Category Archives: Books

Bookclub woes

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The most interesting part of the Oprah bookclub to me at least was Stripha’s description of the author who was peeved to have his book included on the list. He felt that having his books re-printed with an O insignia took away from his ownership of the book and in a way reputed the sale to Oprah’s stardom. Additionally, for his cameo on the show he felt that his very much staged interview was creating a whole fictional story about his writing process which was to be shortened to 3 minutes. Striphas did a great job showing both side to the bookclub. I think that overall both writers and participants were happy with increased sales and sense of community, but there are of course going to be people on both end of the spectrum and Oprah can only hope for the happy medium.

Fake Harry Potter

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During class I couldn’t help but look up the fake Harry Potter book: “Harry Potter and the Leopard Walk- Up- To Dragon”. This book actually contains the text from “The Hobbit” with all of the characters switched to character names from Harry Potter. To my surprise I found an article titled “11 Amazing Fake ‘Harr Potter’ Books Written In China”. If you thought the one mentioned by Striphas was hilarious- I mean awful- wait until you see the other ten. Do you think that any of them could fall under the heading ‘fan fiction’ or are they all illegal?

Back to DRM

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The fight against piracy is far from over, and it’s far from stagnate. Internet pirates are normal people; they could be you or me, or a neighbor. But they are far from harmless. Far from stupid. And it seems as though “they” are no longer underestimating them. Whoever is responsible for anti-piracy laws and technology are constantly updating their methods. A new anti-piracy tactic is outlined in this Sexy DRM article I will be using for my portfolio. Much to my joy, there’s a Digital Rights Management technique that does not involve encryption. For e-books, what “they” want to do is to digitally watermark books purchased. When you buy an e-book, your name and other purchasing information will be printed (typed) into the e-book pdf. Should the e-book be illegally copied and distributed, we can identify the original owner. However, this does not guarantee we will be able to identify the culprit; after all, someone might have hacked the poor girl’s kindle and copied her e-book. Despite this drawback, I find myself in favor of the digital watermark for its user-friendly quality.

Ebooks everywhere

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It is weird how once you start to think about a topic you notice it everywhere. My dad got me a free subscription to wired magazine and there happened to be an article directly relating to the brown bag my group is holding tomorrow. Yay more free pizza!

Anyway, the article was called “The Plot Thickens”… “In a world where authors can make millions selling directly to fans, the publishing industry is desperately trying to write its next chapter”. It was almost ironic to me that I stumbled upon this in print format because most of my reading or “news reading” happens online. One of the most interesting lines in the article was that “the disappearance of the physical bookstore would endanger the entire book business- even Amazon.” This is true because customers don’t usually use online sources to discover books. The article also mentions “if you want to see a bookstore owner angry, mention Amazon’s Price check app, which allows customers to scan an item in a physical store and buy it for less on Amazon then and there”.

Today’s Class

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In today’s class, an interesting discussion occurred surrounding the role of local bookstores in an evolving economy, where ebooks and online shopping are becoming increasingly present. Many people were inclined to side with these local stores, and felt that the new developments were threatening an enjoyable tradition. This makes perfect sense, because the act of shopping in a bookstore is in of itself an experience. The act of sifting through shelves and flipping through pages before making a final purchase has become one of the major appealing aspects of visiting a bookstore. It is what makes shopping for books a more enjoyable experience than grocery shopping for example, because the shopping experience is an adventure rather than a mundane task. Despite the fact that Barnes and Noble may have killed some local competition, people should be thankful for this company, as it is the institution that is most likely to preserve the experience we have come to know and love.

The Slow Death of the American Author

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On Monday, an op-ed article in the New York Times sported this ominous title. Written by a self-acclaimed “best-selling author” Scott Turow, the article made a case that now, more than ever, authors are under attack… from everywhere. Search engines, libraries, and even scholars are on the list of threats to the American author, but none more vicious than publishing houses themselves. Their weapon of choice? E-books. The six major publishing houses insist on limiting e-book royalties to 25% of net receipts. While more renowned authors actually have some leeway with this, new and “midlist” writers have no bargaining power. Authors are finding it harder and harder to sell their books, much less publish them. The worst threat e-books (possibly) pose is stagnating the writers’ profession. Without new authors, a generation of writers will be gone.

Blogging Prompt – Ebooks and funny twitter accounts

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It seems that ebooks keep popping up in one way or another in this course. One question I’ve had, that many other people probably have as well, is whether or not this form of technology will ever end up fully overtaking physical books. It certainly seems that the ebook industry is rapidly growing, especially with the exponential growth in tablet device sales that we have seen in the past few years. However, one could also argue that the book has become such an ingrained part of society that rather than supplanting them, ebooks will instead coexist with their predecessors. This is a question that at the present time, cannot be fully answered. We must wait and see how the market develops before we will know for sure. It is likely that we will not be able to make informed predictions for many more years.

Also, I’ve posted the link for the twitter account Horse Ebooks. This is a spam account with a random letter generator, whose purpose is to promote low-quality ebooks. However, it has gained popularity over the internet for the ridiculous messages its random generator comes out with. Check it out and tell me what you think.

https://twitter.com/Horse_ebooks

ebooks v print

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As I was looking for something to say about ebooks, I stumbled across this article.  What immediately stuck out to me was its title “Don’t Burn Your Books–Print Is Here to Stay”. These days, it seems like ebooks are continuing to increase in popularity, however, I can’t help but hope that traditional books will always be around. As I was reading the article, this statement surprised me: “By 2015, one media maven predicted a few years back, traditional books would be gone.”  While ebooks do make reading much more convenient and accessible, I would never have gone so far to say that by the time I would be graduating college, traditional books would be a thing of the past.  I think that while ebooks have there benefits, traditional books will always have a certain appeal to them as well. Abby mentioned in her comment to this post, “Can we look to our past to predict our future? Do people consider books technology?” which led me to the question:

with technology rapidly developing and ever-changing, do people expect the same from books?

are people getting bored by traditional books?

In my opinion, although the content is what truly matters, traditional books are what make reading such a peaceful experience.  Other mediums of reading add too many distractions. I find myself occasionally using reading as a distraction. I don’t want to be distracted from it. (If that makes sense).

ebooks

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I personally have never used an ebook before.  When I go to read, I prefer to do so in a more isolated environment where I am as far away as possible from any distractions because for me, reading is about losing myself in the words and the stories I am reading.  I also love being able to physically flip the pages–it just adds to the experience.That being said, I do see how ebooks are convenient in todays constantly and rapidly changing world.  According to this CBS News article, “Ten years ago there were about 4,000 independent bookstores in the U.S. Today, there’s less than HALF that.”  The article also states that for ebooks, “Sales will go from about $150 million last year . . . to an estimated billion-dollar business by 2012, as new products from tech companies like Apple flood the market.”  I just hope that with the increasing number of new products, they continue to promote reading and don’t all become too tablet-like.