Clive Thompson writes an article in the June 2009, issue of Wired magazine titled, The Future of Reading. It centers around publishing books online and letting readers take it from there. I clipped Clive's article, marked it up a tad and provide a link to it and also to Wired's version below.
I cannot imagine that there is a greater book lover on the planet than me. I love the feel, the smell, the ability to mark up and write in books. I love the idea of placing books online to be read! I believe it would enhance my ability to connect with relevant content. That is, the commentary by others about what they believe to be relevant would greatly help me.
I am an Amazon.com boy. I love this company! But for all of the hundreds of books that I've bought from them (I've financed a six inch piece of teak in Jeff's boat), I don't think I've once bought a book based on a customer's review. (I have been influenced by the "Customers who bought this item also bought...") And, for one of the three reviews that I wrote, I got spanked by a commenter for preaching. I have bought quite a few books based on reviews from my colleagues at JJL. Why? Because these are folks who I've come to know. Authors of personal Web sites that I follow, would no doubt make notes on content extracted from online books. This has the ability to provide a spark to dry Kindling and cause me to visit Amazon once again (you can use this copy Jeff, I'll just need to initial that next piece of teak...)
Good stuff Clive!
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