http://www.slate.com/id/2151525/fr/rss/


This is a review for the new e-book from Sony which is to be sold through Borders books. They are marketing it as the i-pod for books but the reviewer does not seem to be too impressed.

In short it appears that the page turn facility is too slow, there is no ability to note in the margins and there is no search facility. These functions will be available on version 2.0.

Is this the way forward in an increasingly paperless future or is it sacrilege to read a book without a book?

<Added>

If you do look at the link please read "The crappiest invention of all time" - it's hilarious.

I'm not impressed by it at all. The eventual disposal of countless batteries will cause a lot more damage to the environment than cutting down replantable trees. Anyway, I'm a traditionalist when it comes to books, and I'm certainly not one of these closet 'trekkies' who need to feel as if they're living on the moon in the year 3000.

Before we invent any more useless crap, can we please save the planet?

Thanks.

JB

Well, apparently it's sold out online, so someone wants it.

I can see applications for this with textbooks and so on, where searches and links and so on would be very useful. But part of reading fiction and non-textbook non-fiction (can't think of the proper word) is the physical quality of the book - who'd want to lose that?

Emma

I love books – the smell and the weight and the feel of them. Brand new pristine clean, or dog-eared and discoloured, they have character. So I wouldn’t want to be without them.

On the other hand… I love all this new technology, so I’ll probably get one when the next version comes out with the search facility. Ideally I’d like to see some arrangement where, if I buy a book, I get the option of a free download at the same time – so I have the best of both worlds.

Dee

I've been hunting for updates on the Sony Reader since Jan 6th. I'd love one of these things and couldn't give a monkeys about a search facility - I just want one!!

Can't afford one, but what the hell. I wonder when they'll be out in the UK.

Colin M

check this out:

http://www.snowbooks.com/weblog/2006/09/

s'enough for me...

Books don't crash, need batteries, or become obsolete within months.

It is a elegant beast, isn't it - trust Sony to make it look good. I wonder how heavy it is, though? Would it really be comfortable to read in bed, say?

If it's true that it really is as good as ink on paper one of my big reservations is gone. Another will have to wait till they're read-in-the-bath proof - funny that Snowbooks spoke of people dropping scruffy paperbacks in the bath, but didn't make the connection...

I've just realised that big plus would be if you could read it, say, while you were sitting in the motorway service station, and then get back in the car, and switch it to audio-book mode, for while you were driving. Not speech synthesis but a proper actor reading it. D'you think you'd ever be able to choose who read it? Alan Rickman? (I can dream, can't I?)

Emma

Also, books can be thrown across the room if they are no good, and picked up to be read again in a calmer moment. Try this with your so-called Sony e-book. Hah!

Books don't crash, need batteries, or become obsolete within months.

On a similar note, stone wheels don't deflate or need new tyres fitted every 25,000 miles, so why did we bother moving on?

I don't want to get anywhere near one. I'm afraid I might like it.

JB

It seems that the reviewer has somewhat high expectations. I think what she's after is a wirelessly web-enabled PDA with e-ink paper, a battery that will last out an entire novel, a suite of applications to manage her life, for £300.

Not that it's available, but that sort of 'killer ap' would be obscenely expensive.

People should look at this for what it is. A book reader's 'boy toy'. Save shelf space. Carry your books everywhere. Buy books at a discount (albeit only about 30% off).

I'll paper over the cracks of DRM etc, as that's another argument altogether. But if the price were slightly more reasonable (I'd be looking for £150 or thereabouts), this would be a great gadget. It'll never kill books, because paper is almost infinitely cheaper than an e-ink screen.

I get tired of reviewers saying that it can't do a thousand things that a PDA can, and then go on to say you can read text on a PDA. Well, yeah, you can, if you want eye-strain. I like the fact that this little creation doesn't even try to compete with PDAs and only does what it says on the tin, not because it's what I want, I just don't think that every new technology should try to do everything.

That's why mMy mobile doesn't have a camera. (might also be because it's three years old and probably out of production )

I just don't think that every new technology should try to do everything.

I think this is so true. They usually end up doing everything badly, instead of a few things well. I guess a book does one thing very, very well indeed...

Emma

Not a great argument I confess, but I like having all the books I've enjoyed in my life lining the walls of my house (apart from anything else they're hugely decorative).Reading is such an important part of who I am and how I see myself that these books with their terrific, jumbled presence act wonderfully and movingly as reminders of times past and tastes past. I dunno, that's massively important to me... and for that as much as any other reason God dammit books are beautiful!!!!!

What about the impact on income for writers? A similar impact as has been seen on earnings for musicians?

Pete