Tomorrow’s New York Times surveys the e-book scene, pointing readers to Project Gutenberg, Manybooks.net, the Sony Reader, Mobipocket, Adobe, eReader, Plucker, Fictionwise, the IDPF and other names familiar to TeleBlog readers.
Best of all, the writer, Peter Wayner, tells in an audio how he loaded hundreds of e-books onto his Palm during his vacation, and he also notes that the improved resolution of e-book-capable cellphones and other devices. The iPhone gets two paragraphs, including a Michael Hart quote on hackers’ efforts to create e-book programs for it.
iPhone, Sony Reader, heftier e-book sales whetting media’s interest
Along with E Ink machines, the iPhone is one of the reasons for the media’s growing interest in e-books lately. So is the high rate of growth of e-books, even though they’re still a speck of p-book sales. Retail sales for Q2 of ’07 reached $8.1 million, compared to $4 million in ’06.
Meanwhile guess whom Wayner mentions in the very lead of the Circuits column (“An Entire Bookshelf, in Your Hands”)—none other than one of our favorite TeleBlog commenters:
Paul Biba’s 15 minutes’ worth
“When Paul Biba, a lawyer in Bernardsville, N.J., finds himself stuck waiting, he likes to pull out his Nokia E61i cellphone and read one of the 20 or so books he usually stores on it.
“The virtual bookshelf in his pocket currently has science fiction like ‘Falling Free’ by Lois McMaster Bujold, all of the novels of Anthony Trollope and Charles Dickens,’Eminent Victorians’ by Lytton Strachey and the September issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.”
Congrats on more than the Times, Paul
Nice going on Eminent Victorians, Paul. That was a favorite of I.F. Stone, the eminent journalist who was among the first to sound the alarm on the Vietnam War.
“Once you get use to having books with you,” the Times quotes Paul, “you get use to reading in places where it never occurred to you. If I’m waiting in line at the supermarket counter, why not read one of my science fiction magazines?…Believe it or not, I’ll sit down in my chair at home, pull out my phone and read a book.”
The Times piece concludes with some quotes from Nick Bogaty, executive director of the IPDF, who, among other things, notes that e-romances are hot and that “on the subway, you don’t have to be embarrassed by the cover.”
Friendly suggestion to the NYT and L Street
Now, if only the Times will include its book supplement in the index to its mobile edition, so I can more easily enjoy the book reviews on Sunday. Right now I’m cheating and typing the word “book” in the search form. This means you, too, Washington Post. Your mobile edition also slights book lovers—yes, most of us E fans also go for the paper variety.
But, hey, I’m a lot happier than grumpy. The presence of pro-e-book articles in the Post and Times, within days of each other, is a Good Thing.
