What is a book?
A book is a set of written sheets of skin
or paper or tablets of wood or ivory, or a set of written, printed, or
blank sheets bound together into a volume, or a long written or printed
literary composition, a major division of a treatise or literary work.
(Merriam-Webster's Collegiate
Dictionary )
There are many ways if people want to read books.
First they can access the library or they can borrow the book from their
friends so they do not have to pay. Second, they can go to a book store
or even the web to purchase it. With the internet technology, now readers
have another choice to read a book, Electronic Book (also known as eBook).
What is an eBook?
According to Phyllis Rossiter Modeland, the columnist
of eBookNet.com, an eBook is a book like any other book. But an eBook is
not subject to any of the limitations of a traditional book. Instead of
being made of paper, ink and glue, an eBook is electronic--a digital file
that can be downloaded to your computer via the Internet or purchased on
a 3.5-inch disk or a CD. It can even have "cover art as part of the packaging
for disks, which usually come in jewel cases that can be shelved or stacked.
EBooks are meant to be read on your computer screen (a classic case of
"don't knock it 'til you've tried it!"), a handheld computer or on a dedicated
electronic reading device, such as the SoftBook or the Rocket eBook.
Examples of eBooks
| Recently Stephen King has published his first eBook, Riding The Bullet. It is a good example of how effective it is if the author is willing to publish his book in the internet. In the www.simonandschuster.com , readers can download the excerpt, send their feedback and discuss their feelings with other readers immediately. Of course, they can purchase it if they want to. |  |
Where to find eBooks?
Obviously, there are many web sites offering eBooks
to their visitors. For example, readers can access the download.cnet.com
to
download some excerpts from different variety of books. Some of them
are free, some of them are not.
eBooks Copyright Concern
Free books are those which the author or other person
has chosen to provide free. That is, they may be not copyrighted, or
the copyright may have expired. Or alternatively, the books may be
copyrighted but the author or publisher may be offering
the book free for some other reason. Copyright expired books usually
means that the author has been dead for more than 50
years, or that the book was published by a Governmental agency. You
may download these books and use them as you will.
The law allows for the distribution of older books without restriction.
Shakespeare, the classics, Government publications
can be had without restriction. So can the memoirs of the Civil War
generals, the plays of Aristophanes -- Oh, if we only had
one single copy of some of the plays that were in the Great Library
of Alexandria.
When an author goes to the trouble and effort of
writing a book, he deserves some consideration. If you have written a book,
you'd like some payment for your efforts -- and it would be fair that you
receive it. Copyrighted books are offered to you under the same general
conditions as you would buy a regular printed book. You may copy the book
to your computer, you may read it, you may loan the computer with the book
or a diskette with the book to someone, you may print out a copy.
But, it is illegal to make multiple copies, this includes viewing more
than one copy at a time or printing multiple copies for
use by more than one person at a time. These copyright restrictions
apply to books that are offered free or are sold. There is a new trend
in publishing where sample chapters or sometimes the entire book is offered
on line at no charge but the copyright remains active and the publisher
may take any measures he wishes to protect his property. ( www.books-on-line.com
this web site provides a good insight about the copyright issues)
A comparison between electronic document and printed books
The Electronic document |
Printed Books |
| Cost | |
| Required an initial investment - buy a computer.
In the long run, own an eBook is cheaper than a paper book. |
No initial investment is required. In the long run, it is more expensive to buy a paper book than an eBook. |
| The cost to publish information electronically is low compare with publishing a book. It encourages more authors to write and readers have more choices. | The publishing cost is so high that publishers tend to publish books written by famous authors to ensure their profits. |
| Maintenance | |
| Need to carry the computer to read | Easy to carry |
| Need delicate care for the tool - computer | Can tolerate a bit of abuse. |
| Capacity | |
| It takes a while to download the next page. | It takes no time at all to turn to next page. |
| Accommodate huge volume of content and can link to other resources as supporting document. | Limited to the size of the book and cannot get immediate reference. |
| Can create or link to many art works, sound and video. Making the document
more interactive.
(see and hear the example) |
Limited to text and picture, no sound effect. However, without any picture and sound, readers can use their own imagination to imagine the content of the book, making reading more fun. |
| An electronic library can keep huge volume of electronic documents without facing obsolescence. Readers have more choices of selection. | As time goes by, some books may become obsolete and readers will lose their choices. |
| Effectiveness | |
| Readers can send their feedback to the author. They can also discuss their comment and feeling in the chat room with other readers right away. | Readers do not have a direct contact to the other readers as well as the author. |
| There is no control to where readers will direct to by linking one document to another source. | Readers get messages or information from what they read in the book. |
| Cannot be read anywhere without proper equipment | Can be read in anywhere with light |
| Personal Feelings | |
| Reading through the monitor is boring. | There is no way to replace the feeling of touching the book. |
| It's not comfortable to read on the monitor, especially for a long period of time. | It is very comfortable to read in a book. |
| Cannot make any note and remarks on the content. | Can highlight the favorite part, make note or comment on particular phases or paragraph. |
How do I do this research, using the library or the internet?
When I started doing this paper, I got a lot of information from my professor's lab exercises. Then I did most of my research on the internet. I did get some help from the newspaper that I read everyday. Believe me or not, it provided me some web sites that I can visit. Nevertheless, the most effective way to do this paper is using the internet. It is not easy to accept the idea to read books on the computer. However, when I have to find time to go to the library to find a book that I want to read, I have to admit that I have no choice but to choose to read on the web. Nowadays, people are so busy to deal with their work, their social lives and their family, reading becomes a luxury item in our lives. If every book can be published in the internet, it will save us a lot of time and money to go out to borrow or buy a book.
Conclusion
When I asked my twelve years old and eight years
old sons about their opinions on eBooks. They offered me many good
points about the convenience and the effectiveness of eBooks. However,
when same question applied to my friends and older people, their responds
are greatly divided. To these people, printed books seemed to have more
advantages than eBooks. People tend not to change or it takes them
time to accept the change. For younger people, like my sons, they
grow up with the computers and the internet. They are more open minded
to the new technology. Moreover, they can keep up with the high speed
of the change of the technology. This helps them to understand the
trend of the new world. Maybe they do miss some of the advantages
of the printed books, such as the feeling of touching the book. Their
world is greatly motivated by the speed. They don't have time to
enjoy the process of reading. What they want to do is to get their
work done as soon as possible, no matter it is reading or playing.
However, for the matured people, they have many concerns other than speed
and convenience. They think about the effect to younger people when
these young ones have unlimited access in the internet.
There are no control at all. They also consider their ability
to accommodate the rapid change of the computer world.
As time goes by, I think we will gradually accept
the eBooks. I have no doubt that using eBooks is the most convenient
way to read. Now we have the palm computer which is the size of the palm.
Certainly, it can solve the problem to read through a notebook or laptop
computer. Nevertheless, to ease our concern for the uncontrollable access
to the web, it is our duty to teach ourselves and our children how to wisely
use our new technology.
References:
Singtao Newspaper, Page 9, "eBook, An Immediate Exchange of
Feeling", April 6, 2000
http://www.m-w.com/
http://www.eBookNet.com
http://www.simonsays.com
http://www.chinese-novel.com/Scientific/index.html
http://home4u.hongkong.com/_H4U/arts/reading/hingese/aesop.htm
http://download.cnet.com
http://www.books-on-line.com