e-books

I WOKE up extra early, 4 a.m. instead of 5 a.m. to do this column, and to do some last-minute packing for a trip.

The list of stuff to bring included my Kindle, Amazon’s e-book reading device. I’ve been using the Kindle for two years now and appreciate it much more when I have to travel, which includes just plain commuting in Manila and sitting in the traffic for long stretches. You can load more than a thousand books into the device, which I have no intention of doing, but even with a few books on it, it’s nice going off on a long trip, even if only from Quezon City to Manila, knowing you won’t run out of things to read.

When I first got the Kindle I brought it to Power Books because I wanted to get a case for it. The store clerks were all intrigued, asking to hold it and to see how it works.  One of them whined, “What will happen now to bookstores?”

I tried to console him: “There are many books which I wouldn’t want to read on a Kindle. Art books, for example, and nature books with lots of photographs.”

The production of e-books has grown rapidly over the last two years, but I’m convinced the bookstores and publishers of “old-fashioned” hard copies of books will remain in business for a long time to come.  I’ll explain the reasons in a while, but first I want to share information on local developments regarding e-books.

Two years ago there were hardly any e-books about the Philippines. That’s changing quickly. Several government institutions have collaborated on an elib.gov.ph offering access to many e-publications, especially on the Philippines. The Inquirer now has an electronic version you can subscribe to through Amazon, and read through the Kindle device or Kindle software.

Over at UP, the new director Neil Garcia has plunged into e-book publishing, launching nine titles a few weeks ago, including my “Revisiting Usog, Pasma, Kulam.” I have a list of the e-books at the end of this article. The e-books were produced by Flipside, a Filipino company.  The books are available through Amazon and can be read through a personal computer or through a Kindle.

Besides Flipside, there’s Vibal Publishing, which has produced several digital titles, including several on Rizal.

Responding to the problem of heavy schoolbags filled with textbooks, La Salle Greenhills has started a pilot program to use an e-tablet or e-book reader with all the textbooks stored inside. Jun Lozada, the whistle-blower on the NBN-ZTE scandal, developed the software when he realized the heavy schoolbags were aggravating his son’s scoliosis. Parents have to shell out P14,500 for the e-tablet.

I have to explain that Kindle is only one of the devices with which you can read e-books. The iPad also functions as an e-book reader. Don’t forget the personal computer can also be used to read these e-books, which is why some people prefer to use tablets, the small laptop computers where you can detach the screen, to read e-books, but go back to the computer to do word processing, spreadsheets and other tasks.

Besides the variety of readers, you have to deal with different formats, from simple “txt” (text) files to the very popular Adobe Acrobat PDF. Kindle uses an “azw” format.

Free e-books

I can’t give all the technicalities around the formats right now. What I did want to write though is the way the e-book explosion has come not just from commercial companies, but from social networks of volunteers who are scanning and making electronic copies of books and then posting these on the Internet, allowing people to download them for free.

One of the oldest groups is Gutenberg.com, which now has thousands of books on its site, including quite a number of Philippine titles. Gutenberg only scans books which are no longer copyrighted, so they have a lot of classics on their site, including for example Rizal’s novels. Scanning books is even more tedious than photocopying, so each of these e-books is a labor of love, so to speak.

Then there are file-sharing sites like library.nu (formerly gigapedia.com) and scribd.com, which are similar to the sites that offer movies and audio recordings except that this e-library posts books, lots of books from the social and natural sciences, medicine, engineering, architecture. Most books are on PDF format.

A few comments now on using an e-book reader.  Remember these devices are still constantly being improved. The Kindle, for example, still can’t handle books that don’t use the Roman alphabet. No Chinese or Japanese books then.

My Kindle broke down after a year and I learned that this was because the screen can’t take too much pressure, for example, wedged in between heavy folders in your bag. Because it was still under warranty, Amazon replaced it right away. They have a good system for overseas ordering and shipping, whether for a new or replacement device.

For the Kindle, you order books (and subscribe to newspapers and magazines) through the Internet. The Internet connections through the Kindle itself vary depending on where you are in the world, but if they’re slow you can order through your computer and then transfer the file into the Kindle. Keep the wireless on your Kindle off and the device can go for several days without recharging.

The e-book devices have functions like search, bookmark (instead of folding down the corner of the page) and even note-taking. Kindle allows you to put in audio files so you can listen to audiobooks, or play music while reading.

Maybe it’s my age, but I still enjoy books you can hold, turning the pages by hand. It’s really all conditioning and I suspect my kids will take on to the e-books more quickly.  But I’m also certain there will still be bookstores and libraries (real libraries) for a long time to come because when you do read a good e-book, you end up wanting to get the real copy. There was one book on child development that I liked so much I ordered three “real” copies to give to friends.

Here are the first batch of e-books from UP Press and Flipside, which can be ordered from Amazon at prices ranging from $5.99 to $8.99 each. Ian Casocot’s “Beautiful Accidents”; Samuel Tan’s “A History of the Philippines”; Ting Tiongco’s “Surgeons Do Not Cry”; Carljoe Javier’s “Geek Tragedies”; Karl de Mesa’s “Damaged Peoples: Tales of the Gothic-Punk”; Alfred Yuson’s “Hair Trigger Loves”; Angelo Lacuesta’s “Fourteen Love Stories”; Arvin Mangohig’s “The Gaze” and Cristina Hidalgo and Priscelina Legasto’s “Philippine Postcolonial Studies.” Oh, and my book. Good selection. Puera e-usog!

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Email: mtan@inquirer.com.ph