Print is BLANK

As part of having my grad students introduce themselves at the start of the class, I asked them to fill in the blank in the following statement: Print is ______.

The classes are a mix of returning and new grad students, so I was interested in seeing if there were going to be a range of answers. What the students answered were surprising.  Most of them still believe in the primacy of print. It can be "evolving" or "changing" but they don't see it going away. There were a few other students who viewed it as an essential format, but a format nonetheless.

I think my favorite response was that Print is something older people worry about. There's is a lot to unpack in that statement. Why are older people worried about it? Why aren't younger people worried about it?  It doesn't hint at if there should be a worry but identifies a dividing line in different methods of thinking.

Here are the answers from my students:

Print is _______

• Not going away.
• Evolving.
• Changing.
• An art form.
• Another format.
• Beautiful.
• My life.
• Stubborn.
• Something older people worry about.
• Never ever, ever, ever going to die.
• Everlasting.
• Form, not function.
• Preferred.
• In flux.
• Alive and well.
• An amazing medium.
• Addictive.
• Useful.
• Relevant.

iRiver Story and Google Books

So Google has announced that iRiver is releasing a $140 device that will be connected to Google's E-book program.

So, is this the Google Books version of the Kindle?

Let's look at the specifications from iRiver's site:

1. $140 for 2 gigs (Kindle is $114 with ads, $140 without for 4 gigs)


2. USB


3. SD card slot (Kindle no longer has SD slot)


4. Wifi only (same as Kindle)


5. 6-inch display (Same as Kindle)


6. Keyboard (same as Kindle)


7. displays PDF, Epub, TXT, FB2, DJVU, MS office files and image files (Kindle right now doesn't support Epub and uses MOBI, instead. Also provides audiobook support).

Some comments:

1. It's only 2GB compared to 4GB for the same price


2. The specs page is one of the only I've seen that outlines a comics viewer, but doesn't handle CBZ and CBR files.


3. Using Adobe Reader Mobile so there's DRM control, but it's no different than most of the other non-Amazon devices

Here's my biggest concern- both iRiver and Google are promoting this device as the reader for their book store. It's being pitched as the easiest way to reader over 3 million books for free from the Google Book project. The epub version of those books are straight files from the OCR conversion of the PDFs. They have not been proofed and lead to a horrible reading experience. As much as I like the idea of having a reader that ties into one of the greatest online libraries in the world, that library's content is in PDF form, the text and Epub form are wretched. Geoff Nunberg has been rallying against Google's lack of quality control on these books for some time. Laura Miller also has an article in Salon from 2009 that looks at these concerns as well. I haven't seen a vast improvement in Google Books since these articles were published. Try searching for "Publisher's Weekly" in Google Books, there are several volumes that have been scanned and are available. Or just go find your favorite classic in a free version and look at the pure text version (Here's a link to the pure text version of a conversion of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, look at the table of contents in pure text form and think about how you would feel seeing this after paying for a reader to read this.)

110 years ago today

Some news from the distant past:

JOAQUIN MILLER is now on a little steamer Weare on the Yukon, frozen in and cannot reach home until the ice thaws next July.

EATON & MAINS have just issued "How to Make Sunday-School Go," by A.T. Brewer, superintendent of the Epworth Memorial Sunday School, Cleveland, Ohio. The little practical volume consists of contributions by various successful Sunday-school workers who cover thirty-nine problems of successful Sunday-school work.

~Publishers Weekly, No. 1356, January 22, 1898

Words of Comfort

While looking for news of the day from 2 centuries ago, I found this little tidbit.

From Publishers Weekly #1043, January 23, 1892:

SOME WELL-KNOWN BOOK CANVASSERS

Napoleaon Bonaparte, when a poor lieutenant took the agency for a work entitled "L'Histoire de la Revolution." in the foyer of the great palace of the Louvre can be seen to-day the great emperor's canvassing outfit with the long list of subscribers he secured.

George Washington, when young canvassed around Alexandria, Va., and sold over 200 copies of a work entitled "Bydell's American Savage."

Mark Twain was a book agent.

Longfellow sold books by subscription.

Jay Gould, when starting in life, was a canvasser.

Daniel Webster paid his second term's tuition at Dartmouth by handling "De Tocqueville's America," in Merrimac County, New Hampshire.

General U. S. Grant canvassed for "Irving's Columbus."

Rutherford B. Hayes canvassed for "Baxter's saints' Rest."

James G. Blaine began life as a canvasser for a "Life of Henry Clay."

Bismark, when at Heidelberg, spent a vacation canvassing for one of Blumenbach's handbooks.

(Imagine the above read by Sam Elliott and you have your inspiration of the week.)

Jewels

Damien Hirst's skull may be pretty and worth close to $100 million, but it has nothing on this book. Talk about knowing your market.