Week 9: Thing 22: Audio and eBooks

For the last several years I have had a running dialog with a local author on the future of books. He keeps sending me articles on the latest advances on audio and ebooks. For me.....there is nothing better than snuggling up in bed with a good old fashioned paper book. (This seems to be the case for many others as well given this years Lancaster Library used book sale profits.)

Today my friend sent me an article on Mac's new touch screen laptop (keyboardless) and I once again pondered the topic. I told him I wouldn't want one because of how dirty my iphone gets and I couldn't imagine typing a term paper on a touch screen. I then wondered again why all computers didn't work using speech recognition software anyway. Five minutes after sending my reply email I saw a tv commercial showing a device the size of credit card that projects a (touch the air functional) computer screen. I ran back to the computer to continue the discussion with my friend. Think of the possibilities. Put the projector on the ceiling over the bed and you never have to worry about dropping the book when you drop off to sleep again. OK...If I can have this .....I just might change my mind on reading books electronically.

I was amazed by the linked ebook websites........Of course I knew about the Internet Archive and Gutenberg but I didn't realize the quality of the presentation of the text. It had been years since I had gone in the Gutenberg project. Wow have times changed. So cool. You even get to flip the pages! (Another sidetrack: Is public domain fair to Mark Twain?) It wasn't until I went to the British Library page that I really got excited. I found the Davinci Sketch Book. This truly brought history to life for me. This was better than reading the real book I would have been scared to death I would rip or crumble the pages. The audio commentary was wonderful. This is truly an Internet gem!

Since this is the next to last Thing in this program I think it is appropriate to end this log entry with the following YouTube video. My aforementioned friend, George Sheldon sent this video to me a year or two ago but it may be appropriate to share it here. I noticed that this video was featured in at least one blog on these Web 2.0 websites. I still think it is amusing. If you haven't seen it ..enjoy.