I am welded to a plastic chair but it’s not in a Thai restaurant – these days I do my best to avoid ‘em. There is such a thing as too much tom ka gai, that’s for sure!

Thanks for your comments.

I envy you … bastard!

However, I do bemoan the fact that piracy will change the written word. This is not the fault of ebooks per se, more an indictment on our cultural valuing of authors and the respective value vis-a-vis their ownership of personal craft.

I have had this banter with Mr Meadows on previous posts. I’m 36 years of age and yet I pine for the glory years of cinema screenwriting. I wonder what wonderful movies will be released in 2009? Probably nothing to compare with 70 years ago (1939): Gone with the Wind; The Wizard of Oz; Mr Smith Goes to Washington; The Hunchback of Notre Dame; Goodbye, Mr. Chips; The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; Gulliver’s Travels; Of Mice and Men; Stagecoach; Wuthering Heights. A year later production began on Citizen Kane.

Lots of novel adaptions there. Not so now. I wonder how the bestseller list for books and box office leaders for film will stack up artistically in 5 years from now?

When an author’s work is deemed to be worth zero payment … there will be zero output from talented authors. They will simply move to where the money is and a the craft of long-form writing will slowly disappear. It is happening already.

I guess, my gripe isn’t with the technology of ebooks, it’s with the communal psychology of fre-ebooks.

Chris – those are all eminently reasonably reasons why you won’t be reading Dickens in e-form. I’d note, though, that the majority of editions of Dickens p-books are “Penguin Classic”-type form – i.e., printed as cheaply as possible. Meaning they won’t last to be passed on to kids and grandkids – particularly not in the tropics where I currently am. Whereas my DRM-free copy of Little Dorrit will remain in perfect condition as long as there are electronic devices to transfer it to.

Garson – this points to the ‘cut-out’ nature of Dickens’ villains; as you point out, real-life villains like Madoff are capable of doing some good even as they bilk billions from the unsuspecting. But I’m sure Dickens rhetorical power would have been up to handling a swindler like Madoff, if he were alive today.

I didn’t know that about A Christmas Carol . Fascinating and hopeful anecdote. Thanks. Since he took on all the responsibility for the project, I wonder if he received all the proceeds …?

David

My crappy copy of the Pickwick Papers (my first Dickens read) was printed in 1953 and contains a birthday well-wish for a previous owner from his mother, dated 1957. The fact that it had been presented to ‘Glen’ disarms me now as that is the same name and generation of my recently deceased uncle who took his own life. It’s a reminder of how we parted on very bad terms, regrettably.

There too in the corner is the ever-present 2nd-hand bookstore stamp. Chapter 10 and 11 are missing completely but this short-coming is made up for by a double printing of Chapters 13 & 14 … page 207-8 are also consigned to the printer’s excuse file.

All these print errors were a major pain-in-the-butt upon first reading but now they have taken on special significance. This is my introduction to Dickens, it was also quite possibly many others – all from the same book. Its pages are cheap and flimsy like the leaves of those endless copies of motel-hibernating bibles one comes across in transit.

These books will end up in my childrens’ hands, possibly even sold for lack of interest, and yet I’m still not convinced that an ebook will match the experience I had with these books – warts and all.

Unusually sentimental coming from someone who isn’t. Strange, huh?!

The Madoff Family Foundation contributed more than $1 million in 2007 alone to the Lymphoma Research Foundation says Fortune magazine. Andy Madoff, Madoff’s son who was diagnosed with lymphoma, was a Board member of the charity and it invested absolutely nothing with Madoff Securities, so it was not damaged during the collapse of the alleged Ponzi scheme. Sadly, many other charities were destroyed.

On a lighter note, since self-publishing is a perennial topic on TeleRead here is a question some might find entertaining: What best-selling book of 1843 that is very popular today was self-published as a risky and expensive vanity project? Hint: the book has been adapted dozens of times into films with actors such as Alastair Sim, George C. Scott, and Bill Murray appearing in different productions.

His publisher, Chapman and Hall, expressed little enthusiasm for the book, so Dickens decided to have the firm bring it out “for publication on his own account.” All the risk would be his own: “He would be responsible for the costs of the book’s production, which would be deducted from its sales. He would also oversee the book’s design, hire its illustrator, and consult on its advertising. In essence, his publishers — which would receive a fixed commission tied to sales — had become merely his printer. In contemporary terms, then, A Christmas Carol was to be an exercise in vanity publishing.”

The above is an excerpt from the review of The Man Who Invented Christmas in the Washington Post.

David

My favourite author … but I don’t think I could ever contemplate reading him in ebook form. Sorry, Telereaders!

People don’t just read us for news and views. They also want to learn. You helped the cause.

Thanks,
David