Musing Mondays - July 14

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme from MizB at Should Be Reading. It asks you to muse about one of the following each week…

• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it!
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

My Musing:

I was wondering which you prefer taking on vacation: printed or digital. I usually bring both of my Kindles, but also pack a bunch of printed books. This year, I only read my printed ones: A Nation Under Judgment, The Torchlighters Biography Series: Corrie Ten Boom, Buffy and the Heroine's Journey, and When Shmack Happens.

I think the next book I'm going to read is a digital one, but pretty much I never even cracked open my Kindle and I used my Kindle Fire only to play games while on vacation.

Encyclopaedia Britannica Ends Print Edition

Image credit: WikiMedia Commons

Some news makes you feel older than others. I remember using our set of Encyclopaedia Britannica for research papers in school. Libraries still have copies of them; though I wonder when the last time is one has been cracked open.

Today it was announced that Encyclopaedia Britannica is halting the sale of its print edition after 244 years and moving to solely online content.

Is this a surprising move?

No, but it just one more thing that shows we're becoming a digital world. It also indicates the publishing world continues to change at the speed of light.

Do I think paperbacks and hardcovers will go the way of the dinosaur?

Not anytime soon. Three or four generations down the road maybe, but right now printed books are still a necessary commodity.

When's the last time you perfomed research using a printed encyclopedia? Do your children rely solely on online content for research? Will this latest move make libraries seem obsolete?

Does Digital Publishing Give Authors An Unfair Advantage?

An article on digital publishing appeared in the December 31, 2011 - January 1, 2012 edition of The Wall Street Journal. Journalist Nicholas Carr discussed the advantages and challenges that can come from being able to edit a book after it is published. You can read the entire article here.

Carr brought up how easy it would be to abuse this functionality: school boards exerting more influence over what students read, editing textbooks that don't fit in with local biases, and governments being able to tweak books to suit their political interests. I honestly hadn't thought of these issues, but I did start to wonder--does digital publishing give authors an unfair advantage over those who select traditional publishing?

Now, I'm sure one could argue the quality of traditionally published books is better. They might be right. Why is it, however, that a digitally published author should have the chance to correct errors or unclear passages, maybe even write a new ending for a book once it's available to the buying public? If a traditionally published author is willing to let his or her work stand as is, why shouldn't everyone? I remember an author once sending me a book to review. She mentioned in her email that she hoped I would realize this was her first book (she had released several other titles since that time, but this was the first in  a series that I had won in a giveaway), and she had grown as a writer in the years that followed. Imagine not having to say that. Imagine having the chance to alter your book after receiving a few less than positive reviews.

And it's not only the text that can be altered when you publish digitally. I've known more than one author who changed the cover art of the book after it was published--some made more than one change. It makes one wonder if in this digital world there are "Books That Are Never Done Being Written."

What do you think?