In the NYT today a great story about how Google eBooks will help independent bookstores compete with the Chains:
Now one element of Google Editions is coming into sharper focus. Google is on the verge of completing a deal with the American Booksellers Association, the trade group for independent bookstores, to make Google Editions the primary source of e-books on the Web sites of hundreds of independent booksellers around the country, according to representatives of Google and the association.
The partnership could help beloved bookstores like Powell’s Books in Portland, Ore.; Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park, Calif.; and St. Mark’s Bookshop in New York. To court the growing audience of people who prefer reading on screens rather than paper, these small stores have until now been forced to compete against the likes of Amazon, Apple and Sony.
I thought I should make a list of the eBooks I’ve bought and read, excluding gratis classics, since I got my iPad at the beginning of April 2010.
I think I am probably reading at twice my usual rate. I also own more books now, since I don’t have to worry about investing in more bookshelves. (I can’t yet download my public library eBooks onto the iPad; so I can’t test if I’d borrow rather than won a percentage of these books.)
Most eBooks are ones I would own. I purchased several heavily illustrated books not available in eBooks during this time. I downloaded Paul Harding’s novel, TINKER as soon as the eBook was released after it won the Pulitzer, and bought a paperback as a gift.
iPad Apps
Alpha Wolfram, App Developer and Thomas Gray, photographer, THE ELEMENTS -- The most innovative, authoritative and interactive iBook on the iPad. It makes me wish I'd been awake in Chemistry class!
Bill Clark, ACADIA: The Story Behind the Scenery (Just screen shots of pages with text and color, but good for planning a trip.)
Benjamin Vu, Michael Kingerly, Stephanie Olesh, TRUCKS! (If they add spelling the letters of the word on each page to the drawings of single trucks -- audio is really good for "Monster Truck" -- I'd pay for the upgrade for my great-nephew the kindergartner.)
I have, of course, also bought print editions during this time at my normal rate.
Many of these eBooks are ones I probably would have postponed purchasing in print, since I do not have a bookstore within 15 miles of my house, and it is easy to browse through “sampling” on the bookstore Apps, easier than the Amazon online store. I also find it easier to read books on related subjects simultaneously (such as Wood and Rakov, who each write about early American politics).
Kindle, B&N, iBookstore, and Kobo eBooks
Paul Davies, THE EERIE SILENCE
Fyodor Dostoevsky, THE DOUBLE AND THE GAMBLER, Translated by Richard Pavear and Larissa Volkhonskey
Jack Rakov, THE REVOLUTIONARIES
Mark Lila, THE STILLBORN GOD
Gordon Wood, EMPIRE OF LIBERTY
Kathryn Schultz, BEING WRONG
Laura Skandera Twombley, MARK TWAIN’S OTHER WOMEN
Gavin Harper, SOLAR ENERGY PROJECTS FOR THE EVIL GENIUS
Laurie King, THE GOD OF THE HIVE
J.A. Konrath, THE NEWBIE’S GUIDE TO PUBLISHING EVERYTHING A WRITER NEEDS TO KNOW
Stefanie Pintoff, THE SHADOW OF GOTHAM
Steig Larsson, THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNETS NEST and
Quote of the day, from Nina Ayoub's article in the Chronicle of Higher Education
Authors should ask themselves: "What do you want to happen after the reader has finished your book?" Bill Germano, Dean and Professor of English, Cooper Union College.
Not the metrics, not the pixels, not the typeface only. It's the words that matter.
I read "Look, Dick, look. See Jane run" in 1956 and never looked back. I was an English major in college, earned a Ph.D. and found a career in book publishing. I read books for fun, for work, and for the intellectual challenge of learning new things. I hope that others agree it is worth paying writers so we can read them.
