Electronic books, or e-texts, have been available for some time
now so this is hardly groundbreaking news. Or is it? For me,
it's a pretty big deal. Primarily because the electronic books
that are available to download from the Internet, the World Wide
Web, and online services such as CompuServe and America Online,
were published previously in hardback or paperback editions, or
both. Bruce Sterling's "The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on
the Electronic Frontier," for example, was first published in
hardback by Bantam in 1992, then in 1993 in paperback, also by
Bantam. Sterling wisely retained the electronic rights to his
book so that he may - electronically speaking - do as he pleases
with his work. To the best of my knowledge, Sterling is the first
author to give away his published, in-print book for free on the
Net.
I don't know how many people who download e-books actually read
them from cover-to-cover, though I suspect the number is rather
low. Mainly because the medium isn't as easy on the eyes as
traditional paper-based books. I would bet that most people who
download e-books - and I'm talking about novels, vs. reference
works - browse them part of the way, then delete them from their
computer or PDA. As for works of non-fiction, such as Sterling's
book, or the enormously serviceable "Elements of Style" (which
has recently appeared in e-book format), readers refer to these
works on a need-to-know basis.
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