E-Book Information

(Emerging) Books


A novel re-definition through experimentation of the classical format of the book is emerging.

Consider the now defunct BookTailor. It used to sell its book customization software mainly to travel agents - but this technology is likely to conquer other niches (such as the legal and medical professions). It allows users to select bits and pieces from a library of e-books, combine them into a totally new tome and print and bind the latter on demand. The client can also choose to buy the end-product as an e-book. Consider what this simple business model does to entrenched and age old notions such as "original" and "copies", copyright, and book identifiers. What is the "original" in this case? Is it the final, user-customized book - or its sources? And if no customized book is identical to any other - what happens to the intuitive notion of "copies"? Should BookTailor-generated books considered to be unique exemplars of one-copy print runs? If so, should each one receive a unique identifier (for instance, a unique ISBN)? Does the user possess any rights in the final product, composed and selected by him? What about the copyrights of the original authors?

Or take BookCrossing.com. On the face of it, it presents no profound challenge to established publishing practices and to the modern concept of intellectual property. Members register their books, obtain a BCID (BookCrossing ID Number) and then give the book to someone, or simply leave it lying around for a total stranger to find. Henceforth, fate determines the chain of events. Eventual successive owners of the volume are supposed to report to BookCrossing (by e-mail) about the book's and their whereabouts, thereby generating moving plots and mapping the territory of literacy and bibliomania. This innocuous model subversively undermines the concept - legal and moral - of ownership. It also expropriates the book from the realm of passive, inert objects and transforms it into a catalyst of human interactions across time and space. In other words, it returns the book to its origins: a time capsule, a time machine and the embodiment of a historical narrative.

E-books, hitherto, have largely been nothing but an ephemeral rendition of their print predecessors. But e-books are another medium altogether. They can and will provide a different reading experience. Consider "hyperlinks within the e-book and without it - to web content, reference works, etc., embedded instant shopping and ordering links, divergent, user-interactive, decision driven plotlines, interaction with other e-books (using Bluetooth or another wireless standard), collaborative authoring, gaming and community activities, automatically or periodically updated content, ,multimedia capabilities, database, Favourites and History Maintenance (records of reading habits, shopping habits, interaction with other readers, plot related decisions and much more), automatic and embedded audio conversion and translation capabilities, full wireless piconetworking and scatternetworking capabilities and more".

About The Author

Sam Vaknin is the author of "Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited" and "After the Rain - How the West Lost the East". He is a columnist in "Central Europe Review", United Press International (UPI) and ebookweb.org and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory, Suite101 and searcheurope.com. Until recently, he served as the Economic Advisor to the Government of Macedonia.

His web site: http://samvak.tripod.com


MORE RESOURCES:

Times Online

Ebook readers: it’sa war story
Times Online, UK - 6 hours ago
Welcome to the world of ebooks. Last week, Sony and Waterstone’s, the UK’s largest chain of bookshops, launched the Sony Reader, a paperback-sized device ...
What's the story with ... e-books? The Herald
Books: Slow start in the shops for Caxton's latest competitor guardian.co.uk
Stuart Kelly: From Great Expectations comes Neverending Story Scotland on Sunday
Financial Times - Crosscut
all 9 news articles


E-books via the internet
Jakarta Post, Indonesia - Sep 4, 2008
Hereby, I would like to request President SBY rethink his new policy on electronic books via the internet for students of primary to senior high schools. ...


E-books don't furnish a room
Independent, UK - Sep 4, 2008
Estimates vary: some say that sales of e-books for the Kindle have doubled in a year, from six to 12 per cent of Amazon's total sales. ...


Do Ebooks, Legal or Not, Make You Buy Real Books?
Lifehacker Australia, Australia - Sep 5, 2008
Popular author Stephenie Meyer put her eagerly-anticipated vampire genre sequel Twilight Sun on indefinite hold after copies of her rough draft showed up on ...


e-books take weight of learning off the shoulders of students
Irish Times, Ireland - Sep 3, 2008
First year students Megan Toland and Theresa Andrews at Caritas College demonstrate the e-book. A GROUP of 18 secondary school pupils yesterday became the ...


guardian.co.uk

They still haven't cracked the ebook
guardian.co.uk, UK - Sep 4, 2008
After this morning's launch there are thousands of ebooks available from Waterstone's website, with prices running fairly level with print equivalents: ...
A library at your fingertips Times Online
Win The Sleek New Sony Reader Sky News
Sony’s Electronic Book Reader Gives A Glimpse Of Tomorrow's ... TopNews
The Press Association - Sky News
all 14 news articles


The Bookseller (subscription)

Waterstone's e-books open for business
The Bookseller (subscription), UK - Sep 4, 2008
Waterstone's e-book store opened for business today (4th September), with around 7000 titles available from its website as e-books, including titles from ...


BooksOnBoard Promotes Fall TV Line Up with Specials on TV and ...
WebWire (press release), GA - Sep 5, 2008
From Dead to Worse, the latest in the series, rode BooksOnBoard’s eBooks bestseller list for two months. “Many of these shows are based on eBooks that have ...


E-Books a ‘Green’ Way to Read
JMU The Breeze, VA - Sep 3, 2008
By Caroline Cournoyer ,The Breeze Taking the lives of four million trees each school year, the textbook industry has not only made a dent in college ...


Arizona Republic

Libraries offering free e-books for iPods, iPhones
Arizona Republic, AZ - Aug 29, 2008
by Edythe Jensen - Aug. 29, 2008 11:40 AM Chandler library-card holders will be able to download audio books onto their iPods, iPhones and iPod Touch! for ...

E-Books - Google News

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