Find Your Valentine
Slog
News & ArtsWednesday, January 28, 2009
Books Setting Ebooks Back a Few Years
Posted by Paul Constant on Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 2:12 PM
Everybody's started spreading rumors about Kindle 2.0, which Amazon might unveil in a super-secret press conference on February 9th.
But the Espresso Book Machine, to my mind, is much more exciting. Their website refers to it as "In essence, an ATM for books." It looks kind of like a photocopier, and here's what it does:
The Espresso Book Machine will print, bind, and trim a 300-page book in less than four minutes. Production cost is a penny a page and minimal human intervention is required for operation. The trim size of a book is infinitely variable between 8.5” x 11” and 4.5” x 4.5” and the EBM Version 2.0 can bind up to 830 pages.
If the Espresso people can arrange deals with most or all of the major publishers to be able to download and print their books—and that's a tremendous, almost entirely implausible if—this is a very good argument against those of you who believe Amazon is better than a bookstore because it has every book ever produced ever. I hope at least one local bookstore is working on getting one of these as soon as they're available.
5
That is a really interesting idea. I think the largest drawback is that it works with 8 1/2 * 11 or A4 size paper. Those are pretty close to the same size: it doesn't work with small paper. So if you want a small book, you've got to trim a lot of paper. If book definition files filled up most of the space on the pages in the book (not the case in this http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_… example), then it really makes a lot of sense.
Me, I am going to use electronic paper technologies in the future: I already do almost all of my reading at my computer, and I like hand cranks to get electric power (so, hopefully, I'll put those two things together one day). However, being able to make a paperback is always going to be useful because paperbacks don't require power to read and aren't as valuable as a re-usable electronic reader (okay to put in risky situations, like moveable but next to big machinery, in high-theft areas, or in corrosive or wet environments).
Me, I am going to use electronic paper technologies in the future: I already do almost all of my reading at my computer, and I like hand cranks to get electric power (so, hopefully, I'll put those two things together one day). However, being able to make a paperback is always going to be useful because paperbacks don't require power to read and aren't as valuable as a re-usable electronic reader (okay to put in risky situations, like moveable but next to big machinery, in high-theft areas, or in corrosive or wet environments).
6
@2 I like paper books because I can give them to other people, write on the margins, use them crush bugs or replace a broken couch leg. Electronic books have to be paid for each download and unlike hardcopies can be made unavaialble by publishers who don't wnat to carry the product any more or governments antagonistic to content. Even if saved in a private device they can have tags encoded to track them for copy-right infringement or make them subject to remote deletion.
Yes I know, old-fashioned and a little paranoid.
Yes I know, old-fashioned and a little paranoid.
7
These have been coming for years, and I'm glad they're this close to fruition. I love to think what a newsstand would be able to do with one of these.
9
I like books, and love bookstores. But a really cool thing about Kindle, if it does it, would be to have an imbedded dictionary, so when I came across a new word, I could look it up. Does anyone know if Kindle does this or will do it?
Advertisement
Most Commented on Slog
-
SL Letter of the Day: Pill The Homos! by Dan Savage
-
Dear Huffington Post... by Dan Savage
-
Because Guns Make Us More Safer by Goldy
-
The Rick Santorum Rally in Tacoma Probably Could Have Gone Better by Paul Constant
-
Slog Bible Study: Deuteronomy 21:10-14 by Goldy
-
The AP Is Reporting That Whitney Houston Is Dead by Paul Constant
-
SL Letter of the Day: Daddy Loves Who? by Dan Savage
-
Because Guns Make Us Safer by Goldy
-
Gay Kids Are Still Killing Themselves by Dan Savage
-
Gregoire: "This is signed!" by Eli Sanders
RSS
Facebook
Twitter
Comments (15) RSS