First eBook Review

Originally posted on Future-ish - I'm pleased to announce that I finally broke down and purchased my first eBook. Not that I was opposed to it or anything, I just hadn't found any new titles I wanted to read yet. I tried for Alvin Toffler's 1970 Future Shock, but alas, no electronic version was available. Lucky for me, I happened upon Nick Bilton's book I Live in the Future & Here's How It Works. I'm only a few pages...er, I mean percentages...in and I'm already enjoying both the book and the electronic format. I went with the Kindle app on my iPhone and am pretty happy with all the little bells and whistles. As long as I can highlight and add notes, I'm a happy camper. I did purchase my first robot earlier this year, an iRobot Scuba, so I'm not too far behind the times.

I will say that it is a bit trippy (slang appropriate for both decades in which these books were written) reading I Live in the Future after Future Shock, but I'll save a discussion of all the connections until I finish both. Stop back in for a full report soon.

Update: 12/4/10...

I just finished the book and was actually pretty pleased with both the ebook experience and the actual content. I would say that Bilton isn't living all that far off into the future, but his understanding of past, present, and future media did provide a good framework with which to ponder where things are going. Everyone seems to be blogging about what lies ahead for journalism and social media so I none of Bilton's key points were all that revolutionary as I've heard them from may other authors and bloggers. I did really appreciate his many anecdotes for how to think about what is to come, however. The fact that surgeons with a background in video games may perform better is a great thing to tell your folks who complained about your hours behind the console. Bilton's point near the end of his book in which he points out that new media doesn't allow any of us to make mistakes or forget things is poignant too. All in all, a great read for sure. Like the movie theater vs. 'wait for the dvd debate' with books you have the paper vs ebook deliberation. I Live in the Future & Here's How It Works isn't one of the titles that requires the romance of a hard copy book read by the fire. Rather, it is the perfect format and content for a quick ebook read...especially considering the online extras that come with the book, QR codes and all (like the one below that references this particular blog post).