>
>>> Doug
>>>
>>> On 21-Jan-10, at 2:19 PM, Patrick McManus wrote:
>>>
>>> All this about good old smell of leather in old books is ok but you
>>>> can have yummy containers for these kindle jobbies gold bejeweeled
>>>> or plastic to taste with constantly changing scintillating forms
>>>> -and save the good 'ole trees
>>>>
>>>
>>> Douglas Barbour
>>> [log in to unmask]
>>>
>>> http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/ <http://www.ualberta.ca/%7Edbarbour/>
>>>
>>> Latest books:
>>> Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy)
>>> http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=664
>>> Wednesdays'
>>>
>>> http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-from-aboveground-press_10.html
>>>
>>> Swept snow, Li Po,
>>> by dawn's 40-watt moon
>>> to the road that hies to office
>>> away from home.
>>>
>>> Lorine Niedecker
>>>
>>
>> Announcing The Whole Island: Six Decades of Cuban Poetry (University of
>> California Press).
>> http://go.ucpress.edu/WholeIsland
>>
>
--
Editor, Masthead: http://www.masthead.net.au
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Home page: http://www.alisoncroggon.com
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