Barnes & Noble Plans an Extensive E-Bookstore

I'm not quite sure how I feel about this. On one hand, it's definitely a huge step in the right directions. It's great that so many more books (and particularly the ones Google is digitizing that are in the public domain; like my classmate Jenny Pilling, I also have issues with Google being the sole proprietors of said digitizing, but that's for another post) are going to be available via this device, as opposed to the locked-into-Amazon nature of the Kindle. I also like that the e-reader software will enable books bought on Barnes & Noble's website to be read on other devices (though unfortunately not on Sony's or Amazon's devices). It's still a little too all-inclusive, though. It's too top-down and tied in with a specific company (in this case, B&N) for my taste (i.e. for me to seriously consider purchasing one). Obviously, I understand that they're just trying to compete with Amazon and Sony and that they need to make money, but I still think an e-book reader that lets readers load exactly what they want on there will be the book version of the iPod. It just hasn't been made yet.

On Animal Farm...

I found this article interesting. Again, it relates heavily to my group's presentation on Wednesday for LIS 2000 and to issues of copyright and fair use in general. It seems to me that devices like the Kindle are definitely indicative of (at least part of) the future of reading, but where they have it wrong is that they're (at least as far as I'm aware) tied in directly with Amazon. Compare that an iPod, for example. Sure it's made by a single corporation (Apple), but you can put whatever you want (wherever you buy or, ahem, don't buy it from) on there. That, I think, is what really drives its popularity. Everyone can put his or her own personal touches on what that person wants to listen to or watch on his or her device. That's where radio stations (like the short-lived Jack FM in New York) who play all of their songs in a shuffle-ish mode across different listening formats get it wrong. People don't wanna hear the same songs over and over again. It's not just about randomization, but personal choice. I think (or at least I hope) that someone will invent a reading device akin to a Kindle, but where you can load up (for example) books bought from Amazon as well as Barnes and Noble as well as whatever .pdfs and .docs you might want on there for say, a class or for pleasure reading. Thus, my feeling is that these reading devices are sort of in the pre-iPod stage right now. Thoughts?

And as for Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm, aside from the obvious irony of 1984 essentially being temporarily censored by Amazon (similar to my classmate Nathaniel Wolfgang-Price's point in his group's presentation on Wednesday; specifically, he stated that Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 had either been challenged or successfully banned somewhere, though I don't remember which now), Animal Farm reminds me of two things. First off, some friends of mine in college did a zine called Manor Farm. Furthermore, there's this gem by The Kinks on their amazing 1968 amazing The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society. Enjoy!

Extra Extra! Read All About It!

I found an interesting article about Google's plan to compete with the Amazon Kindle in today's New York Times that may be of interest to some of you and that also encompass some of what we're learning in LIS 2000 and to a lesser extent, in LIS 2600 as well. Enjoy!

Click here.