Comments on: Schrödinger’s eBook

By: Andromeda

Andromeda — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 19:13:58 +0000

I keep thinking about the notions of affordances. An electronic file has different properties, allows different actions, *suggests* different actions, than a paper book. (Those of you who’ve read Design of Everyday Things can just fill that whole book in here; the rest of you, go read it, it’s amazing!) Our disagreements and confusions center on the conflict that sometimes arises between our expectations of the use cases and limitations of a “book” (drawn from our experience of paper) and the affordances of digital; the fact that the law itself has enshrined that paper experience, with its use cases and limitations and affordances, leads to further cognitive dissonance. (The digital affordance of copying vs. the difficulty of that with paper and the assumptions of copyright law being the obvious case.)

I think it would be more accurate to say that, no, an ebook isn’t a book, but only if a paper book isn’t a book either; the central booklike thing they have in common is elaborated by different affordances in each case.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 00:38:23 +0000

Great post. I’m (supposed to be) graduating from a LIS program this summer, and have been witness to a lot of discussion on this issue. I come down on the same side as you, that an eBook is a book. Of course, questions of the container and format are relevant, but it’s especially important to give eBooks a designation, even if it is just positional for now.

To the comments about both scrolls and the seemingly infinite electronic potential of eBooks, it’s good to keep in mind that the scroll *was* a book, in that it occupied a similar cultural role in the ancient world as the codex has done these past 500ish years. With its bound, numbered pages, the codex was actually the first “digital” text in the truest sense of the word – you use your fingers, or digits, to flip back and forth, to mark several places at once. It supports other reading styles than straightforward linear. The codex isn’t the last word on book formats – another reason the question “is an eBook a book?” demands an answer. Thanks for blogging, Andy.

By: Bibliotheks Polizei

Bibliotheks Polizei — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 23:03:30 +0000

CIL was good times and it is nice to see a gamer represent.

I think most eBooks are simulations of books, in that they display the same content. I’d say “movie” for blue ray dvd’s and vhs. Even if there is more information about the movie and commentary and the like, the big show is the movie.

Maybe I should say that it is what the author created for the intention of the story.

This would be different if an author create a story and used media to tell the story, text would just be a part of the experience…at that point we may need a new term.

By: Andy

Andy — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:30:27 +0000

I guess my question to you would be this: is there another better term to call them that would be less confusing? Or is this like soy milk (which does not come from the mammary gland)?

Also, I think we (the book experts) can play the nuance game, but consumers don’t. They don’t get or don’t care about the nuance.

By: Michael Sauers (@msauers)

Michael Sauers (@msauers) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:33:45 +0000

I’ll go out on a limb here and say that an eBook is not a book. A book is a book. There’s a reason a scroll is called a scroll and not a book. A word file may contain text but that doesn’t make it a book. There’s a reason the electronic file I send to my publishers is called a manuscript and not a book. The argument that “the content is what makes a book a book” doesn’t hold water for me. By that logic, a haiku written on a piece of toilet paper is a book and I’ve yet to find anyone willing to agree with that.

By: baldwind1976 (@baldwind1976)

baldwind1976 (@baldwind1976) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 15:13:31 +0000

I think you reasoning is pretty straight on.. right now anyway. In other words, as a general statement the content between ebook and print book versions of a title are pretty much the same, the textual information does not change between the two so that a John Grisham novel on the shelf at the library is the same word for word as the title on my Kindle.. but what happens when and if that starts to transition?

For instance, with iBooks Author, books can be created which allow for the embedding or audio and video content into the book. Now, these books are “digital natives” and do not have a print counterpart, but will we not come to a time when published print novels will have ebook counterparts with such additional content. There are examples of this out there already. To take it a step further, there are apps for different mobile markets that are enhanced ebooks. Is something like that a “book”?

Some print books have intertwined interactive content using links, QR codes, etc in their print versions, but what about when the ebook contains them directly and the print does not, is that the same? I am very interested in the future of books in particular their evolution and the blurring of lines from their traditional forms.

However, as I said, I think right now I would agree with you that they are in essence the same, but for how long?

By: JimmytheGeek

JimmytheGeek — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 13:26:28 +0000

Great post, Andy! Unfortunately I didn’t have the privilege of going to CIL and feel like I’ve totally missed out on some great discussions, but here’s my take:

Most books these days never start out as a handwritten manuscript; they are nearly all done in word processing programs. I can’t be all-inclusive here because there are some authors who are still old-school enough to use pen & paper.

With that knowledge of how books are created, can we really say that books are not eBooks? These electronically created works only become print books when the file is loaded into the computerized press for printing. So most books start life as DRM-free eBooks, and become restricted only after the publishing house gets their greedy fingers on their keyboards.