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=UdlPHxPNw-Y&feature=related
http://www.atiz.com/?gclid=CJWn3uOZqJECFQ8vlAodH3vyWg


http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i72/Raz1/IMG_0399.jpg
...
http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~stinkyox/pix/iliad5.jpg
...
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i72/Raz1/IMG_0401.jpg

[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:
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i72/Raz1/IMG_0399.jpg
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.

[Rogers_68]

I think they're a great idea but, even despite my obsession with recycling and not wasting materials, I love the way a paper book looks and feels. I also like having the collection of what I've read sitting on the shelf for future use by me or others. (I also prefer vinyl records over mp3s, just to give some back ground).

If I knew someone who had an electronic read that I could borrow, though, I'd give it try.

[Kafka's Crow]

I think they're a great idea but, even despite my obsession with recycling and not wasting materials, I love the way a paper book looks and feels. I also like having the collection of what I've read sitting on the shelf for future use by me or others. (I also prefer vinyl records over mp3s, just to give some back ground).

If I knew someone who had an electronic read that I could borrow, though, I'd give it try.

I have a large number of books and ebook availability is still very limited. The market is steadily growing but not as fast as the market for MP3s has done. This reminds me, my 1st generation iPod passed away yesterday after doing incredibly good service for 7 years. I need a new MP3 player with bookmarking facility as I listen to audiobooks as much as I read. I believe in reading by all means possible, the life is too short to be picky. As Frost would say, "The aim was song", reading and growth of mind by all means possible. Ignorance and thoughtlessness are attacking us from all directions, we will have to cling to the principles of critical and conscious living using all means available to us.

[alexM]

when I read ebooks I don't use electronic readers. I upload books and read its with any devices which have internet-connection.

[Kafka's Crow]

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/iLiad-review.ars

[mortalterror]

Kafka mentioned Project Gutenberg, which I love. It's been around for years now, and it's so useful, but the website looks awful. I was musing the other day that if they could find a way to monetize it somehow, the founders could make the business as big as google, yahoo, youtube, or wikipedia. The texts themselves are already in the public domain and it would be wrong to sell them for a profit, but couldn't they advertise on the site or sell merchandise of some sort? Also, their search engine for books is pretty lousy too. That site has great ideas, but it needs an overhaul and new management.

Another site Kafka mentioned is LibriVox. I just discovered LibriVox yesterday, and although I was intially elated, the quality of the recordings soon began to grate on my nerves. It's not that I'm against audio books. I've heard some very good ones, and I was hoping to play these recordings while I surfed online, instead of the usual background music. The problem with these recordings is that they were not made by professionals, and it shows. I sampled some history texts and the readers made various errors of breath control, pronunciation, or basic rhythm. A few of the voices I just found unpleasant; so as tempting as it may be to indulge in free audio books, I'm going to have to recommend everyone stay away from that site. At least for the time being.

As for Radiohead uploading their songs for free, that's not surprising. Most musicians make their money from performing, while the proceeds of their recordings go mostly to their label. Also, Radiohead has already made enough money for ten bands, and they can afford to do things like that at this stage of their career. I think that such a move would be unwise for a struggling garage band just starting out in the world. Radiohead did not get famous by giving away their work for free. They had a group of promoters marketing their music to a receptive audience through an established system. Writers cannot perform their books in the same way, and so do not have this outlet. For the most part, they are stuck with whatever publishers decide to give them, and that is a shame. I'm not crazy about the current copyright laws either, Kafka, but I don't believe that the average author has the business sense to properly market his own books. What you are talking about is viral, grass roots marketing, but have you thought about how rare that kind of technique actually achieves the same level of commercial success as it's competitors? Not very often.

Returning to the original topic, I'm curious to know if those electro book thingies can hold mp3s and play music while you read? If I made an expensive purchase like that, I'd want the device to have multi-functionality. I like the idea, but then again, I didn't have to re-buy my entire personal library the day my hard drive crashed either. Also, I wouldn't worry too much about the publishing industry's impact on the rain forest. A lot of countries have laws about replanting wherever they cut, and in many cases that's actually pretty good for the ecosystem as it prevents fires and other problems. Though admittedly, I don't know as much about the ecosystem and global warming as I would like, and I'm sure that there are cases of abuse. However, I think it's wrong to be completely against logging.

[believin]

I have a large number of books and ebook availability is still very limited. The market is steadily growing but not as fast as the market for MP3s has done. This reminds me, my 1st generation iPod passed away yesterday after doing incredibly good service for 7 years. I need a new MP3 player with bookmarking facility as I listen to audiobooks as much as I read. I believe in reading by all means possible, the life is too short to be picky. As Frost would say, "The aim was song", reading and growth of mind by all means possible. Ignorance and thoughtlessness are attacking us from all directions, we will have to cling to the principles of critical and conscious living using all means available to us.

I definitely agree with this. To me, ebooks just give us one more avenue — another option, rather than the future one-and-only option for us. I think it is a great thing to have available, even if it doesn't completely replace paper books.

I have been pondering getting an ereader, but can't decide which one. I don't live in the US, so Amazon's Kindle has some serious drawbacks. I haven't decided which one, then, is going to suit me best. I am glad to have the enthusiastic review here to help me think more about my decision.

[stlukesguild]

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.

This is the future, people coming together to work for the future good of the whole human race.

Better living through technology, eh? Wasn't that the idea back before we went through two world wars? Photography and film (and now CGI) were going to replace all those antiquated slow art forms and any artist who didn't realize this was simply going to be left behind... and yet... for some reason people still go to the theater and the opera and the symphony and still buy those antiquated painting that don't move, dance or do the hip hop. Personally, I appreciate the possibilities technology opens up for the arts. CDs, MP3s, photography, DVDs, PCs, the Internet... I use them all. On the other hand, I always find myself less than convinced by the heightened expectations and naive claims of a major paradigm shift that accompanies every new technological gadget. I certainly see practicality of the electronic readers... and can even imagine that such will eventually lead to a greater access to works that lack an audience large enough to justify a printed edition (especially all those inane academic publications;))... and I can certainly imagine its value to large lending and research libraries. On the other hand... I question the notion that any new technology is going to open us up to a great new age of collectivism, sharing and collaboration...

When the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars

This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius
The age of Aquarius
Aquarius!
Aquarius!
:D

The shift from one technology or delivery system to another is not going to eliminate the middle-man. He'll still get his money... it will simply take a new form. I also doubt that the book is going to be so easily replaced by what is essentially a "pseudo-book"... a technological delivery system that simply attempts to mimic the book. The reality is that just as some people enjoy the experience of live theater or the opera and the DVD slapped in the home entertainment system will not replace this, some people also love the experience of the book... the entire sensual, sensory experience: the feel and smell and look of the paper, the actual appearance of the text, graphics, and imagery printed upon the page... but then I guess that makes all those people "cowardly conservatives".:(

[Kafka's Crow]

^^^^ reminds me of the parchment maker and even the stone-tablet makers of yore. They thought nothing could replace their thousands of years old wares, along came the papyrus makers, along came Gutenberg and Caxton etc. Where are the parchments and stone-tablets now? On a different note: Ross Perot sold his copy of the Magna Carta recently. Found this old but interesting article about that document here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=484171&in_page_id=1770

[Kafka's Crow]

The stone tablet makers still have work. Cemetery monuments.

:lol: :lol: :lol: yes commemorating the death of their clients and their own trade! What do the parchment makers do now-a-days? Make gloves for the undertakers??? Found an excellent article on ebooks in the Guardian online:

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/03/book_pirates_ahoy.html

[stlukesguild]

Actually... papyrus far pre-dates parchment. Parchment and vellum were initially developed as a result of a temporary break in the supply of papyrus. Parchment eventually won out over papyrus as a result of its greater flexibility (allowing for binding in the codex form as opposed to the scroll) and its greater life-span. Paper is first developed in China around the 2nd century AD and spreads through the Middle-East to Europe by the 12th century. The first printed book is actually the so-called Diamond Sutra which is dated AD 868. The continual improvements in paper-making combined with Gutenberg's innovation of the movable type led to the explosion of book-making... it did not, however, eliminate the hand-made, illuminated manuscript or the one-of-a-kind or limited edition hand-made books. Many of the most exquisite examples of such books were made well after Gutenberg. It is almost fair to say that the hand-made book enjoys a larger audience today than ever considering the explosion in demand for "artist's books", "book arts", and Livres Artistes. One art form does not "replace" another. It merely adds to the possibilities. The possibilities of the electronic "book" are fabulous... certainly they offer a potential for reaching a far larger audience than even the printed book... but is the size of the audience the prime goal of the artist? The possibilities of the E-Books are endless... but they do not replace the possibilities of the printed or spell the end of the hand-made book.

[stlukesguild]

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!

How is it theft? Is it theft if the grocery store charges 2 or 3 tines what the farmer made on each egg? We don't think so because we know that the cost includes transportation costs, storage costs, the costs of operating the grocery store, etc... The same is true of art. The costs of running an art gallery are phenomenal. I can tell you this as an artist who has also been a gallery owner/curator. The rent, utilities, advertising, food and booze for the opening night, lights, etc... none of these are free. I charged 40% (the standard) on each sale... but there was no guarantee that I would sell anything. The artist doesn't pay a single dime if nothing sells, but the gallery owner still pays for his or her expenses... for the labor in hanging the works, the insurance, the cost of paying someone to sit in the gallery 8 hours a day, etc... Add to this the fact that a good gallery develops a reputation and a clientèle after a period of time that they bring to every artist they show. A new artist might bring a small group of followers (most of who will never buy) to the gallery, but the gallery offers the artist far greater exposure to known collectors.

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.

That is all very nice... and I agree that a website is a necessity today for any artist... but is largely does not replace the physical gallery. 70% approval by the public means nothing for sales. What counts is that one person who does believe enough in the work to shell out the money... and in most instances they don't do this without seeing the work in person.

[Kafka's Crow]

I have almost given up on ebooks. There is no more room for paper books left in this house. My 12 year old son reads ebooks on Pocket Pc. I am tempted by iPad but I still keep on bying paper books although all the shelves are full and my main 'reading' consists of listening to Audio books while walking the dog and commuting to and from work (almost 4 hours a day). Still I want a new ereader, an iRex DR1000:

https://www.irexshop.com/product_info.php?cPath=22_35&products_id=69

as I am planning a return to visual reading after summer holidays when my baby starts full time school and I will have some peace of mind to concentrate on reading.