That Ebook Reader
By Dave Adamson in Reader
Posted in Uncategorized on September 14, 2008 at 9:16 am
Okay, okay, I’ve said before that I wasn’t impressed with the idea of an ebook reader and, more over, the idea that they’ll ever replaced the printed book.
My reasoning, you see, is plentiful. Basically, I dislike the idea of the DRM’d format - surely, one of the pleasures of a book is being able to share it. Secondly, it’s a bit of a cost if it gets stolen - a couple of quid versus a couple of hundred quid. Thirdly, it’s not paper!
Having said that, I’ve got to say that one area that they could really be a success in is education. Think about it: all the books for a uni course in one easily accessible place! Universities could actually loan them to students, students could buy their books and not end up having to lug around a whole university shelf. It’d be even better if they could annotate the ebook, or copy passages out (complete with a Harvard-style reference) into another document.
In fact, thinking about it, libraries could loan them out and load the books straight onto the reader. Of course, there’d have to be a rethinking of DRM, but let’s face it, that’ll come along at some point. Imagine being able to nip to the library and find that whatever book you want isn’t out on load already! Imagine the saving in shelf space. Okay, this would be alongside print versions and it’ll be niche, but still you’re looking at a similar thing with libraries loaning audiobooks, DVDs and whatever else they place on loan these days.
What I’m saying really is that I see potential in them. Maybe not as a direct replacement for every book ever printed, but definitely in certain areas, especially the aforementioned university. I’m just waiting for someone to say “We got the idea from IT Pro, who should I make the cheque payable to?”
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