Here’s Where The Story Starts: Sony eReader in the Washington Post
Writing in The Washington Post over the weekend, Mike Musgrove had a story entitled “Tote a Small Library to the Beach.” The article is ostensibly tied to the whole phenomenon of “summer reading” (which is strange since it’s almost mid-August, and Musgrove says he’s been using the Sony device all year), with the author using the warm weather as an excuse to review Sony’s eReader which came out last Fall.
Musgrove is mostly positive about the device, mentioning that it’s a good experience for reading and downloading books, as well as being handy for traveling: “Instead of carrying just one book on the plane you can now lug about 80, stashed in the Reader’s memory.” These are the kinds of things that booklovers never seem to mention; in all of the arguments about book being the “perfect” technology, it’s never talked about how — if you want to carry around three or four books at a time — you’d better have a big backpack and a strong back.
Musgrove then describes the world of eBooks, writing that “the ‘e-publishing’ revolution has supposedly been on the way for a decade, but it’s never quite hit the mainstream. This is a market that still exists in an uncertain area, embraced mostly by a small audience of early adopters — sort of like the MP3 player market before Apple entered the scene with the iPod.” Putting all of this in context. Musgrove decides that the Sony eReader is more a step in the overall digital book evolution, rather than a revolution: “All in all, I’d say the publishing industry’s digital revolution has turned a page here, but we’re still early in the first chapter.” I can’t wait to see how it ends.
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“We’ve never had the hubris or the aim to say they we’re going to supplant the printed book,” he said.
Sorry, couldn’t resist. I’ve actually been fighting off the urge to buy a Sony reader. Very cool looking.
Hurry up and happen already! How will this affect my job as a librarian? People worry, I don’t.
I broke down and bought a Sony e-reader back in March. I’m very pleased with it and it’s surprisingly easy to read from, not to mention easy to use.
I have a small technology-related blog where I wrote a 2-part review of Sony’s e-reader. Check it out at:
http://laymantechie.blogspot.com/2007/06/sony-e-reader-product-review.html
(Sorry for the shameless promotion)
“These are the kinds of things that booklovers never seem to mention; in all of the arguments about book being the “perfect” technology, it’s never talked about how — if you want to carry around three or four books at a time — you’d better have a big backpack and a strong back.”
I certainly see your point. In fact you can ask why carry arround all the pages other than the ones you are reading? Even one book can be pretty heavy. Actually, not much reason to carry even a few pages if you can display the one you are reading at the moment, not even a whole page then, since we read only a line at a time. Yes, on the weight front the hand held reading device is much better. I mean, how much does a thought weigh? Shouldn’t books weigh not much more than conveyed content? Who ever dreamed up this notion of conveying conceptual works with physical objects anyway? Its a paradox!
Wow, cool and poetic thought. And you’re right, a thought is weightless, the same as an idea. Books, as a collection of thoughts and ideas, should be similarly weightless; the fact that a Pynchon novel weighs four pounds is simply a byproduct of the publishing industry.