Let’s say your boss or your spouse hates e-books, and you want to con ’em into thinking you’re a p-purist. Why not a put a secret compartment inside a hardback to conceal a laptop you use for e-reading?
For good measure, the hardback’s spine could even carry the title “The Future of Books”—thereby offering some wry commentary that would go above the heads of the Luddites in your life.
If nothing else, this would an imaginative twist on the idea of fake bookselves, except that you could actually read a whole library of books—e-books.
In fact, TechDigest TV reports on just such a gizmo-hider, with a design by Kyle Bean, now studying illustration at the University of Brighton.
Clearly this guy has a future, either in his now-chosen field or MI6.
“We’ll See Who’s Right” Department: “The literary publishing industry seems to be one of the safest from the clutches of [the] Internet age,” says the TDTV blog. “People just like reading books the way they’re used to—always have, always will.” Hmm. Sure there’s no room for a even little E to liven things up?
I hope eBook readers will continue to proudly read straight from the eBook device rather than attempt to disguise it.
As far as literary fiction coming last, maybe. I think literary fiction authors got the idea of using computers to write last as well. Doesn’t mean it isn’t going to happen. And when I read about people who “just like to read paper,” I actually hear “just afraid to try something new.”
Rob Preece
Publisher, http://www.BooksForABuck.com