Semantics: "Real" Books vs. eBooks

Get with the program. eBooks = BOOKs. Stop editorializing about how eBooks kill "real books." eBooks ARE "real books." eBooks are of course drastically minimizing (though not killing) paper-books, but the narrative (the REAL "real book") remains intact, regardless of the container. Thank you and have a great day.

Luddites Whining: The End Of Bookstores

Nicole Krauss uses the pages of The New Republic to moan about our losing a certain curatorial element which she believes can only be found in the brick-and-mortar bookstore.

HarperCollins's Open Letter to Librarians Shows That They Just Don't "Get It"

John Marwell's letter appears on Library Love Fest: "We spent many months examining the issues before making this change. We talked to agents and distributors, had discussions with librarians, and participated in the Library Journal e-book Summit and other conferences. Twenty-six circulations can provide a year of availability for titles with the highest demand, and much longer for other titles and core backlist. If a library decides to repurchase an e-book later in the book’s life, the price will be significantly lower as it will be pegged to a paperback price point. Our hope is to make the cost per circulation for e-books less than that of the corresponding physical book. In fact, the digital list price is generally 20% lower than the print version, and sold to distributors at a discount."

Will HarperCollins program print editions of books sold to libraries to spontaneously combust after 26 reads?

Another point: Setting aside the ridiculous notion of limiting usage on a sold edition of a book, the idea of digital prices being arbitrarily pegged 20% lower than hardcover or paper prices is equally absurd. In this way the cost of traditional print, paper and bind dictates the cost of e-editions? The tail wags the dog?

Book Lovers Fear Dim Future for Marginalia

per NY Times re: digital. But I'm a book lover; and I don't give a rat's ass.

Let's Buy Macy Halford a Paper Book on Manners

Who besides me is offended by this insufferable bit of multilayered snobbery from Macy Halford on "The Book Bench" blog of The New Yorker: "When I read a book all the way through to the end, I want the evidence stuffed and mounted on my bookshelf. My suspicion is that people who prefer e-readers use them primarily to read Harlan Coben, and are happy to be able to delete the physical evidence."

Surprising Luddite: Ray Bradbury

When I become a raving, cranky old man, please just turn off my microphone.

Will eBooks Make Midlist Authors Extinct?

Of course not. Quite to the contrary. eBooks remove barriers. But I'll catalogue this essay anyway and file it under a new category: Luddites Whining.

This Just In: New York Times Objects to the Reading of Its Feed

Or so it would seem. Embattled reactionary old media Luddites trying to create false scarcity.