Monday, February 9, 2009

Books Unbound

Books Gone Wild: The Digital Age Reshapes Literature

A Sony 'Reader'
Chris Jackson / Getty

Here's a literary parable for the 21st century. Lisa Genova, 38, was a health-care-industry consultant in Belmont, Mass., who wanted to be a novelist, but she couldn't get her book published for love or money. She had a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Harvard, but she couldn't get an agent. "I did what you're supposed to do," she says. "I queried literary agents. I went to writers' conferences and tried to network. I e-mailed editors. Nobody wanted it." So Genova paid $450 to a company called iUniverse and published her book, Still Alice, herself.

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7 comments:

  1. Thanks for posting the article - I enjoyed reading it.

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  2. hi Pearlie,

    Have you tried or are reading eBooks? What are your thoughts?

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  3. I am currently reading Israel in Exile both on my computer in pdf and on my phone in html, which I have converted from pdf. I have no qualms reading in electronic form - getting more and more used to it in fact.

    Also because (1) being able to carry it on my phone, I can read it anywhere (2) I can even read in the dark!

    The only downside reading it on the phone is that I cannot make notes, and I cannot bookmark it. The downside of reading it on the PC - too cumbersome to bring the PC wherever I go. But on the upside, it is certainly a plus to have 58 volumes of Word commentary installed in my PC accessible wherever I go with it.

    I wish though my phone can read the text to me and then I can "read" while I drive :)
    And I have been wishing for the past few months I can find time to convert some of my books into pdf format.

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  4. Hi Pearlie,

    That is certainly interesting. Reading from your phone too. How do you convert your books to pdf? Scan them?

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  5. Yes, one would convert books into pdf by scanning. Some scanners automatically convert all scans into pdf.

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  6. hi Pearlie,
    Just curious. Do you have to scan each page of a book manually or you have a scanner that automatically scan and turn the pages of a book? That will be so useful.

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  7. I would have to turn the pages manually - I have not seen any that turn the pages for you but I won't be surprised if there's one like that. Anyway, my scanner already kaput on me ages ago. The the better ones to use however are the photocopiers that can scan as well - they would scan at a much faster pace.

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