If books are part of the web
Update 14th Oct: Try the Booki.sh reader now! Click on one of the titles on the shelf above. If you have an iPad, iPhone or iPod touch, it’s really easy to add any of these titles as an app using the Add to Home Screen button in Safari — this 20-second video shows how.
What if you could access a book like any other web page, on any device with a modern browser? And you could read them like real books, whether you’re online or on a plane?
Maybe all the talk of ereading devices just reinforces an artificial barrier to entry. Maybe you should be able to get to your bookshelf from any computer anywhere, without software. Maybe DRM is just an occasional password prompt. Maybe there’s no such thing as an ebook file. Maybe there’s nothing to download. Maybe the best ereader is the one you have with you.
Perhaps you can get lost in the book this way.
— Joseph Pearson
Comments
Chris — 15 October at 02:27AM
Great! so much better than Bookworm-Ibis or so, and really a step up over Monocle basic.. very lovely design..(i'm designer-animator by prof. )
Joseph — 15 October at 09:28AM
Thanks Chris! Yep, Monocle has been under some heavy development since March.
Chris — 16 October at 03:22AM
hi again , done some testing:
http://wind-in-the-ddcb27.reading.a.booki.sh/
on Mac under Safari5 and Firefox3.6.1 and Chrome
functionality works pretty the same way.. two words- it works.
I think - offline mode works as well.. FF asked for data storage..Safari just noticed
i didn't turn off internet so actually don't know but..
Bugs : on Opera Mobile 10 for MacOSX -
offline cashing unsupported - maybe not actually bug but poor html5
within this browser.. also in this browser - i have corrupted right red labels,
and only two pages with exactly the same bug as I have on my m.elboo.co
non scrolling non working improperly aligned, scrolling upside down.. maybe you could help me with it .. Here, in Ukraine, we have really small perc of IOS users.. and in overall - Apple production users as well(because Apple don't work well on our market) but really big amount of Opera clients with turbo.. for Symbian - Windows Mobile users.. Android market growing but very slowly, as people still prefer Nokia stability. And, as I want to publish my books for Ukrainian market, I think, about 70 percent of users will be offline with current build of Monocle .. And I really don't want to stick with Bookworm overgrown platform//
on MacOSX Opera 10.63(latest) i have the same scrolling as in Mobile but other things works (not mentioning some corrupted fonts - graphics in service menu-readablity mode)
on Android 2.2 emu - with 240x320 QVGA screen - Monocle ex
displays good, Bookish - only animated cover.
Later I will do some testing under w7 ie9 beta.. and Its a nice idea to get this rounded fingerprint from video in the actual reader.. nice idea , maybe some advanced gestures would be interesting.. Please send me to muratkina@elboo.co yours Skype or other chat account name as i really need your help in Monocle..
Jack Dougherty — 05 November at 05:06AM
Joseph, this version of the Booki.sh reader is very impressive and I admire your stance on open-source development. Question: does your design allow for embedded links that take readers to external sites? This is the type of issue I'm facing for my current web-book project (http://OnTheLine.trincoll.edu).
Joseph — 09 November at 01:11PM
Yep it does, Jack. If you click and hold for half a second on the text, you'll enter interactive mode where all internal links jump to other sections of the book, and all external links open in new tabs/windows.
Genevieve — 30 January at 05:51AM
Hallo Joseph, I think Booki.sh is fascinating and I really like the interface, it's terrific.
I would certainly be more interested in buying Australian books that can be downloaded for offline reading, rather than in a browser. I do hope this happens soon.
Also I wonder along with other commenters on your next post (where I notice I can't comment any more) if this model, without downloads, is in fact closer to a rental model, and agree that prices should reflect this until such time as downloads become available.
You could theoretically run both models??? might be innovative.
Joseph — 30 January at 08:25AM
Hi Genevieve, you can right now download your books for offline reading in Booki.sh. Just like Kindle or iBooks, you can only read your books in our software — just like Kindle and iBooks, this is a standard DRM provision. If a Kindle book is not a rental, a Booki.sh book is not a rental.
We encourage you to contact your favourite publishers about DRM and pricing. Each publisher sets these details for their publications.
Greg G — 31 January at 11:51PM
Ah, so comments are actually closed on your most recent post. Interesting.