WPL Now Has a Bi-Weekly Blog Newsletter
Monday and Thursday
The World Public Library Blog Newsletter
Volume 1, Number 1
Monday, May 16, 2011
Published Twice Weekly
by Michael S. Hart
Founder Project Gutenberg,
Inventor of eBooks
As luck would have it the very day I agreed to write this Newsletter, I had lunch with my assistant, Ben Stone, who had just returned from a trip to China, who provided me with this most interesting story.
I had asked Ben to bring me back the most interesting thing he could find for under $100 and this is what he brought me:
(Photograph by Ben Stone)
He took the picture in an old Buddhist monastery, complete with monk at the traditional black laquered desk, open handwritten books on an elemental large saffron book format, just as you might expect...but!
on closer inspection you can see that under that shaved head and the saffron robes he is reading...
AN eBOOK!!!!!!!
Yes, this is certainly "The Year of the eBook," as we approach this, the 40th anniverary of the first volume in what we now see as eBooks all over the world, including Buddhist monasteries, and we hope this trend will continue until everyone can read eBooks locally on phones or other wide varieties of devices.
In the last year it seems impossible to walk into a Borders, or even a Barnes & Noble or Best Buy without seeing eBooks right in front!!!
Not only that, but the news that Amazon had sold more eBooks than of the hardback paper variety last July was severely understated. . . .
It turns out that if they had sold just about 10% more eBooks that a headline would have read that they sold TWICE AS MANY eBOOKS!!!
Go figure!
We are preparing to publish articles, essays, news, announcements or what have you every Sunday and Wednesday on this site, as well as an assortment of questions, comments, etc., in response to future eBook news and developments.
Please be encouraged to send your questions, comments and articles.
I hope to see you here again and again!
Michael