Book Search

Stop gap technology alert. I think I came up with something like this earlier in the year, but I have a new implementation and I really think it is valuable.

I'm not going to give up books in physical paper form. Just note that right now. The Kindle looks silly. But there are a few things it can do that the ol' book never can. Searching is the biggest one I can think of. There are literal words and we have to somehow figure out what page they're on. As a stop gap between this technology and the pure erasure of the book from our culture...which I swear, please don't do it...I suggest each book should come with a digital copy of the book.

They did this with CDs right before the MP3 became king. Records even caught on and did this, keeping both physical form and the futuristic functionality. Book stores like Borders could keep digital copies of their books online and you could keep your "library" of purchased books there.

Then five years later when you remember really liking some line about white wine on a sandy French beach, you can just type in the terms and pop up the page number and flip to it. We need access to this! And we need it with the books themselves.

It's either that or you shove a computer chip in every book that highlights words that you say and has self flipping pages. But please, let's not go there.