Category Archives: books

Sharing eBooks

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Today’s xkcd:

I’ve lost grey matter beating my head on the walls of this blog and elsewhere on the internet that the advent of eBooks does not signal or signify the death of paper books, nor should it. Anyone who wants paper books to go away is in the business of reading for the sake of technology and not access. With that in mind, it is sad that there are many in this nation, especially librarians, who consider a potential decline in the number of paper books or “the death of print” as a widening of the digital divide. They are right and wrong.

Let’s look at how they are wrong first: Think beyond America (few do) and the number of people across the world we cannot ship physical books to or books that are not printed in their language. With cheap cellphones and pricing plans everywhere in the world except this country, eBooks are made more accessible anywhere you can get a cellphone signal. Now that is access. The digital divide closes. Now, look back at America. We are a nation that takes expensive technology as a given and works for change from that premise. I think we need to take a step back and look at how we consume and address (read: fight) our own patterns of consumption before we cry about how others cannot consume the same way. For instance, I will never buy a Kindle (single function) and truly question the purchase of eBooks for an iPad or similar device. More about this in a little bit.

How they are so, so right: Access to paper and electronic books in the US is a hot, confusing, expensive mess. Most libraries are woefully underfunded and understocked and the stacks of most university libraries are off-limits to the uninitiated, in many cases taxpayers who paid for them in the first place. And why in the name of everything right and sweet are new paperbacks almost $10 a piece, forget larger paperbacks for $14.99 and hardbacks upwards of $40? So, if getting to paper books is this hard, think how much more of a barrier there is is for the average American to get to electronic books. American internet and cellphone plans are the epitome of price-gouging and, in this economy, the first things to be cancelled when drawing up a budget. Following that, unless you plan to read only free, public-domain eBooks for the rest of your life, the pricing structure for for-sale eBooks is completely bogus. Up to $15 for a new eBook – they have to replant more electrons, you see – and don’t give me all that about having to pay the authors and editors because y’all know how much you were paid for paper copies of your books back when. The big honking cherry on top is the question of ownership and sharing. This brings me back to the point earlier in this post when I questioned the purchase of eBooks for any reader.

Is my purchased eBook really mine? In other words, can I do whatever I want with it, including giving it to a friend after I’ve finished reading it without giving away my reader with it? I recently stumbled across librarian Bobbi Newman’s really cool blog and am absolutely intrigued by the notion of checking out your local library’s electronic copy of a book on your reader. How many libraries do this? But, more importantly, when can we do this between my iPad and your Kindle? When can I give you my eBook that I bought for $14? And will a SWAT team come crashing into my house Brazil-style and cart me away to Penguin-Knopf Prison Cell Block C because, somewhere in the fine print of all the legalese surrounding the purchase of an eBook, it says I cannot give you my eBook as I would have my paper copy? Again, if the process is this difficult for me to understand, a technologist who works with Project Gutenberg, to fathom, how much harder is it someone who simply wants to read a book, not pay a fortune for it, actually own it and maybe give it away when done with it? Note that I did not even get into how you have to purchase an expensive eReader first (and its attendant DRM agreements with the providers of every chunk of content you put into it) before you go about borrowing library eBooks.

Yes, I can see how the digital librarians worry. But, I wish they, especially the more high-profile ones, would speak out more and louder against the dictates of the publishing and telecommunications industries instead of taking them as a given. We need less gatekeepers and more gatecrashers.

At the time of this writing, I am considering attending Books In Browsers 2011 as a PG representative, where I hope to learn a lot more about the current state of eBooks and generate ideas to increase access to electronic and paper books. Literacy creates opportunity.

Related Reading: Library Pirates Unlock Rented Digital Textbooks, Take Aim at Publishers

Michael Hart Remembered Online – UPDATED

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This post serves as a roundup of good online articles on and tributes to Michael S. Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg and close friend, who passed away two days ago. If you come across any that are not here, please link to them in the comments. So much love ad respect out there for Michael; it amazes me to see how many lives he touched and changed. Thank you all for remembering him in so honest a manner.

Computerworld UK “Fortunately, Project Gutenberg, which continues to grow and broaden its collection of freely-available texts in many languages, stands as a fitting and imperishable monument to a remarkable human being who not only gave the world great literature in abundance, but opened our eyes to the transformative power of abundance itself.”

Cult of Mac “If you have ever downloaded an ebook of any sort, from any source, you have Hart to thank for his pioneering work in the field.”

Brewster Kahle “A special man, a guiding light, a good friend. I miss him.   Lets build that billion book library that he is dreaming of.”

MetaFilter (gods, the wonderful comments on this one) “The Internet needs more people like this and less like thi$.”

Tim O’Reilly “#ebook pioneer Michael Hart, founder of the Gutenberg Project, died yesterday. Anyone who’s read a book online owes him.”

More:

Nat Torkington “I learned how hard it is to be a pioneer: doing work that others don’t value is thankless and marginalizing. I learned how hard it is when others eventually follow you: they don’t value what you’ve done nearly as much as they should … I learned to be generous with my time. I learned that sugar on pizza is a taste it takes longer than one day to acquire.”

eBook Newser

The Rumpus “I have more Project Gutenberg files on my e-reader than I do of all other types combined, and I doubt I’m alone in that.”

Boing Boing

Geekosystem “While his work is often eclipsed by the sleeker, sexier [$$$] offerings through the Amazon and iTunes eBook stores, his aspirations were of the highest order.”

Slashdot From the comments: “… our opinions on methods often clashed, but I have no doubt that he sought to serve humanity to the best of his ability, and especially to bring knowledge and opportunity to everyone in the world – without exception. He strove mightily to break down the barriers to knowledge, and to dethrone the gatekeepers who seek to prevent ordinary people from joining the company of the elite.”

Guardian UK

TechWorld “Hart’s work on Project Gutenberg can be seen an attempt do ‘something right’: Within the constraints imposed by national laws — the ludicrous Mickey Mouse Protection Act, for example — Project Gutenberg endures and continues its work of freely disseminating knowledge and challenging illiteracy.”

Top 100 Science Fiction / Fantasy Book Meme

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A little late to this action, but I’ve been busy. The results of NPR’s Top 100 Science-Fiction and Fantasy survey are in. A few geos had a blog meme going as follows: Copy and paste NPR’s printable list and embolden (stronginate?) the titles you have read. I add a caveat that you may not check off a book as read if you’ve only watched the inevitable movie version.

Here’s mine with editorial comments, and links to the titles at Project Gutenberg, if applicable.

Why are The Futurological Congress by Stanislaw Lem and Sentinels From Space by Eric Frank Russell not on this list?

1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
3. Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card (Can’t look at this book title and not think Bender’s Game.)
4. The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert
5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin (I’ve read it in bits, pieces and spoilers. No fair.)
6. 1984, by George Orwell
7. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
8. The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov
9. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
10. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman (Anansi Boys was much better, IMO.)
11. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
12. The Wheel Of Time Series, by Robert Jordan (Ever get sucked in by a series of books that your friends read feverishly while forgetting to eat, sleep or bathe? No? Me neither.)
13. Animal Farm, by George Orwell
14. Neuromancer, by William Gibson
15. Watchmen, by Alan Moore
16. I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov
17. Stranger In A Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein
18. The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss
19. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
20. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
21. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick (Speaking of inevitable movie versions, you’re not going to believe that Ridley Scott has plans for a Bladerunner sequel. What are they going to name it? Father Of The Electric Bride?)
22. The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
23. The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King
24. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke
25. The Stand, by Stephen King (D read it and divined the end halfway into the book, thus ruining it for the rest of us in his general vicinity at the time.)
26. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson
27. The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury
28. Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
29. The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman
30. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
31. Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein
32. Watership Down, by Richard Adams (I believe I protested against this book in freshman English. No idea why. Must have been teenage hormones.)
33. Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey
34. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein
35. A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller
36. The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells
37. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, by Jules Verne
38. Flowers For Algernon, by Daniel Keys
39. The War Of The Worlds, by H.G. Wells
40. The Chronicles Of Amber, by Roger Zelazny (What?! Not Lord of Light? I’m outraged!)
41. The Belgariad, by David Eddings
42. The Mists Of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley
43. The Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson
44. Ringworld, by Larry Niven
45. The Left Hand Of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin
46. The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien
47. The Once And Future King, by T.H. White
48. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
49. Childhood’s End, by Arthur C. Clarke
50. Contact, by Carl Sagan
51. The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons
52. Stardust, by Neil Gaiman
53. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson (Some jackass has my first-edition, signed copy of this book. When I find out who it is, there will be severe hide whipping.)
54. World War Z, by Max Brooks
55. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle
56. The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman
57. Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett
58. The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson
59. The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold
60. Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett
61. The Mote In God’s Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
62. The Sword Of Truth, by Terry Goodkind
63. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
64. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
65. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson
66. The Riftwar Saga, by Raymond E. Feist
67. The Shannara Trilogy, by Terry Brooks
68. The Conan The Barbarian Series, by R.E. Howard
69. The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb
70. The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
71. The Way Of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson
72. A Journey To The Center Of The Earth, by Jules Verne
73. The Legend Of Drizzt Series, by R.A. Salvatore
74. Old Man’s War, by John Scalzi
75. The Diamond Age, by Neil Stephenson (One of the best books ever written)
76. Rendezvous With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke
77. The Kushiel’s Legacy Series, by Jacqueline Carey
78. The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin (Simply great.)
79. Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury
80. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire
81. The Malazan Book Of The Fallen Series, by Steven Erikson
82. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde (I’ve had a really hard time not making out with all of Fforde’s books)
83. The Culture Series, by Iain M. Banks
84. The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart
85. Anathem, by Neal Stephenson (Once I am done with the self-imposed decade-long hiatus from Stephenson door-stoppers, I am on this book. I swear.)
86. The Codex Alera Series, by Jim Butcher
87. The Book Of The New Sun, by Gene Wolfe
88. The Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn
89. The Outlander Series, by Diana Gabaldan
90. The Elric Saga, by Michael Moorcock (Have a bookshelf full of it, but no thanks.)
91. The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury
92. Sunshine, by Robin McKinley
93. A Fire Upon The Deep, by Vernor Vinge
94. The Caves Of Steel, by Isaac Asimov
95. The Mars Trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson
96. Lucifer’s Hammer, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
97. Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis
98. Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville
99. The Xanth Series, by Piers Anthony
100. The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis

Again, Eric Frank Russell? Anyone?

34/100. Your turn. Drop a comment here with a link so I can check out your results.

On Bayes And Uncertainty Analysis

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“When the facts change, I change my opinion. What do you do, sir?” — Thomas Bayes, British mathematician and Presbyterian minister

The New York Times reviews Sharon Bertsch McGrayne’s The Theory That Would Not Die: How Bayes’ Rule Cracked the Enigma Code, Hunted Down Russian Submarines, and Emerged Triumphant from Two Centuries of Controversy.

Three topics I love to think about rolled into one: anything at all to do with Enigma, geophysical parameter estimation and the craziness behind not changing your mind given the increasing likelihood of evidence to the contrary.

336 pages long, so I kinda expect it to be a quick Winchester-esque romp through probability estimation, but any book that shows how much we use Bayes’s theorem in almost all fields of science and engineering and everyday is alright by me. In fact, Bayes is one of the first things taught in an oil and gas reservoir characterization class. Quantifying unknowns is tricky business and the subsurface is inherently unknown at best, so it is to every reservoir geophysicist’s advantage to use as many data sets as possible in parameter estimation and assign uncertainties to each input – seismic attribute volume, velocity model, core sample, log curve, etc. – as early and often as possible. (Paper: Bayesian reservoir characterization by Luiz Lucchesi Loures)

The reviewer states that “a serious problem arises, however, when you apply Bayes’s theorem to real life.” What exactly that is supposed to mean? As pointed out earlier, Bayes’s theorem is used in very real-life areas as nebulous as cryptography and the search for fossil fuels. Also, news flash: every undertaking has associated human agendas. So, why can Bayes not be implemented in studies of global climate change and autism? But on one thing we agree – the sad fact that there are many of us, scientists or not, who are “wedded to [our] priors.” So, and I guess this goes for everyone, absorb and digest as much information as possible, stop to think about or research the likelihood of what you learned and try not to let confirmation bias get in your way.

Good luck. (Get it? Good luck? Never mind.)

Of Addicts And Writers And Doing And Being

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I’m currently reading two books. (I probably do this in keeping with my Vatul nature; consider it an offering to my ancestors, if you will.) They are Bob Woodward’s Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi and Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie.

The books have nothing to do with one another and I picked each up for completely different reasons, but there are a couple of questions that both books bring up.

1) Is addiction a personality trait? I understand addiction as various things -  habit gone bad, a genetic predisposition and certainly as a disease – but is addiction / can addiction become a part of you such that it is something to describe you? Think about that question for a second. See, I view John Belushi as a great actor and an addict, neither which are necessarily part of his personality. I am trying to get at the distinction (or lack thereof) between what you are and what you do. If you think I am going about this the wrong way, read Question 2.

2) In his foreword to the 25th anniversary edition of Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie remarks, “I have treated my writing simply as a job to be done, refusing myself all (well, most) luxuries of artistic temperament.” Easy for him to say when he is a great writer who came gifted with the tools. Just like it’s easy for me to treat exploration geophysics as a job when I come with the necessary geological knowledge and technical abilities. But, how can Rushdie treat something as a job to be done that is such a part of him? Again, how do you plot that line between what you are and what you do?

I’m reminded of some of Mark Folse’s odd words, “Passion and discipline are two names for the same thing, aspects of the same cruel and delightful god that drove men to go to extraordinary lengths to plant a flag on the moon and to write Moby Dick.”

And Frank Sinatra, “Do Be Do Be Do.”

Update: Scientific American asks and answers similar questions this week. “… the link is not between creativity and addiction per se. There is a link between addiction and things which are a prerequisite for creativity … You don’t become addicted because you feel pleasure strongly. On the contrary, addicts seem to want it more but like it less.”

Your Chance To Help Project Gutenberg Get Books Out

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Today’s Philanthroper deal hosts Project Gutenberg: $1 shares 36,000 free books with the world.

Paper books may not need batteries and you can curl up with one on a rainy day, but this is an attitude of first-world luxury. Paper books can burn, flood and not be replicated for millions of people all over the world without a printing press. Thanks to the ubiquity of cellphone technology, even a poor kid in an Indian fishing village can read the collected works of Shakespeare. It’s all about access. Project Gutenberg and hundreds of mirror sites the world over make this happen based on one simple philosophy: As many books as possible to as many people as possible. Let’s help keep it going.

Please find out more about Project Gutenberg, download some free eBooks for your library, share them, give back and spread the word. You can also help by being a proofreader yourself.

“The greatly increased availability of virtually anything to virtually anybody is a great thing.” – Chef Craig Giesecke

Winter Is Coming

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For those of you watching or who intend to check out Game Of Thrones on HBO, Athenae is reviewing the seven hells out of the show over at First Draft. Something I’ve always appreciated about this woman is her ability to get right to the dragon cojones of the matter when other lesser writers simply show up to critique. Something.

[Spend] some time with the Lannisters and convince me that just because they don’t eat beating bloody stallion hearts, they’re any more gentle or high-minded. The contrast is there for a reason, because it’s a story about power, and sometimes your tribe isn’t who you think it is.

*swoon* Still, my major girl crush is reserved for Daenerys Targaryen, the khaleesi, the true dragon, the woman I wish would end the civil war and ride north against the wights beyond the wall. The way she almost orders her brother’s death; the acts she is yet to commit. How’s that for strong female characters to keep us women occupied during the show?

Stuff Of Interest Today

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Neil Gaiman is a renowned British author. He is also an American creator, who writes great books, sells them, makes money, and most importantly, knows exactly what his time is worth. So, clutching our political aprons over Gaiman’s $45,000 fee to address a group of people at a Minnesota public library, while saying “Tally ho, carry on” when, as one of many examples, Texas offers massive tax breaks to yacht purchasers, means we have lost as American capitalists.

This shows we don’t understand what our time is worth as individuals. It also reflects an inexcusable lack of sophistication and imagination.

And don’t ask me who Neil Gaiman is. I will have to tell you to go read a book. Like Neverwhere, which is by far better than American Gods.

***

Meanwhile, people who live along the Mississippi downstream of the state of Missouri are freaked out by the river, but more so by the return of the Army Corps of Engineers.

“Nature needs space, or it will take it anyway at a great price,” as New Orleans environmental lawyer Oliver Houck wrote today.

True, civilization may exist by nature’s consent, etc. but the aftermath is survived despite the government and insurance companies.

May Flowers In Texas

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Next year. The (cold) drought here is so bad this desert rat craves rain, heat and its accompanying humidity. Shorts, tank tops, barbequed ribs and cold beer now! How else is a former Kuwaiti resident to celebrate the death of Osama bin Laden? Screw that, I’m more worried about the impact of the Mississippi River floods downstream. Data nerds, parse this: US Army Corps of Engineers Near Real-Time Gages reporting Hourly Stage Data. Let me know if there are better data to look at.

It occurred to me that a blog post can be two sentences long and provide evidence that neither VatulBlog nor I are dead.

While we’re making discoveries up in here, I

- have uncovered an inverse correlation between extreme productivity at the new job and frequency of blog posts here. It’s not even that I don’t have the time, energy and inclination to post during the day; my brain and creativity are put to such great use in that time that there is little left for the evening. Plus, Big D and I are still unpacking, unwinding, un-everything.

- am an extreme germaphobe, except when it comes to lovin’ on dogs and cats. Go figure.

- beat myself up too much over “not a writer” and/or “don’t write enough” when I clearly write when I put the old noggin’ to it. Example: The Season 2 opener post over at my other joint, Back Of Town. She’s a non-writer who doesn’t have enough time in the day for this blog, but runs an other blog. Uh huh.

- am signing off to watch Bladerunner again. Speaking of which, a number of Philip K. Dick books were posted to Project Gutenberg this morning. Check them out.

Book Review: The Planet In A Pebble

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A sculptor once said to me, “Science is a discipline followed with passion. Art is a passion followed with discipline.” In The Planet In A Pebble: A Journey Into Earth’s Deep History, Jan Zalasiewicz describes well how geology and its pursuit is simultaneously both discipline and passion. From the origin of its parts in the Big Bang and earth’s own cataclysmic birth to its subterranean assembly, from its exhumation in a plate tectonic act to ultimate disintegration many millions of years from now, the book follows the life of a pebble of Welsh slate. Along this arduous journey with the pebble, the reader is introduced to the fundamentals of geology as well as the tools and practices of the trade.

A pebble of Welsh slate. One will never consider such a rock sample drab, lowly or boring again on learning its contents and history, which is the makeup and story of the earth itself. The book begins with the creation of our solar system and immediately relates geology to the first principles of science – that an implicit understanding of these is required, that geology is not an “ism” in isolation but a synthesis of fundamental sciences in the study of this ball of physics, chemistry and biology on which we live. Pebble also directly imparts an understanding of and respect for time, that key geological ingredient.

Landscapes are transient. This is a concept that does not come easily to us. In our brief lifetimes we see the Earth’s landmasses as things of massive permanence, the bedrock of passing civilizations. And yet even in these human lifetimes we can see masses of rock debris piled up beneath mountain crags – and, as we walk nearby, hear the fall of new scree fragments, dislodged from rock faces by wind and water … Multiply such changes by the vastness of geological time, and there is plenty of time to change the face of a continent.

Zalasiewicz appears to be a paleontologist and geochronologist primarily, obvious from the tender explanations of the biochemistry of deep sea life, fossil preservation and rock dating techniques. One cannot get over clever phrases like  “cathedral-like vaults” when describing clay mineral formation at a molecular level, “atomic wallflowers” in the U-Pb dating of detrital zircons and the “baroque complexity” of well-preserved graptolites. The only complaint I have about the book, then, is that while it jumps with the ease and intellectual curiosity between concepts required of such an investigation, it does not spend equal amounts of time on those concepts. Case in point: The word “graptolite” shows up approximately 60 times in the book, while “lithosphere” and “palaeomagnetism” appear not even once. Zalasiewicz loves graptolites, we get it.

The book has its excessively-detailed Tolkien moments, but it is that same passion and dedication which propelled me through Pebble and its beautiful take on a deeply-buried mudstone’s oil window – “not only did that pebble yield up its own few drops of oil, but it also allowed through it many more such droplets that travelled up from the strata below, on their way towards the surface.” And following that the transformation of that mudstone into the metamorphic rock slate, in a majestic act of mountain-building known as the Caledonian/Acadian orogeny.

No scientist should be without a sense of humility and humor. In his generous use of terms like “reasonable,” “estimate,” “conundrum” and “working model,” Zalasiewicz sends the message clearly that geological analysis is a forensic science – an investigation using all currently-available tools and theories – and the only thing we know is that there is a lot more to know.

Out there, somewhere, will be the Rosetta Stone of the chitinozoans … waiting to be released. Someone will find it, and realize what it is … Then, there will be brief fanfare among palaeontologists, and celebrations and the concoction of a purple-prosed press release. And the next day, palaeontologists (one or two with slight hangovers) will get back to work, for there is much more work to do out there, and many more mysteries to be solved.

Admittedly, it is hard to review an earth science book without an eye to science education and literacy. Given that an introductory geology class is the only science class many students take at the university level, I offer that this book with more illustrations (and scale bars on existing illustrations) would serve as an excellent textbook, thanks in large part to its readability, with more formal classroom learning following along with its chapters. I can guarantee that many a budding geologist will emerge from its pages, the amazing tale of this lowly pebble no more.

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar.

– The Dark, Blue Sea by Lord George Gordon Byron

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Disclosure: Oxford University Press gave me a copy of the book for review purposes. No other form of compensation was received.