Ah, Procrastination...

Never enough time in the day, is there? Sorry, but like most North Americans, I consistently spend too much of my leisure time on other media, time in which I should be blogging. Curse those 3,000 ringtones I downloaded the other day! Damn and blast, I'm in Second Life again! What the...how did that book get in my hands?? Ew, get it off, get it off!

I'll try to be a bit better.

A Hiatus Hernia

Sorry, all. While the thesis gets writ, the blog gets short shrift.

Will be back soon.

Why save books? Nobody reads them anyway.

Who has the time or attention span for a book anymore? We need our information in short, timely and tasty bite-size nuggets. Oh, and it better be customized to our personal needs, or we'll find someone else who can provide it. Don't offer us something market research shows our demographic doesn't want.

Have you seen this yet?
http://www.robinsloan.com/epic

It's a not-too-far-fetched view of just where we're heading. All your content tailored to your needs. Or rather, tailored to what certain algorhythms tell you your needs are.

So, when you can know precisely what you're told you want to know at the very moment you're told you should know it, why would you want to read a long protracted series of ideas or concepts by someone who hasn't done any research about just what kind of content you want?

Does Amazon even sell books anymore?

Save the Book

Digital publishing, e-publishing, podcasting, novels on your cell phone, the rise of the e-book. With all the technological advances of the past few years, is the quality of our books and our content taking a backseat to the bells and whistles of technology? Publishing companies spend millions on new technology yet are apprehensive about giving a useful marketing budget to what might be considered a “smaller” book. They streamline production to cut costs and save time and risk losing valuable steps in editing and quality control. Materials get more expensive so cheaper paper that yellows before it even leaves the warehouse becomes acceptable. Yes, book publishing is a business and companies must make a profit. In the constant quest for a better return on investment, however, are we losing sight of the bigger picture? If you publish an e-book and nobody reads it, does it make a sound? You want to take books into the 21st century? You want to create the next big thing? Somebody out there create decent, cheap synthetic paper and save our preferred content delivery format.

We're at Fahrenheit 449, folks, and the pages are starting to smoke.

Save the book.