Creative force behind Quakebook, Reconstructing 3/11 and the Abiko Free Press, Our Man in Abiko is interviewed here about his thoughts on ebooks, publishing, crowd-sourced journalism and… cats. All very Haruki Murakami.
In amongst the cat jokes though, there are serious points made about that thorniest of questions for all who love books – both writing and reading them – where do we go from here? It is perhaps too soon to say what this bold new publishing dawn will herald, but if you are interested in the kind of quality insight that newspapers once used to provide, this interview will provoke some intriguing thoughts. In case the interview should disappear from the internet (or get memory-holed), this is the quote that is mentioned in the title:
E-books cost nothing to produce (other than time) and can be distributed around the world. The snobs may hate them and deride them as being somehow less real than a paper book, but the fact is: e-books are democracy in action. And they may very well be the future of journalism.
My recommendation for a well-spent Sunday would be to check out the interview and then be sure to grab your copy of whichever of these cracking reads, Reconstructing 3/11 or Quakebook, you are yet to buy.
