Dec 13 2012
A favourite of mine is Albert Camus’ The Outsider. Lucian Robinson’s Guardian review of a new translation (by Sandra Smith, Penguin Translated Texts) reminded me how much I loved it. It also reminded me just how important translation is. Two of the most … Continue Reading »
Oct 29 2012
Titles I’ve looked for over the years in electronic format are finally appearing. One such is The Complete Poems and Plays of T. S. Eliot. There were the Selected and the Collected and the Four Quartets and of course The Wasteland, but not all in one volume. Now they are. Another is Proust’s mega-novel, In Search of Lost Time, which I started (in print) four years ago, and am still only a third of the way through now. When I decided to read it back then, I had the idea I’d pick up an e-reader … and I figured Proust would be a great opening choice.
Jul 12 2012
Here’s a guest blog post made on Momentum Books on July 12, 2012.
Following a heated discussion on Twitter over whether ebooks should follow the form and function of their print counterparts, Joshua Mostafa and Mark Rossiter agreed to a battle of ideas on our blog with the question “Should ebooks look like print books?”
Anyone who frets about the form in which a text is displayed, by claiming for example that a beautifully produced print edition is superior to the same text presented electronically in a conventional-enough layout, is missing the point.
Oct 19 2011
This is a snapshot* of my e-library, built up over the last year or so. The question is … does a pretty picture like this replace the joy of having physical books in a bookshelf? Does the utility of the ebook replace the tactility of a pbook?
Post originally written 2011, pic updated 9 July 2012
Dec 02 2010
Apple’s iPad™ is a game-changer. I didn’t think so, but I was wrong. It isn’t until you actually use a gadget that you start to see what its possibilities are, as well as its limitations.
Nov 05 2010
Remarkable story from UK’s The Daily Telegraph, “Your time is up, publishers“.
From the SMH: “‘Kindle books are also outselling print books for the top 25, 100, and 1000 bestsellers – it’s across the board,’ said Steve Kessel, senior vice president of Amazon Kindle.” Article here.
Meanjin ebook story by Jeremy Fisher, former Executive Directorof the Australian Society of Authors.
From Computer World, a story arguing that publishers and writers need to radically change their business models. Publishers need to capitalise on the service they provide: identifying talent and making books (not the physical production but the editing and marketing that they’ve always done and which will always needed). And writers need to change too. Establish an online identity marketing yourself as a writer. Approach publishers with sample chapters. Scrap the advance, cut down investment time.
Aug 09 2010
Fascinating report on ebook prices in UK.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2010/aug/05/kindle-bookstore-cheapest-option
What you notice, straight away, is that Kindle books are cheapest, especially compared to Apple’s offering, iBooks. So let’s think this through.
Aug 08 2010
I’ve been hankering after a new e-reader for a while and this week I made the plunge.
Dec 08 2009
Here’s my first e-reader, a BeBook, bought at the beginning of this year and still going strong.