tomphippen.com » Books

A few notes on iBooks

tom — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 20:48:04 +0000

I’m liking the iPad so far, it’s better than expected as an eBook reader. It has pluses and minuses over the Sony PRS-505¹. One of the minuses is a bug on the font rendering on some, but not all, of my eBooks. The bottom of the g hangs below the page and appears on the next.

And it’s in the correct position as you can see when I take out the bottom/top of the pages.

It’s much more annoying for me than the justified text (at the moment anyway, the iPad’s big enough but it would be crap on the iPhone).

A second issue that all eBook readers have but I was hoping Apple would fix is the crappy way eBooks are sold. See this for and example what I’m on about, I can pay 59p for Doodle Jump or a bunch of other apps on the app store and get it updated free of charge. But if I find a typo, or 100 pages missing, in a book there’s a refund or nothing.

If publishers want to adapt better than the music and film industries surely the best way is to take advantage of the technology. If I see a typo in a printed book I get that it can’t be fixed, but if I’m paying nearly the same² for an eBook that has DRM, can’t be shared and can’t be sold the least I should get is the words spelt right. Right?

¹ if someone releases a 5 inch e-ink without the huge bezel (the 5″ Sony is barely smaller than the 6″) it will be a definite purchase as it will improve the size/weight/readability over the iPad
² part of this is due to the stupid VAT on software, which includes eBooks, paper books exclude VAT

The Last Detective Alive – John Swartzwelder

tom — Sun, 23 May 2010 21:34:43 +0000

As I said last time “Yay, the new John Swartzwelder book is out”. Again available from Amazon or signed from eBay.

Annoying my copy arrived hours after I left on my 400 mile weekend train journey, I could’ve read it 3 times.

Earth Vs. Everybody – John Swartzwelder

tom — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 11:50:02 +0000

Yay, the new John Swartzwelder book is out. Available on Amazon (US site only, they will deliver to the UK).

And as this is the first mention of Swartzwelder on the new blog I’ll mention all his other books are great, and are available on Amazon, or on eBay, signed, straight from the publisher.

On the folding of corners

tom — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 21:11:13 +0000

Or the discovery of moronic snobs and the struggle to understand them

The Grauniad has a story on people who lie about what books they’ve read and folding the corners of pages.

On the first point, lying about a book is just a bit dim really. Do the people who don’t read the books also not watch bad sitcoms where a little white lie ends in acute social embarrassment? Or are they just snobbish enough to want to be well-read, but too lazy to do it? Who gives a fuck if you’ve read Ninteen Eighty-Four?¹ (Or if you spell it 1984?²) Just read and enjoy what you want to, even if it is the rubbish chick-lit that Mum reads³.

And on the second point, people who bitch about folding page corners are missing the point. It’s not the actual physical book that matters, it’s the bloody words inside it. A paperback⁴ costs a few quid so it’s not the end of the world if you read it to breaking point, and everything will be digital soon anyway which will sort of prove my point.

¹ Well I do, because it’s a great book. And you should read I Am Legend as well, the film was shit
² Apparently people who comment on The Guardian website
³ I do own 11 Tom Clancy books so and snobs can feel free to look down on me
⁴ I use the dust cover to keep my place with hardbacks, I wonder what the anti page folders think about that?