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Resizable books
Aug. 13th, 2009 07:21 pmI think there is an unfilled market niche for mini-books. I am not advocating condensing existing fiction, but most biographies, pop psych books, polemics, histories, and diet books could easily get their points across in 30-60 pages. Sometimes I'd like to know more than what wikipedia has to say on a topic but I don't want to commit 8+ hours to a massive tome.
I do think this goes contrary to the predilections of some writers who want to create the "epic" or "definitive" guide to a particular topic. However, the opportunity cost of reading such a large book is high, and I often end up forgetting most of the details anyway. I'm much better off memory-wise reading the shortened version 2-3 times over the course of a few years than I am reading the full version over a few days. Plus, it gives me the chance to read other books, perhaps ones by the same author. If this is priced right,
This is something that e-books could perhaps offer. When you buy an e-book in my ideal world, you could select from any one of a variety of "views" for the book... everything from the full version to summaries of various sizes to shortened versions focused on particular subtopics. They need to ditch the DRM before I'll switch though.
I do think this goes contrary to the predilections of some writers who want to create the "epic" or "definitive" guide to a particular topic. However, the opportunity cost of reading such a large book is high, and I often end up forgetting most of the details anyway. I'm much better off memory-wise reading the shortened version 2-3 times over the course of a few years than I am reading the full version over a few days. Plus, it gives me the chance to read other books, perhaps ones by the same author. If this is priced right,
This is something that e-books could perhaps offer. When you buy an e-book in my ideal world, you could select from any one of a variety of "views" for the book... everything from the full version to summaries of various sizes to shortened versions focused on particular subtopics. They need to ditch the DRM before I'll switch though.
