“I have no clue where he got the idea, but during the mid-’80s, my father, an optometrist and occasional tinkerer, dreamed up a concept a lot like today’s e-book. The gist of the idea was to have a paperback-sized book/computer with a screen for reading. A knob on the side of the device would allow readers to scroll from page to page. The book would be small enough to bring to a couch or bed and free readers from the drudgery of flipping pages.” – Allan Hoffman, in the New Jersey Star-Ledger (via Pocket PC eBooks Watch).
The TeleRead take: Allan Hoffman back then could never envision reading books on a computer and enjoying it. But to his credit he changed his mind when he saw e-books demonstrated in the offices of Fictionwise, one of the better e-book publishers on the Net. Too bad so many other journalists have written off the technology. In O’Reilly publisher Tim O’Reilly’s response to a Washington Post article, I especially liked the following:
I’ve always held that the successful “eBook” will either be much bigger (e.g. MapQuest vs. the Random House Road Atlas, or the Safari library of all O’Reilly and Pearson tech books) or much smaller (e.g. A very specific web page vs. an omnibus reference book, or a quick reference document on a PDA) than regular books. The eBook that simply mimics the print book on screen is a transitional form, just like the early “moving pictures” that simply pointed a camera at actors on a stage.
Exactly! And true progress will be much, much easier if the e-book world can wake up to the possibilities of a universal consumer-level format–and perhaps someday a library model, with stable and precisely located links encouraged. E-book should enjoy at least the linking power of today’s Web, and hopefully much more.
As surprised as Allan Hoffman was by the progress of e-books, so much more will be on the way if the right people can summon up the requisite vision.
