I've been wandering other people's blogs and sometimes leaving babbles in the comments tonight because a) I'm knackered and b) I am wilfully obstructing the latest attempts to force me to live as a dull and lifeless Puritan. Therefore I am now full of cider and red wine and have a plentiful supply of gas for any EU under-eights who need balloons blown up. Just be careful not to pop them. That's probably illegal based on both noise and toxic fumes legislations.
Seriously. I'm hovering above my chair on a cushion of warm air here. Well, I say 'air' but you wouldn't want to breathe it. Lamb and mushroom pasta with added chilli, combined with cider and red wine could solve the energy crisis at a stroke, if it wasn't for the 'ooooh, I don't like the smell' girlie-men this country is full of now.
Anyhow, on an entirely different tack, I see W H Smith is to sell the Kobo Ebook reader in shops. Tesco have had the Kindle on sale for months here but the Kobo one is cheaper if you don't want the touch screen.
Why would you want the touch screen? You're supposed to be reading the screen so the last thing you want is grubby fingermarks all over it. Get the non-touchscreen one, it works just the same and it's cheaper.
I'm pleased because I'm already selling books on Kobo (even though I had no idea who they were) so getting more people onto it is fine with me. It takes longer to get books onto Kobo and it takes longer to get paid by them but what the hell, another outlet is a good thing.
What is likely to happen now is that the bookshops will get WiFi installed, you'll download the first few pages free and if you like it, you can buy it. No need for a home computer at all. If they can do this in a city centre pub on Friday and Saturday nights, we authors are laughing.
Imagine waking up and thinking 'Oh crap, what books did I buy last night?'
How wonderfully surreal is that?
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And then someone will come up with the idea of e-writing the next big e-novel in a way that allows for several versions to exist under the same title at once - one version for the anti-smoking crowd, one version for the free-spirited smokers/drinkers, another for the lefties, another for the ultra-religious, etc. and so on. That way you can download whatever version of reality you wish to read about and ignore that other parts of the world might think differently. It will be the final high-mark of civilization, to have novels custom worded to fit the reality of the individual reader's mind, so their ego is lifted, pride swells up and they feel very happy for money most well spent - and never any complaints, never any returns and never any controversies.
Anon- Shhh!
You're giving away the future, albeit in reverse.
You'll download reality and adapt your thoughts to fit.
Nothing will be real until you've been QUANGO'ed.
A joke? We'll see.
"Imagine waking up and thinking 'Oh crap, what books did I buy last night?'
How wonderfully surreal is that?"
I would say it's infinitely preferable to the usual situation, but you could wake up with Jo Brand's autobiography on the pillow next to you...
Julia M - or horribly worse... Jo Brand.
If she was asleep on your arm you'd have to decide whether to wake her up or gnaw your arm off
"Imagine waking up and thinking 'Oh crap, what books did I buy last night?'"
That already happens to me, thanks to Amazon One-Click.
The sooner we can download the dribblers and shufflers that occupy Parliament, Whitehall and the local councils and give 'em a good kicking, the better… sorry, I meant delete…
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