October 21, 2014
by punjacked
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October 20, 2014
by Neelima
3 Comments
Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr and E.B. White, illustrated by Maira Kalman
The Elements of Style is a stylish book. It is also a book with a life of its own- from a book printed in a private college to a massively selling grammar guide with classy illustrations by Maira Kalman and an opera dedicated to it by Nico Muhly.
See this is how books are written- for the reader. Professor Strunk shows up in some of the illustrations in the edition I was reading and as is the case with me(and I guess with you all), I could see the old professor, with his hair parted in the middle, his enthusiastic eyes peering through his steel rimmed glasses saying:
OMIT NEEDLESS WORDS!
OMIT NEEDLESS WORDS!
OMIT NEEDLESS WORDS!
This little book edited by his student E.B.White is a rule book with numbered instructions on how to write simple correct sentences so that the reader will understand. His instructions are simple enough. In case you are overwhelmed by phrases like restrictive and non-restrictive clauses or participial phrases, remember to go through the glossary at the end where everything has been explained.
Rules we can use:
- Possessive: Charles Dickens’s books is correct usage.
- It’s vs Its: It’s a wise dog that scratches its tail.
- The serial killer comma: Serial commas are a must though there are opponents to this view.
- Active Voice: Use it. This rule has caught Stephen King’s fancy too.
- Right word, wrong usage: Inflammable means combustible but Flammable saves lives.
Words to say No to
Keep a copy of Elements of Style with you at all times if you want to write with clarity. It’s easy enough to figure out these rules but style is sticky ground. How can you imitate the essence of a thing?
Take this sentence:
TIMES LIKE THESE TRY MEN’S SOULS
Try writing it in any other grammatically correct combination. It will lack the fireworks of the original. How can you cultivate such an elusive thing as style?
You can if you write as an observer and without any pretense. You can if you know when you need a blueprint and when a natural outburst would suffice. You can if you use nouns and verbs, and stay clear of adjectives and adverbs. You can if you stick to orthodox spelling.
Rules are meant to be broken, but this little book will change the way you look at grammar. It is not an inconvenient examination you must pass to score good grades. It is a tool to make communication and thereby life itself easier.
Read it.
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October 17, 2014
by punjacked
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Why don’t they give e-books free with print books?
As people living in the 21st century, we are used to big brands giving out products for free with another product. The best examples would be the toothpastes that come with free toobrushes, body washes that come with free scrubbers, or cigerette packets that come with free funeral services. Ok, the last one may not be likely but you get the point.
This makes us wonder why booksellers aren’t indulging in such offers. After all, e-books cost next to nothing to be created (publishers will raise eyebrows, but we are talking of the readers’ perspective), unlike print books. Why don’t booksellers throw in the e-book version for free or at a low price along with the print book? Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.
Forces that work against book-bundling:
- If you own a physical copy of a book, you can read and/or sell it. However, unless the book is under a liberal CC license or is in the public domain, you don’t have the right to make copies of the book- physical or digital. You can’t sell or distribute the e-book – not even for free. Copyright laws are like a double edged sword. On one hand, they protect the interest of content creators. On the other, they often create situations where what looks natural to the reader is not possible to do. So just because booksellers are selling the print copies of the book, they can’t create and sell the e-book versions at an arbitrary price.
- What about when the booksellers have both print and e-copy of the books for sale? This is the case with many modern titles with online retailers like Amazon. What we need to understand is that the print book and e-book are separate products. Hence, authors have separate royalty sharing arrangements with the publishers or distributors for them. Unless the booksellers are ready to take a hit on their profit, they can’t just bundle e-books for free or at a low price. In some countries even the laws might stop them from arbitrarily pricing the e-books low.
- This leaves the option of striking a deal with publishers and authors. And striking a deal, dear friends, is not an easy thing. It gets even more complicated, because many a time that same entity may not have the rights for print books and e-books. A publisher might only have the print book rights; the author or some other publisher might have e-book rights for the same book. Even if a publisher has the right to both print and e-book, his/her contract with the author may not allow him/her to arbitrarily discount the e-book as he/she might be obliged to pay a certain royalty to the author for each sale.
E-book creation, when one doesn’t exist, is the technical challenge, but compared to the above, it is a minor one. The only question is if there is an economic sense in creating e-book.
Forces that work in favor of book-bundling:
While it is unlikely that you will start getting e-books for free or cheap with print books for all the books any time soon, efforts are underway to make this bundle a reality..
- Amazon’s Kindle Matchbook ProgramIf you are an Amazon customer who has ever purchased a print book from them, you can buy the Kindle (e-book) version of the same book for a discounted price of $2.99 or less. The Kindle version could even be sold for free by the author or publisher using the Kindle Matchbook program. They have a large number of books ranging from new books to books that Amazon began selling when it first opened in 1995.
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The drawback of this program, however, is that the books listed on Kindle Matchbook are very limited. Although quite a few big names in the publishing industry have signed up this program, they have listed just a few selected titles. You won’t be able to find the latest bestsellers like Gone Girl, Personal, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, Not That Kind of Girl, etc., on Matchbook. Moreover, some of the older bestsellers like the Song of Ice and Fire series, Norwegian Wood, The Da Vinci Code, etc., are not listed on Kindle Matchbook. The closest we came to finding bestsellers was when we stumbled upon The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho in the listings.
- Several individual publishers have come up with similar bundling programs. HarperCollins and Ingram teamed up with BookShout for a bundling program. PM Press was the first book publisher to bundle free e-books with nearly every one of the physical books purchased on its website.
- BitLit is a free app that allows readers to purchase the e-book edition at a discounted price when they already own the print book. This Canadian start up has signed up about 80 publishers, including O’Reilly, Other Press, ECW Press, Osprey Group, Greystone Books, Berrett-Koehler and Although Bitlit claims to have around 30,000 books listed on its app, like Kindle Matchbook it doesn’t have a lot of bestsellers listed. For example, even a big player like HarperCollins has listed just 7 of its books.
Hopefully, there will come a day when all publishers will give out e-books for free with the print books. After all, content is the king, and we should be able to get away by paying for it in only one format.
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October 15, 2014
by InstaScribe
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Quotes Wednesday
By InstaSribe
Want to embed this quote on your blog or website? Use the following code.
<div style="text-align: center; padding: 25px; background: #eeeeee; margin: auto;"> <a href="http://instascribe.com"> <img src="https://instascribe.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/quote13.jpg?w=611" alt="The problem of finding a collection of 'wise' men and leaving the government to them is an insoluble one"/> <p style="font-weight: bold;">By InstaScribe</p> </a></div>
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October 14, 2014
by punjacked
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Readers Can’t Digest – Week 9 (06-Oct to 12-Oct)
October 13, 2014
by Jandré
1 Comment
Which e-reader?
With Santa Claus checking his lists as Christmas is approaching, now is a good time to determine which e-reader to request.
We all know that Kindle, Nook, and Kobo are the most popular dedicated e-readers. It is also old news that Apps are available to turn your iPad, Tablet or PC into a virtual e-reader. The aim of this article is to give you a broad overview of the different devices. We are not going to bog you down with all the technical specifications of each reader. We don’t aim to give you all the information you need to make a decision, but we’ll tell you about what is out there so that you can decide.
Kindle
Kindle Fire
The Kindle Fire has been around since the end of 2011. This device can stream videos as well as display e-books. It has a multi-touch color display. It has a fairly powerful processor and comes with up to 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of on-board storage space.
Kindle Fire a multi-purpose device- this counts in its favor and against it, a principle that applies to all the multi-purpose devices we are going to list. A multi-purpose tool is never as good as a dedicated tool. A dedicated tool, however, can only do one thing.
Very recently, and just in time for Christmas, Amazon released the newest range of Kindle Fire devices: Fire HD (6 inch display) for $99 and Fire HD Kids Edition for $149. The extra $50 gets you a two-year “anti kid” guarantee.
The Fire HD 8.9 will set you back a cool $379. It is 20% lighter than the iPad Air, and out performs it when it comes to Wi-Fi connection speed and sound performance.
This device can keep the Fire burning for about 12 hours before the battery fails.
As with all color, back lit LCD displays, it is more taxing to read than the E Ink readers.
The Kindle Fire, like all Kindles, caters exclusively to Amazon. It is a dedicated Amazon device and as such makes the whole online buying experience very straightforward. It is now possible to share content, apps, books and video between family members via a special Amazon service, Family Library.
Family Library is a big step forward for the up to now, close-handed Amazon.
Kindle
Amazon has also released three new or updated versions of the most popular e-reader. The Kindle with a 6 inch display, double the previous storage capacity and a touch screen can be had for $79.
The Kindle Voyage is thinner and lighter, and because you get “less” you pay more. The base version costs $199 and the top of the range one, with free 3G connection, $269.
Battery life is in the order of weeks. Take note that enabling Wi-Fi or 3G takes a serious bite out of the battery life.
Kindles do not support the EPUB format.
As its name suggests, the Kindle Paperwhite has the very clear Paperwhite display system. The whiteness and clarity of the display is akin to that of a normal paper page. It costs $119. To get rid of the ads on its 6 inch display you have to fork out an extra $20.
The Paperwhite is generally regarded as the best dedicated e-reader on the market. It is easy to use, has a wonderful battery life, can hold more than two thousand books and has a brilliantly clear display.
Nook
The Nook is Barnes & Noble’s answer to Amazon’s Kindle. Reviews indicate that it is as good as the Kindles.
Great battery life, a capacity that will easily hold 2000 books, a brilliant display, a very competitive price at $119 and rubber coated edges are but some of the features that makes the Nook GlowLight a winner.
None of the Nooks feature 3G or support for Audio-books. These are not really required features to make an e-reader great, but nice to have.
Nooks support the EPUB file format. This means that you cannot read any Amazon books, with its MOBI and AZW formats on it. Whereas Amazon’s MOBI and AZW formats are proprietary, EPUB is an open source standard.
As in the case of the “normal” Kindles, this is most probably what you will base your decision on, Does Amazon offer more books at a better price than all the other bookstores that use EPUB? Is Amazon’s retail system so user-friendly that the others are deemed inconvenient?
Yes, even when it comes to choosing an e-reader, philosophy plays a role!
Although Barnes & Noble has issued various Nook flavors over the years, only the NOOK GlowLight is offered on sale on their website at this point.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 NOOK
What we have here is an answer to the Kindle Fire. And, if we may say so, Barnes & Noble was quite clever. Whereas the Kindle Fire is restricted to a closed Amazon system, the SGT4 NOOK, built on the popularity and reliability of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 is not restricted to any system.
As a matter of fact, with the e-reading apps that are available, you could even read and view Amazon content on your SGT4 NOOK.
It will only set you back $179.99, just a drop more than half of what a Kindle HD goes for. At the time of writing Barnes & Noble was offering $200 worth of free content (Books, Magazines or TV Shows) to sweeten the deal.
Kobo Tablets
Kobo is a Canadian company that specializes in e-readers.
They currently offer four e-reader tablets. These are the Kobo Arc ($100), Kobo Arc 7 ($160), Kobo Arc 7HD ($210) and the Kobo Arc 10HD ($400). (Prices are only to give an indication and might vary from retailer to retailer.
While the reviews are mixed on these devices, keep in mind that in comparison to Amazon, Kobo is tiny and more likely to go under, or to become a massive overnight hit.
Kobo e-readers
To repeat, Kobo is a Canadian company that specializes in e-readers.
Kobo offers a wide variety of dedicated e-readers. The Kobo Touch ($80), Kobo Glo ($130), Kobo Aura ($140), Kobo Aura HD ($170) and Kobo Aura H2O ($180) are currently being sold by Kobo.
The Kobo Aura H20 is waterproof and can be read without fear in the bath. This is a nice feature.
iPads and other Tablets
There are a slew of tablets, phablets and other time killers that can also be used to double as an e-reader. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and some others have created apps that make it possible for you to read their content on these devices.
If you are looking at one of these devices, you are probably a casual reader and not a bookworm. Don’t worry; we won’t judge you for that particular shortcoming.
When it comes to tablets, and this includes the Kindle Fire series, Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 NOOK, and the bunch of Kobos, you are choosing more than just a book reader. If you move away from a dedicated e-book reader, you sacrifice some features like battery life and font clarity in order to gain a tablet’s multi-purpose aspect. We will discuss the e-reader vs tablet issue in another blog post.
The End
If you live in the US or Canada, you can choose between the Kindle, NOOK and Kobo readers without any worries. The factories and service centers are just around the corner.
If you live in Europe, it is touch and go for the Kobo devices. True, they have a presence in at least five European countries, and the postal system is world class, but we guess that Kobo will still have to prove themselves in order to gain our confidence.
If you live anywhere else, it must be the Kindle, and we say this against our own collective will. The Kindle is not inherently better than the NOOK, but Amazon has a better worldwide presence. If, as happens from time to time, something technical goes wrong, then it would probably be easier for you to get the device back to Amazon.
But whatever you do, read, because as Zen Scribe likes to say, “Reading helps for colds, broken hearts and confused minds. Reading takes you where you want to be, so that you can transform the place you are at.”
Which e-reader is only the beginning of the story.
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October 10, 2014
by Jandré
0 comments
E-reader vs Tablet – Sword vs Swiss Army Knife?
Today’s children probably do not know who MacGyver was. Nor would they know about his red knife, a Swiss Army Knife, perhaps not the first multi-purpose tool but sure as heck famous, about which Wikipedia says: “The most common tools featured are, in addition to the main blade, a smaller second blade, tweezers, toothpick, corkscrew, can opener, bottle opener, slotted/flat-head screwdriver(s), phillips-head screwdriver, nail file, scissors, saw (regular, wood), file, reamer, hook (parcel carrier, tightening aid for shoelaces, etc.), magnifying glass, ballpoint pen, fish scaler, hex wrench (with drive bits), pliers, gimlet, compass, ruler and keyring.”
Butchering a Swiss Army Cow would be much easier and quicker with an ordinary knife than a Swiss Army Knife, but if you still had to build a table or some other implement, the Swiss Army Knife is the way to go.
What would suit you better- a dedicated e-reader that can only be used for reading or a Tablet that brings a lot of other things to the table?
Good vs Good
This simple table compares both devices.
| E-reader | Tablets |
|
|
What we have here is a comparison of six features from amongst several possible. Both have strengths and weaknesses. These do not really help you to make your decision, because you must first know what you want to do!
In other words, it is time for some introspection! Self-knowledge will help you to make the best decision.
I, me, myself
We have compiled a few very simple questions to help you figure out what you want.
| The: “Do I want an e-reader or Tablet”-quiz | Column A | Column B |
| Do you read a lot? | √ | x |
| Do you read mainly “text” based books? | √ | x |
| Do you read books with a lot of Graphics? | x | √ |
| Do your books have images that need color, like pictures? | x | √ |
| Do you want a continuous connection with the WWW? | x | √ |
| Do yo want to do more than just read books? | x | √ |
| Are you interested in so called “enhanced” e-books? | x | √ |
| Are you worried about eye strain? | √ | x |
| Is money tight? | √ | x |
| Do you want exceptional battery life? | √ | x |
And the Winner is…..
You do not need a Harvard degree in “Quiz Interpretation” to figure out what will suit your needs best. If most of your answers are in Column A then it is an e-reader you are after, and if in Column B, it is a Tablet.
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October 8, 2014
by InstaScribe
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Quotes Wednesday
By InstaSribe
Want to embed this quote on your blog or website? Use the following code.
<div style="text-align: center; padding: 25px; background: #eeeeee; margin: auto;"> <a href="http://instascribe.com"> <img src="https://instascribe.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/quote12.jpg?w=611" alt="If man could find a state in which he felt that though idle he was fulfilling his duty"/> <p style="font-weight: bold;">By InstaScribe</p> </a></div>
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October 7, 2014
by punjacked
1 Comment
Readers Can’t Digest – Week 8 (29-Sep to 05-Oct)
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October 6, 2014
by Jandré
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E-Textbooks: Why I prefer destroying nature?
Allow me to let you in on a well-kept secret. Here at InstaScribe, we are pro e-book. Yes, that is the absolute truth and we do hope that you will trumpet this far and wide. Another truth that is not always acknowledged is that e-books are far from perfect.
We have touched on this issue a few times in the past. We have mentioned now and then the shortcomings of e-books that make them at least for now a far cry from “Kindle made from trees” Zen Scribe calls them.
In this post, we will be looking at e-text-books, specifically.
The Good:
Weight: “In my time,” says the ancient Zen Scribe, “we were at risk of damaging our young and tender backs carrying all those weighty text books.” True, in the West, regular visits to the locker takes care of this. Even so, now you can carry hundreds of books in your Kindle, iPad, etc. without adding a milligram to the weight. It will also eliminate that lengthy trek to your locker.
Price: McGraw-Hill, giants in the text book industry, claim that they can sell e-textbooks for 60% less than printed text books. (Cynical Scribe: Then why don’t they?) A random search on Amazon will show you that there is no clear trend when it comes to the pricing of e-textbooks. The prices are either the same, much cheaper or more expensive. (Ironically, the paper version of The Environment and You is nearly three times cheaper than the paper free Kindle version for US buyers!)
Some printed books are published in Third World Countries as special low-priced editions, whereas e-books are priced uniformly across the globe. Contrary to the expectations of buyers, this also leads to e-book pricing being higher in many territories compared to print books.
We expect that e-books will become cheaper over time. Remember that e-books are still relatively new. This means that there are many things for us, as an ecosystem, to learn. Even differential pricing is being experimented with. Amazon, for example, gives you an option to have a different (presumably lower!) price for India compared to US or Europe.
Green: While admitting that the final verdict is not out yet, we do find signs that e-books might be more ecologically friendly in the long run than traditional books. The guys at The New York Times, well at least some of the guys, and yes this most probably also includes the ladies, estimate that
“With respect to fossil fuels, water use and mineral consumption, the impact of one e-reader payback equals roughly 40 to 50 books. When it comes to global warming, though, it’s 100 books; with human health consequences, it’s somewhere in between.”
The Bad:
Page 24: Navigating an e-book is not nearly as easy as turning pages in a book. Going to a specific page, chapter or sub chapter is not nearly as straight forward as you would expect. It takes time to move from one location to another. This is surprising and inconvenient. Surprising since a text book is rarely read sequentially. Inconvenient, because it takes much more time. This is even more so in the class where a lecturer might highlight a passagewherever he chooses.
Did you mean Page 32? : There seems to be a lack of coordination between the way pages or locations are referred to by different readers. Kindle with its own secret sauce, so also i-Whatever and the rest. Lecturers do not want to waste time on your software problems.
Notes: It is true that you can add notes to most (if not all) e-books. You can highlight/underline something important, but it is cumbersome and slow. We all agree that Kindle and Nook are primarily e-readers, but a text book requires more than just reading.
The VERY Ugly:
One Size fits One: So Santa Claus slipped the newest “New Thing” into your Christmas stocking. The only problem is that now you will have to “re-buy” all your text books that are in another format. DRM and the proprietary format of some e-books might mean that they won’t work on your new gadget. It’s like the publisher demanding that you buy a new text book because you have new glasses or contacts! Absurd!
Conclusion
My main gripe with e-textbooks is that they are not comfortable to use. Do you remember that old car you had ages ago, or that outdated PC? You had to know exactly how to use it. Your thumb here, while you push that thingy with your toe, and bump the whatchamacallit with your hip.
That was fine because you slowly got used to the growing lists of issues, but with e-textbooks you buy something new that does not exactly work as it should!
What then, is the solution? On the one hand you might need better hardware and software. This, in turn, raises the issue of Enhanced e-books. Perhaps enhanced e-textbooks will make the grade? What do you say?
