Reading Ahead: Secondary Research (part 2)

Reading ahead logo with space above

Here’s some more articles, projects, websites, and other online ephemera that we’ve come across since we posted part 1.

  • A series of humorous videos from Green Apple Books comparing the Kindle to a book
  • Books and Browsers (audio link) – Dave Gray (IDEA2008)

    The book as a form factor has been around for about 2,000 years, since Julius Caesar first decided to fold up a scroll, accordion-style, and mark the pages for later reference. In 1455, Aldus Manutius was the first to publish the portable paperback, and it has remained relatively unchanged since. XPLANE Founder and Chairman Dave Gray explores several questions about the future of the book and the web browser.

  • Sony has launched the latest salvo

    a sub-$300 touch-screen “Reader Touch Edition” and the $199 “Reader Pocket Edition,” which features a 5-inch display. The company is also lowering prices of ebooks. New releases and best-sellers will all be $9.99, matching Amazon’s price point for the first time.

  • NPR Science Friday broadcast exploring Who Owns Your Digital Data?
  • NPR on Amazon removing Orwell books

    Lynn, you cover books and publishing for NPR, so do you have a Kindle or an e-book Reader?

    LYNN NEARY: Actually, I don’t, Linda. In fact, my cubical at NPR and my night table at home are loaded down with good, old-fashioned books because even though I’ve actually seen the Kindle work and I’ve talked to a lot of people who love it, I still can’t imagine reading some of my favorite novels on the Kindle. What about you?

    WERTHEIMER: I love it. It’s especially nice for traveling. I really do not leave home without it. But I did have a very peculiar experience with Kindle. I was reading a book and all of a sudden, I was back at the beginning of the book. So I thought I’d punched some button somehow. But no, what I had was a book in two pieces.

  • CHART OF THE DAY: Most People Still Have Never Seen A Kindle

    Some 40% of North Americans who responded to a Forrester Research survey in Q2 2009 had heard of, but had never seen, an e-reader. Another 17% had never heard of one. But ownership more than doubled year-over-year to 1.5%.

  • A short piece from Steve Haber, who developed the Sony Reader
  • Where there are bookshelves, there will be books!

    When Eddie Bernays, the father of modern publicity, was asked by a group of book publishers to increase book sales, he said, “Where there are bookshelves, there will be books.” And then he went on to convince architects, construction companies, and interior designers to install bookshelves in new homes. That helped to launch the modern day publishing and selling of books. (thanks to Joshua Treuhaft)

  • Cathy Marshall’s publications about reading, interaction, electronic periodicals, and ebooks
  • Smarter Books – Envisioning the uses & future of print, electronic, & new media books

    This site is dedicated to design thinking for re-envisioning books, publishing models, and the cognitive activity we call reading. The many markets and models for books and distribution are changing radically and continuously. We, authors and designers, need to share what we have learned and are doing to recreate the forms, meaning, and thinking of books of all kinds. Sponsored by Redesign Research

  • The unbook is a concept originally developed by Jay Cross. The concept evolved based on discussions between Jay and Dave Gray
  • The Diamond Age is a postcyberpunk novel by Neal Stephenson. The Primer in The Diamond Age is a complex and highly elaborate descendant of today’s hypertext.

    Unlike the very static version we are familiar with today, the Primer is fully interactive. It not only offers the reader an open-ended narrative, but it also changes to the reader’s demands, among many other features.

  • Vogon Heavy Industries is proud to make the The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy available to Earth Internet users under licence from Megadodo Publications, Ursa Minor.
  • Visualization of a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book
  • Fore-edge painting – Pictures along the page edges, hidden behind gilt
  • Exhaustive list of book terminology
  • Digital Book 09, a conference put on by IPDF (International Digital Publishing Forum)
  • Wholesale eBook Sales Statistics

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