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There was an interesting piece in The Economist a couple weeks back about digitized books. As you probably know, Google has been scanning books and putting them on this corner of their site. But what you probably didn’t know is that they’re doing this at a rate of something approaching 3000 books a day or 10 million a year. Apparently there are approximately 65 million books in the universe right now, which means the whole job might be done before the icebergs melt completely and Google’s server slides into the Pacific.
From the piece:
As books go digital, new questions, both philosophical and commercial, arise. How, physically, will people read books in future? Will technology “unbind” books, as it has unbundled other media, such as music albums? Will reading habits change as a result? What happens when books are interlinked? And what is a book anyway?
Change is least likely in the physical medium of books. Electronic books do exist; the best-known is the Sony Reader, a book-sized gadget made by the eponymous consumer-electronics company. Sony currently makes 12,000 books available online for download, but “our mission is not to replace the print book,” says Ron Hawkins, the Sony Reader’s marketing boss.
There is an obvious analogy between what Apple’s iPods have done to CD players and what electronic books may do to the printed page, but the shift is unlikely to be quite so comprehensive. The simplest difference is that transferring one’s old music CDs onto iPods is easy, whereas transferring one’s old books onto an e-book is impossible.
The Economist then asks a question I thought I’d pose to you all, just to get a sense of what the smarter population thinks on the subject. As an author, I’m of course curious about my books’ respective futures, and therefore ask:
“So who is going to read the millions of pages that Google and its colleagues are so busy digitizing?”
Comments (13)
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I have an English prof who avoids making us pay hundreds of dollars for sourcepacks by making the readings for his class available in the library–as it turns out, even relatively obscure ones (mid-19th century nautical melodramas) are available on Google books, which saves me a trip to the library to photocopy ten pages. Also, searchable books are great if you’re trying to comment in a discussion or need a citation for an academic paper–you can even get some of the pages not available in book previews by searching the whole text for the page number.
posted by c on 4-16-2007 at 7:03 am
I agree with c–it’s fantastic to be able to find books online. i swear by project gutenberg.
at the same time, however, i refuse to ever give up my claim to the hard copy versions; i haunt used book sales and spend all of my money on used and out of print books. i love being able to hold words in my hand, especially when they’re words i know have been shared with others. the internet is too sterile, and it definitely doesn’t have that old book smell…
posted by kay on 4-16-2007 at 7:33 am
I have an ebook that I used to download books to so I could read them on the train. It held 20 or so full length books so I could bounce between them at any given time (I am usually reading 2 different books at a time). The format used for this gadget became obsolete so I no longer use it. BUT – I still love the good old hardcover that I can read and pass around to friends. My love affair with the written word began early and will never end. That being said, I also like the convenience of carrying around a many novels on one electronic reader. So, I guess I’m a book hol I’ll take stories any way I can get them.
posted by Jane on 4-16-2007 at 8:09 am
I agree that the searchable functionality that ebooks provide are great, as well as the content sharing. But, like the others, glue and paper books will always be dear to me. When I read for pleasure, it’s usually because I want to get away from the hustle-’n-bustle of my daily life, which means going low tech.
posted by Krys on 4-16-2007 at 9:24 am
Forme, the act of picking up an old, favorite (bound) book and settling into a comfortable chair with one of my cats is very soothing. It take the edge off my hectic days. I just can’t see an electronic “book” giving me the same relief.
posted by catherine Thomas on 4-16-2007 at 10:10 am
I love the concept and convience of ebooks. An ebook reader would fit much better in my purse. And all my wonderful bound books could stay safely at home!
posted by truovrld on 4-16-2007 at 11:11 am
Ok, probably stretching it a bit–but what happens if/when everything’s online, and paper becomes a thing of the past?
Or, how much easier is it to control the flow of information if it’s all electronic?
posted by jg on 4-16-2007 at 11:16 am
I’m reminded of an author saying that one can not write a poem on a computer…I guess the same goes for reading one as well.
posted by Jay on 4-16-2007 at 12:01 pm
Electronic books are great for academic content. Oftentimes classes do only use select chapters or portions of books and the easier and more accessible these are online the better. Academic texts are also often extremely expensive, which is difficult for the average college student to afford. So in that sense e-books are great. But I also agree that they will never replace, nor would I want them to replace, real tangible books. I stare at comp screens enough at work, and when relaxing want to hold a book in my hands. Electronic form is too sterile, and impersonal, no sense of history or character like a good used book.
posted by AD on 4-16-2007 at 12:36 pm
I admit, this would be a valuable resource for scanning rare books. However, I noticed that some books are only partially scanned. Like YouTube, I guess it depends on who uploaded it and limits of presentation.
posted by Kasee on 4-16-2007 at 1:53 pm
And is it really practical t carry that thing around? I take a book with me nearly everywhere I go. I know that most people won’t swipe your cheap paperbacks if you set them down, but what about this big piece of electronics? If you were, say, on a train or a bus and fell asleep, what’s to stop people from taking it?
posted by Pointy-Hatted Geek on 4-16-2007 at 5:35 pm
One wonderful aspect of storing books online is that the old-fashioned book burning will truly become a thing of the past. A book can’t be burned if it resides hidden on billions of hard drives around the world.
posted by Dave on 4-16-2007 at 8:41 pm
I recently attended a symposium on the “Death of the Book” hosted by some PSU librarian scientists, and they brought up a great point–while google and other corporations proceed to scan whole texts, there isn’t an electronic reading-device that the majority of readers (expecially the readers of novels) find enjoyable to use. Blame the LCD screen. So, what they find is that every reader has a personal limit to how many pages they will read on a screen before they print the document out into a more traditional format. It usually peaks around six to eight pages, but for me, it’s much lower. More interestingly, when a document, like a short story, report, or a term paper, is sent to be scrutinized, it’s immediately printed before read.
But this isn’t to say that the internet is a wonderful, baffling thing. JSTOR alone makes up for all the crapola on YouTube, idiotic comments included.
posted by Jess on 4-19-2007 at 9:23 pm