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- Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold, Reviewed: Cryoburn is the latest Miles Vorkosigan novel, the thirteenth in a series stretching back a quarter of a century. Miles is now an Imperial Auditor with responsibility for investigating a company specializing in cryogenic storage that are planning on opening branches on Komarr. Miles becomes suspicious and travels to Kibou-daini, a world dominated by a populace who
- Sales: Cover for Damage Time by Chris Moore You can tell the authors at conventions. You just have to listen in. Â While the fans are likely as not to be talking what brilliant book they’ve read, or what film they’ve seen; the writers will be talking about money.* Because their incomes can be so precarious, and like any
- Magma: I’ve said many times –in many places– that I don’t write because I want to, I write because I have to. It’s a compulsion, which if it’s blocked off, leads to something close to clinical depression (my name is Colin, and I am a creative junkie….) Ever since I ended a particularly brutal bout of writing
- Black Static 23 Reviewed: Black Static for June / July 2011 contains the usual reviews and commentary, while the stories are mostly by returning regulars. V. H. Leslie appears for the second time in three issues, and already looks to be the magazine’s most prominent newcomer of the year. In ‘Time Keeping’ Howard believes that he keeps time running smoothly.
- End Games: People are always talking about the openings of stories. It’s an often quoted truism -especially by me!- that the first dozen lines of a story are critical. They are the unsolicited writer’s escape from the slush pile, or the path to a sometimes bewildered rejection. For the story that has been sold, a poor opening
Colin Harvey at Suite101
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Of course, the other advantage of a real book is that when it pours with rain and water soaks through your bag and snuggles up close to the book it is (a) still readable and (b) will only cost £6 to £16 to replace if it isn’t. 🙂
I think e-books are a nice idea, but they are still on my ‘gizmo that I can put off buying ‘cos the money is needed for other hobbies’ list. And with e-books those spontaneous I just read this great book – here, you can borrow it moments become IP theft…! 🙂
You’ve never seen water-damaged files, then… 🙂
If enough water ‘soaks through your bag,’ the pages are likely to stick together. And yes, books are cheaper to replace at this point in time. But that will change – the history of electronic fmcg’s is full of precedents.
‘you can borrow it’ is covered by the creative commons licence — all you have to do is leave the content unchanged. Cory Doctorow is a prime advocate of this. In fact, you can change it, as long as you make it clear who the original author is.
But that was my whole point. Neither format will become extinct, despite the claims of their various advocates and nay-sayers. I don’t have an e-book reader, but the time is drawing nearer when I buy one, for things like reading on a plane. I’m waiting for the price to come down, and for all the teething issues to come out.
I will also continue to buy books. Nothing will stop me buying books – but my house can’t take many more without culling the ones I have, so my rate of purchase has already slowed.
Oh yes, I need to do a book and comic cull soon… or start sleeping in the car park! 🙂
Re reading an e-book on a plane – I’d live in fear that the Powers That Be would have another security clamp down and decide that they are verboten electronic devices more deadly in the hands of a terrorist than nail scissors and a bottle of sparkling mineral water. 🙂
A quote I once saw in a con newsletter:
PERSON 1: What do you call the irrational fear of not having anything good to read?
PERSON 2: That’s not an irrational fear.
I’m with person 2!