Today is a day of rejoicing for me. Ever since the iPad debuted, I’ve wanted a good interface for reading Google Books on it. I was a bit surprised that one didn’t exist right off the bat. In the last month, Google opened up Google Docs for editing on the iPad – a major plus. And now, I can read ancient books on the most modern device! It blows my mind! I don’t think any author 100 or 300 years ago could have imagined that I would be looking at a printed text of their book from back then on this digital device.
I think this will revolutionize certain niche areas. For example, there are hosts of Anglican theological books (and other theological books) that would never have seen the light of day before. To read them would have required travel to a few select libraries, or a publisher dusting them off and reprinting them in a limited run. Now they are accessible, free, searchable, and universal. It really is something.
I’ve come across ancient magazines like Notes and Queries that I can read a century or more after it came out in a way that was unimaginable when it was first published. I don’t like to overdo the “we are living through history” angle on things, but I do think that we are in the middle of something big with the Google Books project, something that future historians will look back on and pull apart for its impact on the world.
I am excited for you, but most people are too illiterate to notice such a tremendous breakthrough.
Probably true, but I think there is also a large number of people who will care. Probably a small percentage of the population, but a large overall number of people. Research has been made so easy now, just in the last five years. I find things on Google Books that I never could have found before.
I think it’s great and I am happy for you. I don’t realize the importance of it as much as you, but I do appreciate the fact that I can get pdfs on the ipad! That is pretty nice. So I can’t imagine how the Google Books thing is for you…
I think you get it. I’ll show you somtime. Millions of free, anicent books!