Can we find a word other than “book” as a descriptive for the digital version of glue-and-paper? The word “book” is way too loaded for those who profess a love of “that new book smell” and their reactionary hatred of digital delivery.
Print books and digital book are two completely different species. They don’t have to compete. They shouldn’t try to compete. Yes, the content is the same. Yes, the delivery system makes all the difference in the reading experience.
Consider the reading evolution:
Handhewn tablet → papyrus scroll → parchment leaves → illuminated manuscripts → Gutenberg Bible → mass market paperback → computer.
None of those are the same epistemologically or anatomically, so why is the progression to reading digitized text on a handheld device difficult to accept?
Just as a tablet is not a scroll, and a scroll is not an illuminated bundle of leaves, and an illuminated bundle of leaves is not a ream of paper saddlestitched and bound in leather. It is an electronic method of getting to text.
An ebook is not supposed to be like a printed book. Expecting it to be invites frustration on everybody’s part, and completely misses the point
November 15th, 2009 at 11:39 am
Totally agree. I love me a good book smell, but over time, it turns a little musty and makes me sneeze. What if we invented a “new book” air freshener that one could spray when reading e-books? The best of both worlds. Ooooh! And we could patent the smell and get rich.
I am currently in the process of creating my first official e-book in various e-carnations for the different e-readers. My head is about to explode but I think I’m going to be able to do it.
November 15th, 2009 at 11:58 am
Head exploding? Awesome. Let me know how that turns out cuz I do it a lot myself.
Heh. The “new book smell” freshener has already been done. Alas.
http://www.mimifroufrou.com/scentedsalamander/2009/07/new_book_smell_air_freshener_s.html
So has the “old book smell”!
http://medialoper.com/smell-of-books-fails-the-sniff-test/
November 15th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Gad, your thickness continues.
>>>An ebook is not supposed to be like a printed book.
Oh yes it is! That’s the whole bloody point of ePub for Seniors!
A DIGITAL book is not supposed to be like the bloody printed paper brick.
November 15th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
I can always count on you for a good drubbing in the morning.
Look, YOU are coming from a completely different place and time in the future. Quit applying your vision to current reality.
Go with the flow. You know exactly what I mean.
November 15th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
What is the difference between an ebook and a digital book?
November 15th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
To use Twittercrank’s (aka Mike Cane) definitions:
ebook = tarted up text file
digital book = Vook
November 15th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by MoriahJovan: NEW BLOG POST: An ebook is not a book. http://bit.ly/P6gHQ…
November 17th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
Given that illuminated manuscripts were once called books and now…not so much; and given that paperbacks weren’t initially considered ‘real’ books either, why don’t we just grant usage of the ‘book’ title to ebooks now…and let the outdated tree carcasses find a new label?
Just a thought…
November 17th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Well, now THAT is something I hadn’t thought about and a more compelling argument to me than anything else I’ve heard to the contrary.
Thank you!
November 17th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
Well, there ya go. We’ll start a revolution.
November 21st, 2009 at 10:26 am
I’m with PG Forte… although I hadn’t thought of that until she said it. Thanks! (Waving my digital revolutionary flag.)
November 21st, 2009 at 10:53 pm
Seems to me that an e-book is a book in every way that counts. What people mean when they say ‘book’ is the content it contains. It just happens that for several centuries, the presentation of books on printed paper has been the only technology available. Naturally, the technology and the content have become identified to the point where it will take a new presentation technology many years to deconflate them. But it will happen.
Finding a new name for a book presented electronically so as to avoid a reactionary backlash against the technology won’t help. I suggest reassurance to the touch-and-smell lovers that they will still be able to buy paper books for as long as they live. Maybe then they won’t worry so much if other people use a different technology to read books.