Due to the resumption in hostilities between myself and the British transport system that has been forced upon me by my employer for the next several months, I am afforded the chance to read far more books than usual, and to listen to podcasts.
The train carriage becomes my world for at least 4 hours each day, and in an attempt to avoid my brain eating itself while disconnected from the internet, I search for input. Last year I got through all manner of interesting books - from “Thus Spake Zarathustra”, to “JPod”, to “The Accidental”. Book of the year was definitely “Anna Karenina” - perhaps the only book I have ever read that met expectations and it’s own hype. It took ages to get into, but once sucked in was difficult to put down.
While listening to Leo Laporte’s various podcasts over recent months, he has continually mentioned one of his sponsors - Audible.com. They provide audio books for download, read by professional readers, the original authors, or famous actors. In a fit of money wasting mood this evening I had a look.
If Audible think I am going to spend the same amount (in pounds) that the US visitors spend in dollars, they are sadly mistaken. I’ve heard of some ridiculous things in my time, but charging european citizens double the price of your home market just isn’t right - and why you can’t just buy books is anybodies guess - they force you to purchase a paid membership before buying books.
So - no audio books. What other sources of interest could I find ?
I have a Palm organiser. It has been employed as a fancy MP3 player just recently, but of course it can do all manner of other useful things - like perform as the most expensive alarm clock in the world, or the most overblown pocket calculator in the world. You can even draw pictures on it.
The Palm Organser also lets you install an ebook reading application - turning the small slab of glass and metal into an entire library of books. Granted, the reading experience isn’t as good as a paper book, but if you have the right sort of mind, you forget it once reading.
It’s all very well having a fancy dandy device that can read books, but you still need the electronic books. Until recently the best place to find them was “Project Gutenberg” on the web. This has all changed though - sites like ManyBooks.net and Feedbooks.com house massive collections of free, well put together ebooks in a number of formats.
I just downloaded a number of classics to take with me on the train over the coming weeks.
For those reading this who have never tried reading on an electronic device, you need to see a demo of the Kindle. It’s not for sale in europe yet, but when it does arrive expect to start seeing the terms “Digital Paper” and “eInk” become far more widespread. “Digital Paper” has been the holy grail of the ebook market for some time - and finally the technology is catching up with the perceived use. Imagine a glass tablet where power is only required to change the image on it (read:page turn), and that has none of the glare issues surrounding traditional flat screens.
Of course none of these technological marvels are about to replace traditional paper books. Current generations have been conditioned from a very early age to accept word on paper - that’s not going to change for a very long time. I am lucky enough to have almost perfect vision (over 20/20, but as colourblind as a hedgehog in a bag) - many are not so lucky.
I’ll close with a complete rat hole. One of the reasons touted for ebooks is the savings made through not printing paper books in the long run. Books are made of paper, paper comes from trees, and we are all made to feel guilty about the destruction of the forests. What they don’t tell you is the fast food industry is to blame for the greater proportion of deforestation going on in the world. The land is needed to graze cattle destined for burgers the world over.