I like the idea of ebooks, in that they are a very convenient, if not green way of obtaining literature. Ebooks allow readers the luxury of accessing a myriad of titles using nothing more than an internet-compatible computer. From an ecological standpoint, ebooks save on printing, paper, and shipping costs, which considerably reduces production costs, and electronic access translates into reduced automobile emissions by eliminating the need to drive to the public library or the bookstore.
An immediate drawback that I can think of, is that ebooks are, to some extent, less portable (or more cumbersome) than traditional books. Ebooks can be accessed online, which would require that one has a laptop with an internet connection, or, because the ebooks can be downloaded, one might only need a laptop and a sufficient power source. Alternatively, the ebooks can be downloaded and printed, which to me seems more taxing than simply buying the actual book. In any case, having an ebook is not quite the same as being able to crack open a traditional book on the subway, under a shady tree, or during a long flight on the airplane.
Librivox is a brilliant tool. While I have some reservations about people becoming too dependent on being read to, as opposed to reading for themselves, I certainly think that audio ebooks have a niche. Personally, despite never really taking long, independent drives in the car, I love the idea of being able to download an audio ebook and listening to it during a long drive or flight.
I decided to go out on a limb and search on both World Ebook Fair and Librivox for some of the more, shall we say thoroughly written books that came to mind. Interestingly enough, neither site had A People's History of the United States of America (Howard Zinn) or Guns, Germs, and Steel (Jared Diamond), but both sites contained The Three Musketeers (Alexandre Dumas) and Democracy in America (Alexis de Tocqueville).
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Since getting my kindle I have to admit that my attitude toward ebooks has changed. I don't particularly like reading on my computer (you just can't curl up with it :-) but I do adore my kindle. I really thought that I would miss the feel of the book in my hand. But the Kindle is great to hold and I don't mind it at all. I think the Kindle (and the sony reader) are really just an early start. They don't handle graphics well and the fact that they are only in black and white makes their usefulness for text books limited. I think that future versions will take care of that.
ReplyDeleteFrom the point of economics, they electronic versions of Texts are much less expensive (or should be if the publishers don't get greedy) - I am starting to think though, that Textbooks in the form that we are used to them, are a thing of the past and won't last another 10 years.
I don't know how familiar you are with the netbook roll out that happened in January. The netbooks are low cost laptops with color screens, small footprint, and good internet speed and searching they are about 300.00 - If you are not familiar with them, you should check out the ones that were rolled out to Dimond (If I remember, that is where you teach) and see how they are going.
As for not having current books on librovox - you will notice that the types of books they have have one thing in common....they are no longer under copyright and so, public domain :-)