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電子書籍
電子書籍
米ベストセラー作家のスティーブン・キングが
先月14日、新作を電子書籍で出版し、
注文が殺到した。
紙の出版物の将来はどうなるのだろうか。
Computer Books
By JULIET HINDELL
I wonder if you have had to drag yourself away from a computer screen to read this. These days it is sometimes hard to
stop staring at a screen to read what seems like an old-fashioned medium — the newspaper.
Stephen King, the world famous horror writer, has just produced a novella, "Riding the Bullet," which one can read
only by downloading it to a computer. More than 400,000 people signed up for a cybercopy on the first day of issue.
Even famous authors can only dream of such fast sales; most hope to sell about 30,000 copies on a first print run.
In addition to the cyberbook phenomenon, I have reported recently on the huge popularity of PlayStation 2, Sony's new
computer game console. It has fabulous new graphics and the capability to play DVDs. And in the future you could be
using it to download paperless books from the Internet because it will become a gateway to broadband entertainment.
Suddenly, paper is looking increasingly redundant.
The computer age has long since arrived. But until recently experts thought that books and newspapers were not
threatened by paperless media because readers liked the physical presence of a book or a newspaper. Books, the experts
said, are portable and you can flick back and forth through the pages, retracing your steps or skipping boring sections in a way that is easier than on a screen.
People eulogize their books as if they were intimate friends — the smell of freshly printed paper, the delightful familiarity of a well-thumbed copy. I am even old enough to remember some books where the pages were not cut, so that
the reader had the delicious experience of slicing open the crisp new pages as she read them.
Readers, it seems, have a very sentimental relationship with their reading material. Computers were thought not to
have the same appeal and once were not as portable.
Apparently those are now old-fashioned ideas. You can, for example, download the Stephen King book to your handheld personal organizer — that is if you have the right brand. There is no reason why you shouldn't slip it in your pocket
and read it on the train.
Newspapers still seem to have some appeal, even if, like British papers, they leave readers' hands black with ink. But
I think, for Japanese commuters at least, a handheld computer would be far easier to read on the daily commute to work.
There would be no more struggling to turn over the pages without brushing the head of the person in front of you, for
example.
But perhaps the most important point is what these new media will be publishing. If publishing a book on line makes it
cheaper to produce, will we be inundated with even more substandard trash than we are at the moment? Many people
already worry about the kind of information available on the Internet, including the vast supplies of pornography. Will
good writing get drowned in the dross or will quality still count?
I wonder if you have had to drag yourself away from a computer screen to read this. These days it is sometimes hard to
stop staring at a screen to read what seems like an old-fashioned medium — the newspaper.
Stephen King, the world famous horror writer, has just produced a novella, "Riding the Bullet," which one can read
only by downloading it to a computer. More than 400,000 people signed up for a cybercopy on the first day of issue.
Even famous authors can only dream of such fast sales; most hope to sell about 30,000 copies on a first print run.
In addition to the cyberbook phenomenon, I have reported recently on the huge popularity of PlayStation 2, Sony's new
computer game console. It has fabulous new graphics and the capability to play DVDs. And in the future you could be
using it to download paperless books from the Internet because it will become a gateway to broadband entertainment.
Suddenly, paper is looking increasingly redundant.
The computer age has long since arrived. But until recently experts thought that books and newspapers were not
threatened by paperless media because readers liked the physical presence of a book or a newspaper. Books, the experts
said, are portable and you can flick back and forth through the pages, retracing your steps or skipping boring sections in a way that is easier than on a screen.
People eulogize their books as if they were intimate friends — the smell of freshly printed paper, the delightful familiarity of a well-thumbed copy. I am even old enough to remember some books where the pages were not cut, so that
the reader had the delicious experience of slicing open the crisp new pages as she read them.
Readers, it seems, have a very sentimental relationship with their reading material. Computers were thought not to
have the same appeal and once were not as portable.
Apparently those are now old-fashioned ideas. You can, for example, download the Stephen King book to your handheld personal organizer — that is if you have the right brand. There is no reason why you shouldn't slip it in your pocket
and read it on the train.
Newspapers still seem to have some appeal, even if, like British papers, they leave readers' hands black with ink. But
I think, for Japanese commuters at least, a handheld computer would be far easier to read on the daily commute to work.
There would be no more struggling to turn over the pages without brushing the head of the person in front of you, for
example.
But perhaps the most important point is what these new media will be publishing. If publishing a book on line makes it
cheaper to produce, will we be inundated with even more substandard trash than we are at the moment? Many people
already worry about the kind of information available on the Internet, including the vast supplies of pornography. Will
good writing get drowned in the dross or will quality still count?
Shukan ST: April 7, 2000
(C) All rights reserved
- drag yourself away from 〜
- いやいや 〜 から離れる
- stop staring at 〜
- 〜 を見つめるのをやめる
- old-fashioned medium
- 旧式な媒体
- horror writer
- ホラー小説の作家
- novella
- 短編小説
- downloading it to 〜
- 〜 に取り込む
- signed up for 〜
- 〜 の購入契約をした
- cybercopy
- コンピューターの本
- first day of issue
- 発行当日
- Even famous authors can only dream of 〜
- 有名な作家でさえ 〜 を夢見ることしかできない
- on a first print run
- 第1刷で
- cyberbook phenomenon
- 電子書籍という現象
- console
- 端末
- fabulous
- 素晴らしい
- DVDs
- デジタルビデオディスク
- paperless
- 情報やデータを紙を使わずに伝達する
- gateway to 〜
- 〜 への道
- broadband
- 広帯域の
- is looking increasingly redundant
- ますます冗長なものに見えてくる
- has long since arrived
- とっくに到来している
- physical presence of 〜
- 〜 の存在そのもの
- portable
- 持ち運びできる
- flick back and forth through 〜
- 〜 の前をめくったり後をめくったりする
- retracing 〜
- 〜 をたどり直す
- skipping boring sections
- つまらない部分をとばす
- eulogize
- 賛美する
- intimate friends
- 親友
- freshly printed
- 印刷されたばかりの
- delightful familiarity
- 快い親近感
- well-thumbed
- 手あかのついた
- delicious experience of slicing open 〜
- 〜 を切って開くというわくわくするような体験
- crisp
- ぱりっとした
- sentimental
- 感傷的な
- reading material
- 読む物
- appeal
- 魅力
- Apparently
- 〜 らしい
- handheld personal organizer
- 手のひらサイズの電子手帳
- that is if you have the right brand
- それが可能な機種を持っていればだが
- slip it in your pocket
- ポケットに入れる
- leave readers' hands black with 〜
- 〜 で読者の手を黒く汚す
- commuters
- 通勤者
- struggling to turn over the pages without brushing 〜
- 〜 をかすらないようにページをめくろうと苦心する
- be inundated with 〜
- 〜 の波に押し寄せられる
- substandard trash
- レベルの低い駄作
- vast supplies of pornography
- 膨大な量のポルノ文学やポルノ写真
- get drowned in 〜
- 〜 におぼれる
- dross
- 無価値なもの
- quality
- 質
- count
- 重要である、ものをいう