With todays launch of Sexy Web Design by Elliot Jay Stocks, it got me thinking about web design books in general and how often I make use of them. On my shelf I have several books about web design ranging from a Teach Yourself HTML and CSS in 24 Hours to Actionable Web Analytics, and I read them quite a bit when I first got them as I had bought them for a purpose at the time and although some were better than others, I always had a good read.
After the initial reason that they were bought, I’ve tended to file them away and rarely pick them up afterwards and instead just headed straight for Google to find the answers to any questions when a lot of the time the answers are in the books about two feet away. However, I always seem to feel better knowing I have a book about the subject for some reason, even if I rarely pick it up. I will continue to buy books as I find it really hard to read long articles and papers from a screen and much prefer paper where I can scribble on it and highlight certain areas a lot easier than on the computer. Whoever proposed the “paperless office” was clearly having a laugh!
Are you a big buyer of books and web design books in particular? I can’t see the day when I would stop buying them to be honest, and even thought of a reader such as the Kindle doesn’t appeal to me as I much prefer holding the paper in my hands.
I’ve purchased a copy of Elliot’s book as I’m a big fan of his work and look forward to it arriving in the post, and I’m sure I’ll be back on here in the future to review it before filing it away again!
I’ve just discovered a new timewaster which may slow down my productivity over at wetellstories.co.uk which uses Google Maps and other internet technologies to track the characters and action of the story.
The idea was conceived by Penguin, the publishing giant as a digital writing project which harnesses the power of the internet, and uses the technology available to enhance the story. Six different authors were commissioned to write six different stories which would be presented in a very different way to the traditional novel by using social networking tools such as blogs and twitters to enhance the story.
The death of the paper novel has been predicted for several years with the introduction of e-books and e-book readers such as the Amazon Kindle, which were able to store several books at once and allowed the user to carry the device around to read anywhere. These devices have been predicted to become more and more popular for a while now and it hasn’t happened yet and I don’t think it ever will. A high number of people now spend a large part of their day at a computer screen and the last thing they would want to do is look at a different one in order to read a book. Each day I get the train into work and I see several people reading books on the journey, but I’ve yet to see one e-book reader.
Although the technology is available to operate theses devices and it is a good idea, I can’t see it becoming hugely popular to store and read e-books however I think what Penguin have done is an interesting idea and has the potential to succeed.
