Books May Be Better Objects, but E-Books Are Better Tools: I have some significant concerns about Amazon’s increasing dominance over the publishing world, and the company may not keep my loyalty forever; but the transferability they have enabled is a huge boon to me in my work. Years ago, when I was a young book collector, I decided that I had to spend my money on books for use rather than display — I didn’t have the resources to be a collector and a scholar. Similar thoughts have prompted my recent move towards electronic texts. Like Nick Carr, I love the fixities of the book as a designed object; but the resources offered by digital versions of texts make my life as a scholar far easier than it has ever been. I can’t resist that.
Jacobs makes a very important point that ebooks are often far better tools for daily use. When Apple introduced Multi-touch books in iBooks 2, they made a big point about the ease of fast navigation in the textbook – something that is crushingly awful on a hardware Kindle.
At the same time, iBooks doesn’t have a “back” button so navigating around a book via hyperlinks is fraught with the danger of losing your place.
[I wish I had tie to dig into the process of creating something via iBook Author. I thin I’d learn a lot about how my son will be reading in a few years.]
Source: Fraser Speirs
turnings :: daniel berlinger 