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Burning the Page: The eBook Revolution and the Future of Reading 1st Edition, Kindle Edition
A groundbreaking vision on the future of reading, from an early innovator on Amazon's Kindle team.
- Is digital the death knell for print?
- Or will it reinvigorate the written word?
- What will happen to bookstores, book browsing, libraries, even autographs?
- Will they die out—or evolve into something new?
In Burning the Page, digital pioneer Jason Merkoski charts the ebook revolution's striking impact on the ways in which we create, discover, and share ideas. From the sleek halls of Silicon Valley to the jungles of Southeast Asia, Merkoski explores how ebooks came to be and predicts innovative and interactive ways digital content will shape our lives. Throughout, you are invited to continue the conversation online and help shape this exciting new world of "Reading 2.0."
For those who love books, collect books, own an e-reader, vow never to own one, or simply want to know where books are headed, this is a crucial guide to both the future of reading and to our digital culture as a whole.
- ISBN-13978-1402288821
- Edition1st
- PublisherSourcebooks
- Publication dateAugust 6, 2013
- LanguageEnglish
- File size1.8 MB
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Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Review
"Merkoski envisions some specific innovations that are interesting and imaginative." - paidContent
"A provocative book." - Kirkus
"I could review Burning the Page for another thousand words, and still have more to say. This book is incredibly valuable. We've not had much exposure to the minds of those driving the e-book revolution, and to have something to engage and in places disagree with strongly is rather novel." - Futurebook
About the Author
Product details
- ASIN : B00BEXP52K
- Publisher : Sourcebooks
- Accessibility : Learn more
- Publication date : August 6, 2013
- Edition : 1st
- Language : English
- File size : 1.8 MB
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 256 pages
- ISBN-13 : 978-1402288821
- Page Flip : Enabled
- Best Sellers Rank: #3,597,503 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #3,850 in Electrical & Electronics (Kindle Store)
- #4,352 in Publishing & Books
- #10,545 in Book Publishing Reference
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

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Customers find the book fascinating and insightful, particularly appreciating its detailed history of the eBook revolution. They praise its readability, with one customer noting it serves as a love letter to reading and books.
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Customers find the book insightful and fascinating, with one customer highlighting its candid personal glimpses and another noting how it presents a future that is both enticing and intimidating.
"Fascinating read..." Read more
"...It's an imaginative glimpse into the new technology that has revolutionized reading and writing books; it is the socialization of books...." Read more
"...This book gives some inside stories about how the Kindle came to be, but is more a discussion of the impact of ebooks on society...." Read more
"...The ability to hear the history of someone working on ereaders...fascinating stuff. Where the book is heading...even more fascinating...." Read more
Customers find the book highly readable, with one describing it as a love letter to reading and books.
"...A great read. A thoughtful read." Read more
"Great read. Really let's a person see the past, present, and future of ebooks. I enjoyed the ease of read as well." Read more
"...imaginative glimpse into the new technology that has revolutionized reading and writing books; it is the socialization of books...." Read more
"...It is an easy read and I will probably finish it...." Read more
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2013Burning the Page tells the story about a modern day sorcerer, Jason Merkoski, who spent his life working on the “front lines of the ebook revolution.”
Like FAHRENHEIT 451 the page was burnt, destroyed in the most anarchic invention in the twenty-first century, the Kindle book. To save the page it was deconstructed from atoms, and resurrected to bits.
From paper to zeros and ones. From print to Kindle, and later from bits to bits, conceived on a screen and published onscreen. James Merkoski and the Amazon team quietly changed our lives, and changed a world-wide paradigm that's been the thread woven into our daily life for centuries – the bound book.
It's a narrative about the Kindle-dot-com – Amazon, about “Google, Jeff Bezos, and the ghost of Gutenberg. It's a true story of the eBook revolution—what eBooks are and what they mean for you and me, for our future, and for reading itself,” but mostly it's the intimate memoir of an inventor entwined w/ the memoir of the Gutenberg invention, the book from beginning to present.
It's a love letter written to the book as we've known it and an elegy to it's passing. It's an imaginative glimpse into the new technology that has revolutionized reading and writing books; it is the socialization of books.
Digital books were available before the Kindle; only the Kindle caused a revolution in reading. Before that digital texts were the province of disparate publishers of history books, technical manuals, and fiction books, mostly from established writers like Stephen King. eBook publishing was reserved for the few forward thinkers, sometimes self-publishers, the techno-savvy who, early on, published eBooks in the digital space as a PDF file, a file both awkward and serviceable. The personal Kindle reader, and app, and the flexible-format MOBI file revolutionized eBooks.
The Kindle incarnation proved it could almost displace the much-loved book bound in leather, paper, and cloth with distinct smells and feels, and an almost living presence to bibliophiles. It begrudgingly won us over.
Burning the Page carries forward this astounding history that has happened right under our noses, in writing, story, and a style that begets “pastness, presentness, and futureness, joined by association” tying all these concepts together. It's a complex style that works as best I can describe it.
Amazon Kindle books have breached the “third digital revolution” described by Neil Gershenfeld, “in which matter and information merge”, where things are turned into bits and bits are turned into things. James Merkoski captured a Gutenberg moment in his book just as one epoch is ending and another beginning. Book lovers will not want to miss this one.
- Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2013As fan of the ebook revolution, I was interested on the thoughts of Jason Merkoski since he was at the ground level of the production of the Kindle at Amazon. This book gives some inside stories about how the Kindle came to be, but is more a discussion of the impact of ebooks on society. It is an easy read and I will probably finish it.
In the book, you can connect with the author and its ebook community through Facebook and Twitter. I find the Facebook page interesting but it is difficult to know where to post comments regarding the actual questions asked by Jason at the end of the chapter. I understand that part of Jason's agenda with this book is to test out connecting with readers but I found the Facebook platform less than optimum. After trying to find a place for my first answer to the query at the end of the first chapter, I stopped posting my answers. The Facebook page is divided into chapters but the questions asked there are different from the book.
- Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2013Okay, first I'm a book lover and also a fanatical reader. The two do not always go hand in hand. It's entirely possible to love books but do little reading and vice versa. I also teach at the college level and do a lot of writing. The issue of where books are heading has been somewhat of a crazed passion for decades...ever since one of the professors on my phd committee told me about his work digitizing content for the long term preservation of knowledge. It was long before ebooks started to come out and the very first time I became aware of the fleeting nature of digitized content...like some modern day library of alexandria. So, when I happened to stumble on an excerpt of this book, it was only natural it would be a "must read". The ability to hear the history of someone working on ereaders...fascinating stuff. Where the book is heading...even more fascinating. The tantilizing little examples of "extras" scattered throughout the reading experience are fun (bonus chapters, signed autographs etc). The author has a knack for writing, a delightful style that is both charming and personable.
So, who would read this book? Anyone interested in the future of writing. Anyone interested in the future of books. Anyone interested in the history of books. Anyone interested in publishing, ebooks, technology...you get the gist. It's a fast read, filled with interesting tidbits and thought provoking ideas. The book links directly with the author's Facebook page to continue the discussion. As the reader progresses through the book, it will send additional information your direction and encourage interaction/feedback etc... it's a fun glimpse into things to come.
I wish the book was longer, more detailed, a bit more willing to share deeper insights but still immensely interesting and fun to read. Not to be missed. You will NOT be disappointed!
- Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2014I'm a software-engineer-turned-publisher. The writing is no better than his resume, however enthusiastic. His paraphrasing of the knowledge of the industry should be put at the back matter. Show me. "What do you know that I don't?"
Top reviews from other countries
- SabiniReviewed in Germany on May 23, 2013
2.0 out of 5 stars An "interesting" and thought-provoking reading experience
However I expected something completely different from the books title, its table of contents aswell as the available recommendations. Which is why I feel the urge to add the following: This is rather a superficial history of books. More professional and thorough literature does exist, no doubt. Tough there were some interesting thoughts and arguments, there are lots of brave speculations, most content is subjective and based on personal thoughts, and most questions remain rhethorical (a move to call to the readers initiative for discourse or a mere lack of arguments?) The structure I found to be pretty random, hence leading to lots of unnecessary repetitions.
Nevertheless I have to thank for some intriguing thoughts and for letting me realize that this was my first and will be the last ebook I bought.
- John HopperReviewed in the United Kingdom on April 28, 2013
4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating look at the past and future of reading in the digital age
This author of this eBook used to work at Amazon and was apparently responsible for a number of features of the Kindle e-reader over the years before and after its initial launch in the US in late 2007. He talks a bit about that, but not very revealingly on details; it's more that he gives a sense of what it felt like to be working on something that felt like the cutting edge of a whole new technology and whole new era of reading digitally, comparing the revolutionary nature of this change to that begun in Europe by Johann Gutenberg when he printed his first Bible in the mid 15th century (putting monkish scribes out of a job and inspiring the same sort of reaction as eBooks do today from those who say that the new innovations are not "real books"). A digital medium for reading is the fifth main medium after clay tablets (Sumeria, 6000 years ago), papyrus (Egypt, almost as old), parchment (about 2500 years ago), paper (nearly 2000 years ago). Each medium is less physically durable than its predecessor, but more convenient and easier to mass produce. The author sees this as one long evolutionary process, punctuated by these revolutionary breakthroughs. He sees books, in whatever form they may be, as the primary means to transmit information, and the key feature that distinguishes humans from animals (I might add that other forms of culture such as music and art also form part of that distinction).
The author loves all kinds of books - as well as being an evangelist for eBooks, he has thousands of printed books. The beauty of his view is that he moves beyond the sterile argument that either medium is intrinsically better than the other; they are all books, both have their advantages and disadvantages. He sees printed books as becoming a niche product and eventually disappearing as part of a natural evolutionary process, as did handwritten books (and parchment scrolls, etc. before them). He sees digital books as becoming much more interactive in future, with readers interacting with each other and with the authors, like computer games where you choose an alternative path and a different set of consequences ensues; while this is plausible, this gives a whole new definition of reading and makes it more akin to consuming other forms of mass entertainment. Personally, I'm not too taken with this vision, but it depends on the individual's tastes and reading needs, of course.
I could go on, but in sum I would say this is an always fascinating, often very thought-provoking and occasionally slightly annoying, account from someone who has been on the inside track of the digital revolution in reading over the past eight years or so. 4/5