As the technology of reading and writing using the tools of the digital revolution becomes more and more mainstream, and as we enter a brave new world of digital books, it is natural to wonder what the impact will be. This book is motivated by these considerations.

It consists of seven chapters spread over 160-odd pages (plus prefatory material and a bibliography). Chapters 1 to 3 are titled “Introduction,” “Reading,” and “Interaction.” Chapter 4, “Reading as a Social Activity,” does not seem to have much to do with electronic books (e-books) per se, although the “Sharing Annotations” and “Sharing Encountered Information” sections are mildly interesting. Chapter 5, “Studying Reading,” likewise seems to go far afield.

Chapter 6, “Content: Markup and Genres,” covers topics such as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and digital rights management (DRM), but many readers will find the discussions too basic or lacking technical depth and understanding. The final chapter, “Beyond the Book,” offers a perspective on how the use of e-books might evolve.

There is little discussion in the book of how the business and practice of publishing have been altered by the digital revolution. One way is that there is now much less reliance on editorial staffs and typesetters, and journals and book publishers alike often expect authors to provide final camera-ready copy (or something close to it). This in turn has simplified publishing and made it relatively inexpensive, allowing authors greater control over the layout and presentation of their work. Unfortunately, this also has the undesirable effect that authors, who are (presumably) experts in their subjects but not necessarily in typography or effective presentation, make choices in book design that ignore well-known standards, and are thus below par.

One example of this is, ironically, this book, which seems to have been typeset in single-column format using a 10-point font, resulting in very long lines and hard-to-read text. Also, professional layouts generally have about 70 text characters per line in a single-column format; the pages in this book have about 100.

The presentation of the content in the book could also have benefited from the finer touch of a skilled editorial staff. For example, the abstract and the preface repeat the same things, word for word and phrase for phrase.

Another point where the author should have presented some analysis concerns the question regarding the persistence of e-books. Surely authors and readers alike ought to be concerned with how well e-books and other online materials will survive. Paper and parchment have persisted for centuries, but one must wonder how well the digital media with which we are all so enamored will fare over the next many generations (of humans and technology). Given recent history (for example, our current inability to readily read the WordStar and WordPerfect files of 20 years ago), the future is not promising in this respect, although there are some solitary efforts--such as the Oxford Text Archive [1]--that strive to address these issues.