Electronic Readers

[Kafka's Crow]

Does anybody read on any of those eInk devices called 'electronic readers'? Unlike a PC screen, eink does not need backlight and reads just like a very nicely printed book, you can even used it in the garden on a very sunny day. I use this thing called iLiad by iRex Technologies. Since I read classics, I can download them for free from places like Project Gutenberg or feedbooks.com and enjoy an excellent reading experience for absolutely free. I am reading The Rememberance of Things Past these days and bought the machine specifically to read this one work as the two volume printed edition is just too cumbersome to be carried around as they have over 2500 large sized pages each. Since iLiad can read .pdf as well as other formats, it allows me to underline things and write things in the margins. It is nice to carry around hundreds of books in a device lighter than an average paperback. It is very expensive but I have found enough classics for free that it has already paid for itself. I will wait till the prices come down and then invest in a quality book scanner, then I will digitize my whole library. This is the future of literature. The whole world's literary heritage is out there to be enjoyed, there is absolutely no excuse for not reading great books now as they don't even cost anything any more.

http://www.irextechnologies.com/products/features
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=UdlPHx...eature=related
http://www.atiz.com/?gclid=CJWn3uOZqJECFQ8vlAodH3vyWg



...

...

[Oomoo]

But, does it "feel" like a book? It seems like you hold it with one hand.

Also, is it available outside of the US?

[Kafka's Crow]

But, does it "feel" like a book? It seems like you hold it with one hand.

Also, is it available outside of the US?

It does feel like a book only lighter and the 'print' quality is a lot better. It is almost the size of a paperback therefore the printed surface is almost the same in size. Since there is no backlight, there is no question of glare and eye-strain. I use Pocket PC for night-time reading which has backlight but it hurts the eyes like a laptop screen does after we read on it for long time. I finished the first volume of Proust's work on my iLiad which is a proof of its better readability. I managed to complete only a few books on Pocket PC after many years of use.

It is available in the US:
http://www.irextechnologies.com/products/wheretobuy

It is quite pricey and cheaper options are available by manufacturers like Sony, Bookeen and even Amazon sell their own eReader called 'Kindle' which connects to Amazon.com like a mobile phone and you can buy books from Amazon's Kindle Store anytime, anywhere. You can even configure it to automatically download new works by your favorite authors. eBook is the future of reading and the easy and unobtrusive availability of written material in this form has the potential to not only revive but also revolutionize the habit of reading.

[Oomoo]

Still, how do you hold it? It's too small to hold in two hands but it's annoying to hold it with one.

What do you mean by book scanner? A normal image scanner, an image scanner for books, or a scanner that turns printed words into text files? The latter is extremely expensive, and with the others its pretty unrealistic to scan your entire library: it will take hundreds of hours, and images take much more space than text so I'm not sure if you'll be able to store it.

(Speaking of which: how long does it take to load PDF files, etc? It's probably not a supercomputer there)

But frankly, I still prefer real books; I like to turn the pages, I like libraries, covers, dedications... This can't replace the feeling.

[Kafka's Crow]

Still, how do you hold it? It's too small to hold in two hands but it's annoying to hold it with one.

What do you mean by book scanner? A normal image scanner, an image scanner for books, or a scanner that turns printed words into text files? The latter is extremely expensive, and with the others its pretty unrealistic to scan your entire library: it will take hundreds of hours, and images take much more space than text so I'm not sure if you'll be able to store it.

(Speaking of which: how long does it take to load PDF files, etc? It's probably not a supercomputer there)

But frankly, I still prefer real books; I like to turn the pages, I like libraries, covers, dedications... This can't replace the feeling.

Reading is a two-handed operation anyway. In my case, I hold it with one hand (there is enough plastic to hold on to without touching the screen. I put it down on the bed or in my lap and touch it only to change the page whichis done by pushing the silver bar on the left side. If held in left hand, the bar can be flipped with the thumb of the same hand. I never felt any awkwardness in tackling this thing. eBooks come with covers, blurbs, dedications, acknowledgments, indexes, the lot. You don't miss anything. The ONLY downside is the price of scholarly books which are extremely expensive in ebook formats.

[Wakaba]

i think this idea is great in terms of convenience of use and saving of space. However, it wont be long before people are hacking/sharing books, removing the payment process. Writing is done because one enjoys it, but those who make their living on sales will suffer, and possibly strike as musicians have.

Just my 2 cents

[Kafka's Crow]

i think this idea is great in terms of convenience of use and saving of space. However, it wont be long before people are hacking/sharing books, removing the payment process. Writing is done because one enjoys it, but those who make their living on sales will suffer, and possibly strike as musicians have.

Just my 2 cents

The kind of music which is pirated deserves to be abused. If it is done for the money then it is not going to be good anyways. Bring back the era of the artisans, people who create for the love of it. That will revive the true arts. Pirates are doing a great job in destabilizing the 'culture industry' which has given us nothing but absolute rubbish. Electronic readers are great for reading classics as there are no greedy publishers, agents and their lackeys, the writers involved and everything is in public domain. This is the cultural heritage of the whole humanity and anything that facilitates access to this treasure must be a positive development. I have around 250 classics on my device and the 2GB CF card is only a quarter full. It can take huge memory cards (CF and MMC) and I am sure it can accommodate whole libraries.

[Oomoo]

Yeah, holding it with one hand is annoying..

I'm not sure if it will do good to the market. I'm not sure people will be willing to pay for text files they can pirate; when you buy a book you get a physical product. It will also make the lives of translators much more difficult: people will prefer an old translation for free over a newer translation that will cost them. The idea of artisans is great but somewhat idealized; writers need a lot of free time to work and it is not necessarily possible with side-jobs, or, at the very least, it harms the quality of their writing.

[annakarina]

The kind of music which is pirated deserves to be abused. If it is done for the money then it is not going to be good anyways. Bring back the era of the artisans, people who create for the love of it. That will revive the true arts..

What a naïvely pompous point of view.
Of course only being "in it for the money" isn't going to produce anything very worthwhile, but there are many writers who love what they do AND make a living from it (a few members of my own family for example). And as far as I know the artisans of times gone by did not live off love and fresh water, however creatively brilliant they were.
If you make your living entering figures or waiting on tables all day you're not going to feel much like working on your magnum opus once you get home at night. Preventing people from making money from writing isn't going to revive the true arts, it's going to kill them.
This ebook thingy sounds truly loathesome to me, but then, I'm the sort of tech-retard who nostalgically collects CDs and doesn't own an MP3 player.
One of my greatest pleasures is spending a couple of hours wandering round a bookshop and picking out a book for a friend's birthday... I somehow can't see myself giving people ebook files...

[annakarina]

Oh and an afterthought... to get the Classics for free without having to invest first in some over-priced gadget, two words: public library.

[Kafka's Crow]

I am sure same attitude was prompted by the invention of writing by the people who believed in the oral tradition, by paper which did the stone-tablet makers out of job. There is science out there and advancements in DRM would ensure that books are not stolen. You can already buy ebooks which can not be transfered to other people's machines.

As far as the analogy with music is concerned, the MP3 revolution is hurting the distributors and other leeches who used to make millions out of the artist's effort. On the other hand it has produced a burgeoning 'independent' scene where you have to log onto an unsigned artist's website and appreciate his music. The true connoisseurs of contemporary music are enjoying, discussing and encouraging this music. If digital music was so bad, iTunes would not be the biggest music store on the planet, audible.com would not have grown into a huge company like it has done (now there is a talk of their merger with Amazon). If digital books were bad for dead-tree books, Amazon, the biggest booksellers ever, would not invest in 'Kindle' and sell digital books. I am working on a book and I am happy in the knowledge that I will not have to drag it from publisher to publisher like the writers used to do, I will digitize it and set it free on the internet before I sell the rights to someone for a pittance. Change is disturbing for the cowardly conservative, but it opens new vistas for those who dare to look at it in the eye and search for new possibilities instead of running away from it.

I have not even mentioned the facility of downloading newspapers. Think of the environment and the rain forests. Think of a world where we don't waste paper thoughtlessly, paperless world (one can dream) and forests restored to their former glory. I don't buy newspapers, read online. Ereaders enable you to subscribe to newspapers for a paperless delivery. I can see these things revolutionize the way we read books and am very enthusiastic about it. Does it mean I don't buy paper books, God knows I do, (ask my wife!) a huge chunk of our household earnings is spent on Amazon every month. We have two libraries in our house, one for children and another one for me. Books take too much space and when you move houses, they become really cumbersome. Whether we like it or not, digital books are here to stay. We will see more of them. They hold the wonderful promise of easy access to mankind's cultural heritage and instead of giving our money to publishers, we should be thinking in terms of supporting non-profit organizations like Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page) feedbooks.com (http://www.feedbooks.com/) and the Creative Commons (http://creativecommons.org/). Support the volutary work done by these excellent people instead thoughtlessly supporting the fat-cat publishers who make money out of our own common heritage and harm the environment while doing so.

[annakarina]

I am sure same attitude was prompted by the invention of writing by the people who believed in the oral tradition, by paper which did the stone-tablet makers out of job. There is science out there and advancements in DRM would ensure that books are not stolen. You can already buy ebooks which can not be transfered to other people's machines.

That is a bad analogy; I'm complaining not about this thing as an innovation in language or advancement in communication (though I do loathe the college-student "lol i cant w8 2 c u :-p" dialect I do have to admit. Does that make me a "cowardly conservative" too?). As for ebooks being copy-protected, don't you think that a good hacker is going to take around a week to work that one out?!
I just sigh and think, another gadget, another acquired need, another piece of our quality of life and independance chipped away in the name of "progress" and "practicality". Yes, I can see how "practical" it is. Talking on MSN is more "practical" than meeting people for coffee. Getting said coffee from Starbucks and drinking it on the subway on the way to work is more "practical" that sitting down and relaxing with a newspaper. GPS devices in cars are more "practical" than, god forbid, looking at a map and having to use your brain. I use to wait on tables and we had electronic notepads that would send the orders directly to the bar and kitchen, so much more "practical" that a pad and pen, which anyway wouldn't have made all those exciting beepy noises. So much more "practical", that is to say, until the system crashed at ten pm on a saturday night and we were all left like gibbering idiots. Choas ensued, as you can imagine.

Dependance on computerised systems is never a good thing, as anyone who's ever tried to get a book out of the library when the network has just crashed will be able to tell you. "Can't you just put my name down on a piece of paper and enter it later?!!" "No sorry, we can't check anything out without the computer". Argh!
Your enviromental argument makes me laugh. People are too fat and their excessive car use is contributing to climate change. Does anyone suggest giving up the car and walking to work? No! Buy a hybrid! And pay $150 a month for a gym subscription you'll never use! Consumer culture played a pretty big role in getting us into this s**t in the first place and the solution is... buy more! God forbid we should commit to buying second-hand and making a step towards more sharing and lending, when we can just buy an electronic device with a massive carbon footprint.
I can just hear the industry fat cats cackling and rubbing their hands together.

But then, ignore me, as I said I am a tech-retard and what's more I come from France where we still have this weird "quality of life" concept. Maybe someday you'll see people on the métro in Marseille with their Starbucks paper cups, their ebooks and their ipods jammed in, but I hope to God it won't be in my time.

[Erichtho]

Thanks annakarina, you put into words what I thought.
I can imagine reading news/ newspaper articles, even shorter scientific texts on such a thing, but literature? Never! I like my books to have a smell, a cut (and please not a rough one), a nice cover and good paper quality, that rustles a bit when turning a page and slightly yellows over the years, even though that might make me cowardly conservative.

[bluevictim]

These readers do look very attractive, and they seem really nice, especially for bringing reading material while traveling. Two big drawbacks (compared to dead-tree books), besides the price, that I see are the lack of quality in the typesetting and the lack of robustness to physical abuse.

I think this picture is a good illustration of what I mean about the lack of quality in the typesetting:

There are no margins, and the font is pretty ugly. In my opinion, these small nuances have a significant effect on readability. From the samples I've seen so far, the quality varies quite a lot, especially when the font size can be changed. This isn't a big issue, and as these books become more popular (thanks to early adopters like Kafka's Crow ), hopefully the typesetting will become more professional.

The bigger concern to me is how well such a device can stand up to physical abuse -- things like being tossed around, getting stepped on or sat on, getting dropped, etc. The screen also looks like it is susceptible to being smudged if you touch it, and getting scratched.

As they are now, I think they are perfect for traveling. If you're going somewhere for a few weeks or a few months, you can still bring plenty of reading material without hauling around stacks of books. They also seem well suited for reference material like dictionaries and grammars. For this kind of material, the ability to search and cross reference would give these devices a big advantage over dead-tree books.

It will be interesting to see how popular these things will become. I think that the marketing materials are making too big a deal out of the fact that the display doesn't require a back-light; that only makes a small fraction of the difference between reading dead-tree books and electronic gadgets.

As for the issue with copying, I don't think there is anything morally wrong with sharing books and music. I realize that it's illegal in many cases, and I understand that the author of the book would benefit more if everyone bought their own shrink wrapped copy, but neither of these considerations necessarily make anything immoral. As for the illegality, I think the whole idea of copyright is silly and the laws don't make any sense. I started a thread about it, but it didn't generate many responses. As for benefiting the author, it doesn't seem like a good basis for ethics. After all, by buying the author's book rather than a bag of candy, I'm also decreasing benefit to the candy store owner. In fact, I'd benefit the author even more by copying the book from my friend for free and then mailing the author half the price I would've had to pay at the bookstore. I do sympathize with authors because the whole idea of copyright has given publishers and distributors a tremendous amount of power and it has been very hard for authors to succeed without participating in the market on the terms of the publishers and distributors (although the internet has the potential to really change that situation, if only the authors would wake up), but I don't think that warrants making criminals of people for sharing information.

[Kafka's Crow]

Just updated my iLiad with the latest firmware which added to the choice of fonts for Mobopocket documents. Adobe Acrobat is a closed format so you can't do anything to it but it gives nice margins to scribble in. The font size can be changed. The picture shows one of hundreds of pages in Proust where a paragraph goes on for many pages and in reality there is absolutely no difference between the dead-tree book and ebooks in respect of formatting (depending on where you buy/source your ebook from). iLiad in particular, encourages innovation as it is a Linux based device which means there are not many restrictions of what software you can use on it etc. There is a huge community of users and developers (www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=99) engaged in this exact same activity. This is the future, people coming together to work for the future good of the whole human race. Open source development will eventually kill off the fat-cats like Microsoft. I don't have the time to try out Linux but I do use Firefox, Open Office and Wikipedia which are better than the Internet Explorer and even the MS Office and many commercial encyclopedias . This is a proof of how collective human intelligence working for no other motive but the improvement of the collective human lot will produce wonders. Project Gutenberg entirely depends on volunteers to edit and proof-read their gigantic library, LibriVox is a digital library of free public domain audiobooks, read by volunteers. All these exciting things happening around us due to technology. Ask any Linux developer, what do they get for their hard work? Nothing but still they are soldiering on and the sheer force of collective human endeavors have already dwarfed the achievements of giant co-operations within half a decade. Open-source development is the future and making their machine Linux-based and open for further development, iRex have taken a very useful step towards joining the revolution.

About copyrights. The situation is continuously changing, specially in creative arts. More and more artists are using their material to merely enhance their personal brand in order to divert the flow of money from other sources. They would rather make money by being popular, by selling merchandise and performance tickets than selling CDs. This hurts the middle-man, the leech, the fat-cat or the so-called culture industry. They will have to go, simple as that. Now the creative artist is face to face with his audience. Radiohead have understood this fact. Recently they gave away free music from their website or it was 'pay what you think it's worth' and you could download the music, listen to it and do the above. If you think it is worth nothing, pay nothing. This is a good development. With Creative Commons license you can have 'Limited Rights reserved' which still leaves you with the option to keep hold of the subsequent income, income from the subsequent editions, from sequels, from the movie rights, from merchandise etc. The possibilities are infinite but in this game, one has to be excellent. Being merely good is not enough, be excellent and you don't have to beg a publisher etc, go look for your readers instead, go direct. If you are excellent, they will reward you in different ways than the mere contract money you would get from the fat-cat publisher otherwise. A friend of mine is a painter. He was advised by the 'agents' to sell his paintings through them but they would charge him 40% of the sale price! What a theft, what a blooming theft! I advised him to design a website and get his stuff online. He was recently short-listed for the 'Showdown' event at Saatchi online galleries and received 70% approval from thousands of viewers. This is a big encouragement and would keep him going for the time being. Technology is facilitating change in diverse manners. I miss the past, I am nostalgic about the 17th and 18th century London (hell I wouldn't even mind someone like Dr Johnson taking the mickey out of me) but time never stops, nor does it move backwards. I love classics, I read classics, I love their messages, their premises and their 'universal' truths but I live in my time and look to the future with hope.