| Why are people so dense? Why won't they do | | | | I have access to the web on my laptop or |
| what's good for them? Men in white coats have | | | | desktop computer, I can download just about |
| been sweating in labs for many years to invent | | | | every book that wasn't written yesterday, but |
| the perfect e-book reader, so why aren't they | | | | there is a problem: the computer screen. A |
| everyhwere? Why can't people just ditch those | | | | screen isn't as easy to carry round in my pocket |
| smelly, crumbly, rotting woody things called 'books' | | | | as a book. Compare the situation on a crowded |
| and start living in Century 21? Ask author Mike | | | | commuter train, early in the morning. People with |
| Scantlebury and see if he has any suggestions. | | | | paperback books can read them in any corner, |
| The e-book has been a long time in coming. Way | | | | whether squeezed against the door or hanging on |
| back in the 1980s, when the Personal Computer | | | | to a dangling support. The person with the laptop |
| was in its infancy, we were told that the logic | | | | needs a table, or even a seat, but room to move |
| was inescapable: now that ordinary people could | | | | their elbows. Ah, but that's why someone |
| read text on a screen, then the days of the | | | | invented the PDA, you say. You can download |
| printed page were numbered. There was a better | | | | your text onto your little pocket machine and |
| way. After all, the Personal Computer we were | | | | scan the words in any tight corner. But when you |
| assured would soon be in every office, in | | | | start listing the attributes of a PDA, you come to |
| every home, and it would give everybody access | | | | a very strange conclusion. The hand-held device is |
| to the biggest library in the world, in digital form. | | | | portable, handy, will fit in your pocket and can be |
| In the future, so the story went, you would walk | | | | carried around. Can be accessed anywhere and |
| into someone's new house and the most striking | | | | shared with friends. It's small, friendly and human |
| feature would be that there would be no | | | | sized. In fact, it's exactly like a book! There are |
| bookshelves. There would be no need for any! All | | | | only two differences, one good, one bad. One is |
| data would be stored on disks, out of sight. | | | | that you can store more than one book on it at |
| That first myth is the easiest to deal with. People | | | | any one time. Wow, you're saying that a device |
| still have shelves, but they're not necessarily | | | | the size of a paperback book can actually store |
| groaning under the weight of books, no. But they | | | | dozens of paperback books inside itself. It's |
| probably contain other media, such as CDs, DVDs, | | | | almost like a fairy tale: imagine a book that had |
| videotapes (since people haven't all moved on | | | | blank pages and every day you could wish for a |
| yet) and, even, surprise, surprise, that throwback | | | | new story and it would show you it. Then it would |
| to the 1970s, the cassette tape. Well, cassettes | | | | blank its pages until tomorrow, when a brand |
| are considered a bit old-fashioned now, and many | | | | new, undiscovered story would appear. What |
| home entertainment centres don't include a | | | | could be better than that? Well, something that |
| means to play them, like they used to. But people | | | | was actually readable. Printers have been working |
| like cassettes. They are small, convenient, easy to | | | | for years to discover fonts that are easy on the |
| carry around in your pocket, and could be played | | | | eye and readable in all lights. The PDA has to try |
| anywhere in the home, the office and your car. | | | | and duplicate the sheer joy of black writing on a |
| Yes, but CDs are better, we are told. Better | | | | white background, a trick that can fail in poor |
| sound quality, better Hold on, they aren't | | | | ambient light or when the batteries are low. In |
| better. As many a computer nerd knows, a round | | | | fact, the problem for hand-held devices is exactly |
| plastic disc is not more convenient than a small | | | | that. They can't deliver a printed page, it's just a |
| plastic box. The disc rolls off the desk or table, it | | | | pretty average copy of one. That's their |
| gets scratched, it slips down the side of things | | | | weakness. |
| and can't be retrieved. Also, it doesn't do well | | | | Still, the market progresses and every year 'the |
| what people actually want. In the days of vinyl | | | | e-book' we are told is upon us and finally delivered |
| when cassettes were invented, ordinary residents | | | | to our specifications. Unfortunately that means |
| found a terrific use for the cassette. You could | | | | if you go to the web again and look for e-books |
| borrow your friend's record, tape it at your | | | | to read that they are downloadable in a variety |
| house, give it back and have a workable copy. No, | | | | of confusing formats as machines vie to become |
| that's not happening now: CDs don't do that well. | | | | the new, universal standard. Perhaps it will happen. |
| Even without 'borrowing' your pal's music, and | | | | Perhaps, even now, the hand-held device is being |
| using access to the internet and download sites, | | | | developed that will become the new, acceptable |
| the problem is that some CD players refuse to | | | | alternative to the novel in pocket form. But the |
| play 'home made' disks, for whatever reason. So | | | | test is back here in reality, not in the laboratory. |
| you can't slip your favourite tracks in your pocket | | | | Just like 'the paperless office', it's a promise that |
| and carry them round and play them anywhere | | | | hasn't delivered, a vision that hasn't become a |
| ah, but that's why someone invented the i-Pod, | | | | reality. For some reason some annoying, illogical, |
| you say. Yes, that does do the trick of storing | | | | all too human reason the people who actually |
| music from anywhere you are lucky enough to | | | | enjoy reading are, as yet, addicted to the touch, |
| find it the web, your friends', something | | | | the feel and maybe even the smell, of the printed |
| someone gave you for Christmas but it adds a | | | | page. They stuff books into their pockets in the |
| layer of technology, the computer. If you look at | | | | morning, and read printed novels in their spare |
| a friendly old cassette recorder now, the most | | | | moments and lunch hours. Not yet will they pull |
| important thing was how simple it was to | | | | out of their pockets their small electronic friends |
| operate, how few controls. Compare that to the | | | | in order to indulge in stories, tall tales and |
| laptop computer. Ouch, there's no comparison. | | | | inventions. Why not? We can only speculate. It's |
| Saving and storing music is now more flexible, | | | | frustrating for the marketing manager, but |
| people will tell you. Yes, but nothing like as | | | | interesting for the sociologist. The e-book is here, |
| downright simple! | | | | they cry, so why won't people just co-operate |
| Back to books. I can load up text on my laptop. If | | | | and start using them? |