Tag Archives: ebook

What Is A Book?

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Here’s a little chart for all of the oh-so-cooler-than-thou coolsters out there who like to show their anti-hip hipsterdom by poo-pooing technology, and strut their appreciation for traditional literature by displaying their ignorance of its history.

So, you say you prefer “real” books to Kindle and Nook?  What people read on Kindle and Nook are real books.  When you say “real” books, you’re talking about codices — singular codex — which, early in the Christian Era, largely replaced the scroll format that had dominated book presentation for thousands of years.

The Book of Genesis is a book whether its rolled up around a stick, bound up in a stack of leaves, or zapped to your ereader as a series of 1’s and 0’s.

Yes, we often use “book” as a synecdoche for “book in codex form.”  But, regardless of format, the book is the words, not the format through which the words are presented.  Here are some images to explain the concept: Continue reading

Category: My Two Cents | Tags: , , ,

The Pro-Piracy Argument Rises Again

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Responding to the recent slapdown of Amazon.com by MacMillan publishing, an oh-so-tech-savvy fellow over at DigitalTrends.com asks if book publishers are the new record labels, i.e., by responding badly to the digitalization of their product and encouraging piracy.

The writer offers up the typical hipster, pro-criminal argument that stealing is an acceptable response to high prices.  This isn’t Les Misérables, guys; we’re talking about entertainment, not food. 

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He's Not Yet Ready To Turn The Page

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publishingDavid Mehegan spans the centuries at the Boston Globe with a great piece on the genesis of books in Christian codices, the prophesied end of books in electronic Kindle-kin, and the psychological relationship between booklessness and physical nudity. 

 

(Given an either/or choice, take my clothes and leave me the books.)