I’ve Seen Very Few Episodes of The Twilight Zone

I was searching for an image of a broken Kindle to add to this post when I found this comic, which lead me to read about this The Twilight Zone episode, which lead me to wish I had seen more of the show. Now if only Netflix could stream The Twilight Zone episodes instead of forcing me to devote an entire out-at-a-time DVD slot.

Falling Off the E-Book Wagon

Last week Sony announced that its new PRS-600 e-book reader would be for sale at the end of the month. I initially put my reader (a PRS-505) up for sale on eBay planning to buy the new PRS-600 when it becomes available in a few weeks. But now that I’ve had some time to think about it, I’m not sure I’ll buy a replacement any time soon.

I still like the idea of e-books and e-ink and e-readers, but the publishers, as I’ve complained repeatedly before, need to make some big changes if e-books are going to take off. O’Reilly gets it right: no DRM, multiple formats, and nearly free e-books ($3 or so) when you buy a paper book. But most publishers have to actually RELEASE BOOKS IN E-BOOK FORMAT before these issues can be addressed. Many publishers release e-books months after a book is released, and even then they cost more than the retail hardcover price and don’t come down when a paperback is released. Others simply aren’t even looking at releasing e-books.

And if we MUST have DRM (as certainly many publishers would and will insist on) then lets get some actual good out of it. If I own an e-book, I should be able to transfer it to someone over the Internet, or wirelessly in the same room, either as a sale (where I get to set the price, including free as a gift) or a loan (where I can set the duration before it expires and I regain the ability to read it again or leave that up to the borrower). The fact that DRM’d e-books can’t be re-sold, given away, or loaned is ridiculous.

These publishing problems discouraged me from actually buying any books while I had my e-reader.  Instead, I pirated books (lawyers and other official-type people take note, by “pirate” I mean I dress up in swashbuckling garb while I read free public-domain titles). I didn’t feel too guilty about this. It’s barely different from checking out a book at the library (except that I could keep the e-book files forever and even have access to thousands of titles that our local libraries don’t carry).  There were some e-books I read that I would have possibly purchased, but they weren’t available in e-book format.

On top of these problems that the publishers are responsible for, I kind of realized how much I enjoy paper books. I still have complaints about hardcovers and mass-marker paperbacks, but I can really appreciate the form factor of a trade paperback.  And covers and the other things that come as part of the paper book package can be nice. I went to the library two weeks ago to pick up a book I had requested they order, and it was sure fun having a physical object (with beautiful cover art) to hold in my hand as I skipped down the sidewalk downtown like Mary Tyler Moore, tossing my hat in to the air.  (But it’s also nice not having to even go down to the library, just plucking the book I want from the ether of the Internet.)

I’m not done with e-books, even though I’m going to stop participating for a while.  I still plan to be watching the world of e-books closely, applauding improvements in hardware and software and hoping that publishers will start pulling their heads out of the sand.  Aww, who am I kidding, I’ll probably even have a new e-reader full of swashbuckling tales before the year’s over.  But I’m still shaking my fist in the air and furrowing my brow every time I hear or see more about how absolutely stupid book publishers are being.  Get it together ya knuckleheads.

The Santa Lie

A local journalist wrote a piece today saying he and his wife disagree about how their daughter should someday learn that Santa Claus isn’t real. He wants her to come to the conclusion on her own time, while his wife doesn’t see a problem with continuing to read a book that will soon lay it all out.

He closes the article, tongue placed slightly in cheek, saying:

So basically, all I really want is a way to be honest, protect my daughter’s sense of Christmas wonder, instill in her the values of faith, kindness and generosity, achieve peace on earth and stay married. Is that so much to ask?

I say he failed his goal of being “honest” with his children when he first introduced or perpetuated the idea that Santa is real. I’ve said this of lying about Santa to people before, and the response is almost always the same. “It’s not LYING! Santa is tradition”, “Believing in Santa and then learning that he’s not real is part of growing up”, “Wow, you’re sure a GRINCH!”

But seriously, just because it’s tradition to lie to our kids doesn’t make it right. Can Santa be fun? Absolutely. But you can still be HONEST with your kids (what a novel idea) and pretend together as a family. “Oh, we’d better put cookies out for Santa. Funny that his favorite kind is the same as Daddy’s.”

Thankfully, my wife and I agree on this. I’ll quote her IM conversation with me (which was a bit stilted and short due to my younger daughter repeatedly stealing the keyboard from her), emphasis mine:

I don’t like the idea of tricking them. But, I do like playing along, in fun… same with Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, etc. I like going through the motions, the pageantry, the fiction; I want to encour0age pretending, and enjoying worlds of make-believe, and knowing what’s true.

So don’t even THINK about saying we’re no fun or that we’re ruining out children’s childhood. We have other ways of doing that!

They Will Be eBibliophibians

I wrote a long post about how I finally saw how it would be worth keeping paper books around the house so when my kids are older they can pick them up at their leisure*. But before I posted it, I realized that I don’t need to sacrifice my dream of a mostly digital library in this goal. By the time my oldest child is ready to read non-picture books on her own, basic eBook readers should be quite affordable. (And, since not everyone knows how to remove DRM from eBooks and I prefer not to enter grey areas of copyright law when I can help it, I also look forward to the hopefully near day when eBooks drop DRM altogether like MP3’s have.)

Turning on their own (affordable and replaceable) Kindle 4 (or Target brand generic eReader), my kids will be able to browse our digital family library like they would browse a wall of bookshelves, even when they’re off at college or otherwise moved out of the house. And I won’t have to worry about a growing collection taking up space in my small, non-permanent** home.

Yes, there’s always the library as well (and my kids aren’t strangers to it even in their current sub-3-year-old stages). But the library often doesn’t have the book one might be looking for.  When I choose to buy an eBook as opposed to ordering it from Amazon, it’s nice to know that in addition to taking up no space and therefore being ultra-portable, soon it should be easy to loan or give that eBook to someone else.

This final paragraph was left over from my first, very different, draft of this post. I’m not sure how to work in in here, but I really like it, so I’ll just tack it on without further ado.  Both of my daughters (ages 3 and 1) LOVE books. They love being read to, and love sitting next to a stack of books and thumbing through the pages of each, making op their own stories (or babblings in the case of the 1-year-old). And I hope they never stop.

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*Not that we don’t have lots of physical books right now. We do have five bookshelves, two of which are heavily used and three that are slowly losing trinket space as our number of household books increases. My wife’s collection of books consumes one bookshelf and spills out across part of another, and I cram a few mass-market paperbacks and some trades I’ve been meaning to get rid of to the sides of a shelf or two (my college textbooks stuffed away, molding in a box in the basement), while the rest of our bookHORDE contains books for the kids (which is good, since toddlers and preschoolers should have physical pages to turn and bright covers to look at).

**We are mortals and build houses that don’t last many generations. If I were a lord that lived in a castle, or a vampire, I would enjoy building a vast library wing to pass on to my descendants and protect important works of literature from natural disasters and destructive, weaker minds. Right now, a room full of books would be a pain to move and a burden for my children to deal with when I die.

Printing Books On Demand

It’s really annoying to go to the book store and discover that they don’t carry the book you wanted to buy.  Some retailers like B&N let you check their inventory on-line (though it’s not always accurate) but that just saves you a wasted a trip and still forces you to wait for an on-line retailer to ship you what you wanted (meaning you might have to pay extra for shipping charges). eBooks have alleviated this annoyance for me, but not when a book isn’t available in eBook form or it’s contents (such as a picture book or coffee table book) don’t translate well to the small-screen, black & white world of 1st gen eBook devices.

So I’ve been very interested in The Espresso Book Machine since I heard about it some time ago. This “print on demand” machine is capable of taking a PDF and printing and binding a book (“library quality paperbacks… identical to factory made books”) within a matter of minutes. I had to be expensive, so it’s not something just anybody would pick up for personal use.  But purchased as part of a business, think of the possibilities…

• Small bookstores could compete with the big chains and even e-tailers like Amazon
• Books would never go out of print (and out of print books would be back)
• Large print & foreign language would finally be as easy to get as their mainstream versions
• Independent authors can walk in and print affordable copies of their work

The roadblock here, as with everything else in the world of books, is the publishers. On Demand Books, the company licensing the hardware, is already working with LSI (a subsidiary of the world’s largest wholesale distributor of books) to bring copyrighted works to the device’s catalog, but I have yet to find any information on-line about was exactly is currently available. The Boston Globe does say that “85,000 book titles from major publishers like Simon & Schuster and McGraw-Hill [are currently] available to Espresso machines”, but also quotes On Demand Book’s chief executive as saying “it’s taken us longer than we expected to get publishers to share their catalog”.

I would say there should be no question about publishers wanting to make their content available via The Espresso Book Machine, but with the way so many of them are dragging their feet with eBooks, I now consider common sense in the publishing world a rarity.

I Really Like My eBook Reader, But…

I really like my Sony eBook reader, but I won’t deny that I sometimes find myself thinking “I’d like to have this book sitting on a shelf” or “this would be a fun book to thumb through randomly” or most commonly “I wish I could set this thing on the floor and not worry about the kids stepping on it or throwing it across the room”.

I have yet to buy an eBook since I received my reader. I’ve stuck to free eBooks such as public domain works (70+ years since the author died) and relatively new books released free in electronic form by publishers (also, THIS HANDSOME FRIEND OF MINE utilizes the questionable practice of downloading pirated eBooks off the Internet because “it’s barely different than checking out a physical book from the library”).

The problem with buying eBooks is that they’re rarely/barely cheaper than a paperback (they’re usually cheaper than a hardcover if you’re buying from the Kindle Store or Sony eBook Store). Why should I pay more for a digital copy that costs nothing to make and barely pennies to send? This is not a problem with the technology, this is 100% a problem with the publishers. I think eBooks should cost around $5.  That’s enough of a savings for more people to say “Ok, I’m giving up some of the convenience/aesthetic of a paper book, but the convenience of an eBook coupled with this great price makes it totally worth it”.

It addition to simply lowering eBook prices (which is undeniably a no-brainer), I really think we need to see bundle prices for buying a paper book and its eBook version together.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:

Publishers should include a DRM-free eBook version with every paper book they sell.

They won’t do this for some time I’m sure. Why do that when your most loyal, dedicated fans might pay you twice to have the book in two formats?  I think it would be smart for publishers, as it would increase the sale of paper books, which they seem to prefer selling over eBooks despite the increased profit margins and easier (ie. nonexistent) distribution models for them.

I do expect the publishers will get in line eventually and start making the improvements we’re asking for (lower prices, no DRM, bundle discounts for getting paper book and eBook together).  I’m just impatient.

My Sony PRS-505 eBook Reader Review

(Photo used with permission of Flickr user danielhermes.)

I’ve had my Sony PRS-505 Reader Digital Book for a week now, and feel like I’m qualified to share some thoughts on it.

The Brown Dandy

Last night Conan O’Brien hosted his first episode of The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien. When I was teenager, my friends and I regularly watched Late Night With Conan O’Brien. Some of his sketches and jokes became long-term parts of our vernacular.

My first car, The Brown Dandy, got its name from a a short set of clips that I found to be particularly funny. I can’t find a video of it anywhere on-line, but the Krunk.org Conan-OBrien Archive has video captures, descriptions, and quotes for the episode :

I COULD Be LESS Of A Bibliophile

It’s no secret I’m a big fan of ebooks, digital publishing, and electronic paper (E Ink) technology. My friend Nathan makes it no secret that he’s not a fan of these things (at least not as a direct alternative to real, paper books). It took me a little while, but I’ve come to understand and respect his appreciation for the heft of the book, the feel of the paper, and the turn of the page (not the smell though; sorry Nathan).  But I still think that for me at least, the benefits (and overall gadgety coolness) of ereaders outweigh for whatever experience enhancers come along with physical books (although I still see how ereader price can be a valid roadblock,and this isn’t to mention DRM which deserves and angry post all of its own).

And now I’ve actually bought an electronic paper device (a Sony PRS-505 to be exact) and I’m excited about continuing my love for science fiction as well as really starting to dig in to the classics. It took me a long time to decide what device was right for me (as well as to find a deal that would allow me to lower the high purchase prices).  I did most of my researching, pining, and venting at a wonderful community site called MobileRead.

And it was at MobileReads that I encountered a few people with a much higher tolerance for reading from a computer screen for hours than I have.  I once read an entire novel on my cell phone, and I’ve been known to spend a little down time at work catching up on an ebook already in progress on my computer monitor. But I’ve always wished I could be reading from a book or epaper device at these times.  There are people out there who haven’t picked up a paper book in years AND think the idea of epaper is ridiculous. They read books on their laptops or their iPhones or their netbooks for hours at a time, and never desire something a little less buzzing, visually nosy, or easier on the eyes.  I don’t mean to mock them here, for as long as they’re happy with the medium and enjoying the story, they’re doing something better than the legions of people in today’s world who simply have no desire to read. But the next time I feel a little like I’ve abandoned the purity of literature by shunning the simple pleasure of turning some pages, I’ll remember these digital warriors who are even less picky about how their words are delivered to their eyes than I am.

Only 53% of Publishers Have Ebook Plans

I was shocked to read that of 158 pulbishers at the London Book Fair, only 84 of them had any plans for publishing their content as ebooks. It would be nice to see a list of the publishers surveyed and see how many of these were big publishers or obscure ones.  Not good news at all.