Cyberbooks

In 2002 at Teleread there was an article about Ben Bova's book Cyberbooks. The book has gotten some harsh reviews on Amazon but it also has some good reviews. The thing to watch for is the reviewers that realized the book was satire gave it good marks while those that thought Bova was predicting ebooks gave it harsh marks. Bova was not predicting ebooks. What he is writing about is how people and the publishing industry would receive ebooks. He is taking jabs at the publishing industry and other targets. Cyberbooks was written in 1989. When you put the book in the context of the time it was written and understand that it is trying to be a work of satire it is a very interesting book. For more analysis and a slightly different take see the article at Teleread. The reason I bring this article back into the light after five years is that ebooks continue their odd meandering path towards acceptance. Bova predicted this in 1989 in Cyberbooks and his ideas are worth looking at again.