TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Archive for the ‘LuYu’ Category

By LuYu

I have created a new blog entitled Stealing Speech: A Commentary on the Long History of Publishers’ Attempts to Restrict Free Speech.

I’ll do some cross-posts, most of which will be quite relevant to TeleRead. David Rothman’s vision of well-stocked national digital libraries would obviously have come true by now in the absence of copyright.

But what is the connection between copyright and the translation issue mentioned in the headline here? Copyright reduces the number of translations available—and the pleasures available to readers. The case history below shows what’s at stake here.

Why the nuances of the Verne novel matter

When the remake of Journey to the Center of the Earth came out, I thought I should go to the trouble of reading the book—I saw the older movie a long time ago and therefore am familiar with the story.

Jules Verne is without a doubt an interesting author. He was one of the founders of western science fiction and a singularly imaginative person. His books have enough suspense and unexpected, even miraculous, events that should entertain all but the most die-hard action junkies. If that were not enough, his books are also an excellent source of information about how the world appeared through the eyes of a 19th Century western scientist.

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By David Rothman

Own a Cybook? Whether or not you’ve had screen woes with it, please take our poll so we can see if display problems are common. You can fill out the form in just a second. Be fair to Bookeen. I don’t want just disgruntled owners participating. Make comments here.

Update, 1:31 a.m. today: So far the results from 87 respondents are: 86 percent no problems, 5 percent “I was definitely at fault,” 1 percent “may have been at fault,” and 8 percent “I’m certainly NOT to blame.” The bottom line is that 14 percent have had breakage problems, and most of those blame the Cybook. Are we drawing more than an usual percentage of disgruntled owners? Or is this typical?

Update, 3:55 p.m. yesterday: The word from NAEB, which sells Cybooks, is to treat ‘em very carefully.

By LuYu

Moderator’s note: Thanks, LuYu—you’ve flattered all of us. Briefly, here’s my own thinking: Hardware dev would be too complex, too expensive even with a fund-raising campaign, but I love the idea of  stepped-up open source efforts to code user-friendly software, not just for reading but for creation in, say, .epub. Perhaps NAEB-style groups could work with programmers to offer software customization help to the more open-minded hardware companies. - David Rothman

By LuYu

With all this recent debate about Kindle and its strengths and weaknesses, I think the time has come to say, “Put up or shut up.” This is not an attempt to be insulting or be a troll.

It is a simple fact that we, the e-book reading community, have a ton of opinions about what an e-book reader should be and what it should not. And we have the power to actually do something about it.

An e-reader of our own

TeleRead is one of the main centers for information about e-books, and TeleRead’s David Rothman has long talked of the possibilities of inexpensive e-reading devices.

Who better, then, than the TeleRead regulars to design the hardware and interface for the ideal e-book?

The goal: Just something that works—without DRM-style controls

As a as a community, have been relying too long on corporate businesses to produce our devices. They want control; we want freedom. They want DRM; and we do not want impediments. They want us to be ignorant; we want to learn and share.

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