Features, Literature
Would you read a novel on your mobile?
The news that a certain author is planning on promoting the release of his new book by sending the whole of the first chapter to your mobile phone, generates some seriously mixed feelings here at ArtsWom towers.
E-books have been eagerly awaiting entrance into the VIP lounge of the ‘Next Big Thing’ club for some time now, but the bouncers continue to turn them away. Even the well-hyped introduction of Amazon’s Kindle, the wireless reading device (as opposed to all those wired reading devices you’ve been getting tangled up in), has failed to make digital books more desirable than those old-fashioned paper ones. Is this a venture that is simply never going to catch on, or is it the fact that e-book readers like the Kindle cost in excess of $300 that puts people off? And if the latter is the case, maybe the mobile phone route is the way forward and this is a brilliant plan?
This leaves the question, could you imagine reading a novel on your mobile? Of course, the medium offers the exciting possibility of Dickensian serials sent to your phone as a text message. Just think, 150 characters of pure drama dropped into your SMS inbox weekly. “It woz t bst of times it woz t wrst of times…” This could seriously catch on…
Read more about Andy McNabb offering his novel as a mobile download – click here.
You can try for yourselves right now, get free out of copyright (the greats of western lit) and creative commons books for your mobile phone at http://www.booksinmyphone.com
I have read many books from them and found the experience to be great - where ever you are you can just flip a novel out of your pocket. More contemporary work would be nice, but I guess they have to start somewhere.
Posted by jjwright • 28 February 2008 at 9:31 pm