Posts made by Richard Schwier

The engagement and interaction pieces are important.  Like you, I love how some of the children's books I've seen are so playful and immersive. It would be great to see some adult examples that reach for the same level of interaction and even playful tone.  Know of any?

Of course, I have also had some deeply immersive experiences with traditional books--most of us have, and can name those books that changed us somehow. it is almost a cliché that a great book starts with a great story, and then it is shaped by skillful writing and storytelling. 

I think you're right, that dedicated devices, especially devices dedicated to repackaging older technologies like books, will have a short life. I bought a Kindle first, before the iPad came out.  I came to like it a lot for conventional reading.  Then, of course, the iPad ratcheted up the experience, and I now have the Kindle app on the iPad too.  I use the Kindle when I'm in a sunny environment because it works well and the iPad doesn't in those lighting conditions.  Otherwise, I'm gravitating more and more to the iPad, and of course it is far superior once we move beyond anything more engaging than plain text.

 

Clint Lalonde offered up a great observation yesterday that I'd like to explore. What are your thoughts? Is the metaphor of book not appropriate for ePublications? Should we be looking for new ways to express the essential features of enriched reading environments? 

Clint said:  "I was thinking this exact thought with the hoopla with the Apple announcement last week. The whole book paradigm seems like such a holdover from another age - like a transitory metaphor. Kind of like the file folder metaphor on a computer. A digital manifistation of an analouge form that really doesn't apply to a web world. Why do we even need to hold on to this whole notion of a "book"? Is there value in having a "book" other than it gives publishers a way to package content?"

And Scott Leslie agreed with Clint (or was it the other way around?):  “I am really interested; my personal take is that "eBooks" are a combination of hangover from an older age and marketing ploy by both booksellers and hardware vendors, and that when you take the covers off it just looks like a bit of the web bundled up so it can sell. But maybe I am really missing something that is special to eBooks and eReaders?”