E-books


When is a book a book?

Author Diane Duane writes great science fiction and fantasy. I see from her web log that Wizard's Holiday is getting close to release. If I had to choose between Rowling's Harry Potter and Duane's young wizard series I'd give the nod to Duane, and I'm a Potter fan.

I want to quote all three sentences in her post: It's a book.

"No matter how many drafts a book goes through, no matter how many times I deal with the manuscript or proofs on the way to press, a book isn't really real for me until the day I'm holding a bound copy in my hands. Today was that day for Wizard's Holiday.

"It looks nice. To me, anyhow... "

Me too. I can't wait to read it. Duane is one of the few writers whose hardcovers I snap up as soon as they are available. But we have different thresholds when it comes to "bookness."

Recently Joseph let me read the first draft of an autobiography. He's a young writer whose already done important work in print, radio and TV. He has circulated the manuscript to a few friends and the reaction has been mixed. I liked it and hope he keeps working on it and finds a commercial publisher. I can't reveal the content but Joseph's early life has a lot to do with his motivation and skill as an investigative journalist.

I started reading the first chapter on my Mac as a piece of email and that wasn't very satisfying. There are too many distractions on my desktop. I could have disabled everything else or printed out the manuscript, which I was originally offered and had turned down. Instead I took the files and transferred them in e-book form to my pda.

That made quite a difference. I've read a lot of e-books and have almost come to prefer them over paper. My Sony Clié weighs less than a 400 page paperback and can hold dozens of much longer books. I carry it everywhere. The screen shows two or three paragraphs at a time and it's easier to move forward or back than it is to turn a real page. It glows in the dark and turns itself off after a couple of minutes if I don't keep going; ideal for reading in bed as long as I remember to put it away before falling asleep. And it has a search function far better than my own fallible memory.

Reading Joseph's narrative on the pda gave me the feeling I was reading a real book. Yes it was still a first draft and I can think of a few changes a publisher might want to suggest before risking a print run, but in my mind it was already a book. It had been proof read by Irit, so there were no noticeable typos, spelling mistakes or grammatical glitches. I've read manuscripts before and not enjoyed the experience the way I did this time. I was definitely less judgmental of Joseph's craft and more focussed on his story. It wasn't until I was finished that I began thinking like an editor, as Joseph was asking for feedback.

Last week Barnes & Noble announced they were getting out of the e-book market. Jack Kapica in the Globe responded by predicting that e-books were doomed to be nothing more than a niche market. Franklin Paul, writing for Reuters, acknowledged that the hype around e-books has gone the way of the rest of the dot com bubble, but believes in the long run two groups of readers will prefer a paperless future: the young and the old. Kids are used to Gameboy sized devices and retiring boomers will prefer to enlarge their fonts while spending less on those hardcover bindings. The people at Palm Books are hoping he is right.

To me the most important factor is how soon I can read my favourite authors. So whichever form comes out first has me reaching for my wallet. I still like bound books. If only I had more space on my book shelves. Right now the worst thing about traditional books is getting rid of them to make room for more. That's not a problem in the e-world.


Posted: Wed - September 17, 2003 at 10:00 PM          

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