Word Painting

I still love books. Nothing a computer can do can compare to a book. You can’t really put a book on the Internet. Three companies have offered to put books by me on the Net, and I said, ‘If you can make something that has a nice jacket, nice paper with that nice smell, then we’ll talk.’ All the computer can give you is a manuscript. People don’t want to read manuscripts. They want to read books. Books smell good. They look good. You can press it to your bosom. You can carry it in your pocket.

Ray Bradbury

Where Do You Buy Most of Your Books?

Name the places you buy most of your books. Is it a bookstore, on a reader, where?

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Barnes & Noble Argues Book Settlement ‘Punishes Consumers’

Barnes & Noble has added to the chorus of objections to the Justice Department’s proposed settlement with several major book publishers, releasing a statement on Thursday calling the settlement damaging to the industry.

If approved, the settlement will result in higher overall prices on e-books and hardcover books, ultimately harming the American public, the company said in the statement, which was submitted to the Justice Department on Thursday.

“We think that the Department of Justice got this wrong,” Gene DeFelice, the company’s general counsel, said in an interview. “The settlement destroys independently negotiated commercial relationships. It harms authors, innocent publishers and bookstores, including small-business owners. And it also punishes consumers who stand to benefit from increased competition and lower prices brought about by the agency model.”

[Barnes & Noble is standing up for the consumer and for themselves. Click the link to read the entire article.]

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tykewriter:

Is Price the Key to the eBook Revolution?

A video short taken from a roundtable discussion hosted by UK Fast, Manchester.

I’m not sure what an eBook cost in Europe, but in the U.S. the average cost of an eBook is between $7.99 to $9.99, and that is a large savings over the cost of a physical copy. As a consumer, cost is an issue for me. I’m always looking for great deals on books, and will never pay the cover price. For me the medium is not as important as the content of the story. I have both a Kindle second edition and a Nook Color (and I think the Nook Color is far better than the Kindle device). I don’t think the physical book will ever die (I hope not anyway), but I do think it will eventually diminish, and eBooks will be the next “book.”