The Mind’s Ear - Audiobooks on the rise
“Since the introduction of printing there has been a tendency in literature to appeal more and more to the eye, and less and less to the ear which is really the sense which, from the standpoint of pure art, it should seek to please, and by whose canons of pleasure it should abide always.” - Oscar Wilde
Will be making a note/printing this list out! A good place to start if you are wondering, “What should I read next?”
One Minute Book Reviews has gathered together publishers favorite buzzwords (guilty as charged) and what they really mean… according to industry veterans.
Our favorites:
“absorbing”: “makes a great coaster”
“accessible”: “not too many big words”
“acclaimed”: “poorly selling”
…
I want! I have already bought the wood now I just have to figure out how to raise the ceiling height in my den… don’t worry, I have planned for a spot for an ereader charging station.
Grollier’s Reading Wheel, 1719. From BibliOdyssey: Dumpster Diving.
Was linked to this lj post through Neil Gaiman’s twitter. It’s a good read.
How many of these people do you think have access to an ebook reader?
I grew up so far below the poverty line that you couldn’t see it from my window, no matter how clear the day was. My bedroom was an ocean of books. Almost all of them were acquired second-hand, through used bookstores, garage sales, flea markets, and library booksales, which I viewed as being just this side of Heaven itself. There are still used book dealers in the Bay Area who remember me patiently paying off a tattered paperback a nickel at a time, because that was what I could afford. If books had required having access to a piece of technology—even a “cheap” piece of technology—I would never have been able to get them. That up-front cost would have put them out of my reach forever.
Some people have proposed a free reader program aimed at low-income families, to try to get the technology out there. Unfortunately, this doesn’t account for the secondary costs. Can you guarantee reliable internet? Can you find a way to let people afford what will always be, essentially, brand new books, rather that second- or even third-hand books, reduced in price after being worn to the point of nearly falling apart? And can you find a way to completely destroy—I mean, destroy—the resale market for those devices?
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Travel Posters for Lazy People
Books are magical (by nikynator1993)
