On the way to the London Book Fair yesterday I was
sitting opposite a chap on the tube who was reading using a Sony Reader, contained in
a suitably snazzy leather case.
I immediately assumed he would be heading to the
Book Fair too, but not so. He continued with his journey while I alighted at Earl's Court. It was
a notable happening in being the first time I've seen someone reading using an
e-reading device on public transport.
Once at the show, the whole topic of digital
content and rights management was very much to the fore. I saw three iPads (two
of them on the Pindar stand), and was informed there were something like seven at
the show overall - this number would no doubt have been rather higher had
various attendees travelling from America not been absent due to the
ash-based travel lockdown.
Content management specialist Aptara had a full
complement of e-readers on its booth, including the iPad, Sony Reader, Barnes
& Noble Nook, Amazon Kindle and also the iPhone (my colleague Barney Cox tells me he frequently reads books on
his).
The firm's Lindsay Macleod reckons the iPad
"meets some people's expectations but not others, and the jury is still
out on the reader experience".
Meanwhile, at the Pindar stand I was able to
compare reading Winnie the Pooh with full colour illustrations on the iPad,
against my comparatively rather dull old Kindle. Top tip for putative iPad
purchasers: you'll need to carry a microfibre cloth with you at all times, the
screen's ability to pick up fingerprint marks is on a par with that of a black
glass coffee table from Argos.
Despite all the digital content focus physical
books still dominated, and the range of formats and cover treatments on display
made the link between print production and publishing creativity abundantly
apparent.
Special mention must go to CPI, which produced a
lovely little mock-paperback with blank pages, for use as a notebook: Writer's
Block by Paige Turner, "every page is imbued with nothingness". The cover
was produced using the firm's latest super matt laminate finish, which has
extra tactile appeal, while the sell on the outside back cover provided a neat
synopsis of its services. An excellent example of marketing one's services by
putting an entirely appropriate promo into the hands of potential clients.
