3 Persons are tagged with #reading

Alice
Alice
alice@societas.online
#lustig #german #science #reading

#reading

danie10@squeet.me
Danie

Vivlio builds an EU-based bookstore-agnostic e-book platform with open-source DRM

An e-book reader lying on a multi-coloured background. The reader shows some black and white book titles in tiles on its front page.
Vivlio has been building an open European alternative to the Kindle and Kobo e-readers. And it proves that you can compete with tech giants with a team of 35 as long as you have a distinct strategy with different goals.

“The fundamental principle of the Vivlio model, which really sets us apart from Kobo, for example, which has a partnership with Fnac, is that we guarantee two things to our partners. First, the customer remains their customer. This means that the customer account is a bookseller’s customer account, not a Vivlio customer account,” DuprĂ© said.

“Second, a very large portion of the sales generated by the Vivlio ecosystem go to the bookseller. In other words, we leave most of the margin to the reseller . . . That’s the contractual, legal and operational promise,” he added.

Adobe’s DRM hasn’t evolved in years. It’s clunky, hostile to the end user and Adobe takes a cut on each transaction. “The company literally almost died because of [Adobe’s DRM] as we were having major problems. It accounted for 80% of our customer support requests,” DuprĂ© said.

Vivlio contributed to Readium LCP, an open-source DRM solution that doesn’t require an Adobe account (or any third-party account).

So, this is in interesting approach. What makes Kindle popular is of course the Amazon “bookstore”, and Amazon has kept that non-compatible with other readers, as that is their trump card. Amazon also has a massive number of books at good prices, so that has been difficult for anyone else to compete with.

And as much as many hate DRM, it’s still a core part of the publishing industry so you need seamless support for it otherwise many popular books are not going to be available. Vivlio has addressed this, and I hope that LCP gets more widely adopted vs Adobe DRM.

One problem I found though was that although the Vivlio website is quad lingual, the shop seems to default to French without any visible means of switching to English. The same happened when I clicked on the option to buy an e-reader. This is not going to appeal to global audiences too much.

See https://techcrunch.com/2023/11/30/this-small-french-company-wants-to-build-the-open-alternative-to-kindle-and-kobo/
#Blog, #ereader, #reading, #technology, #Vivlio

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adamblewett@diasp.org
Adam Blewett

Simon Winchester. Knowing What We Know

A small excerpt, 500 pages of history; from the exchange of modern medicine and philosophical view points. ‘This extract was about the profundity of our reliance on autocorrect and Bot enhanced intelligence.’ The book covers a timeline, fewer than three centuries of discoveries, copyrighters, innovators.... For the most part, a timeline of progression, could profoundly benefit civilisations, or discredit our ability for humanity. It’s a suggested read: the introduction of typeset and the way the world has introduced immediacy, via communications (journalism). Becoming of knowledge, learner to sociology, imprinting the world a transient place #SimonWinchester #reading fascination, history’s making us feel insufficient.

danie10@squeet.me
Danie

Featuring thousands of book clubs and a personalized feed, Fable is an answer to those looking to share their reading experiences

Two smartphones showing some blogs posts on one, and a lengthy looking text review on the other. Around the phones are bubbles showing various people's head and shoulder photos, one which has a caption saying "Jump in!".
Thanks to the phenomenon that is BookTok, the act of reading has been rendered an aesthetic for some; on the other hand, the app’s community has launched careers and book awards, and has pushed literary sales to revitalized heights.

Somewhat mimicking in-person book clubs, the intersection of social networking and reading already exists, with the reigning — but sometimes controversial — Goodreads functioning as an answer to both. The platform functions like a book log, shared with both friends and the public. Then there are the other long-existing integrated communities, like Book Twitter and the once-popular Bookstagram. But digital communities and book clubs are still less readily available, and conversations about reading online are often saturated when they appear on platforms that serve wider purposes.

I have found Goodreads and BookWyrm (part of the Fediverse, and privacy focussed) to be great for notching up reads against an annual goal, and for posting reviews etc. But what they lack is the real social aspect of reading clubs, and also good AI suggestions.

LibraryThing is also around after many years, but it’s look and feel has never really updated with the times. Many of its groups are quite active with a few thousand members, but many have also gone dormant.

It looks like Fable is helping fill this niche. I’ve not actually joined Fable, so can’t say first-hand. Although they also sell ebooks (that was what made me a bit cautious, although it is a good way of funding the platform) about 90% of the book clubs are free to join and participate in, and there are thousands of book clubs.

If you think about the early days of Amazon, as an online bookshop, this is similar, but it has been founded by a reader and is focussed on only reading (versus taking over the world). Some of their popular clubs are around 8,000 to 12,000 members. If you can’t find a suitable club to join, you can start your own one on the platform.

What sets it apart a bit, though, is the clubs are not just centred around authors or specific genres. It seems many clubs are focussed around the reader personalities themselves, and their interests. They also have a new AI-powered discovery feed.

Part of the founder’s mission states: “I started Fable so that all of us can fill the micro-moments in our hectic lives with stories. Our mission is to deliver the world’s best social experience with exceptional stories in service of mental wellness.”

It is true that books are a refuge from stress and boredom, and they also spark creativity and a yearning to travel and know more about the world.

It is also dedicated to diversity and inclusion, so can be expected to be a safe place for anyone to venture into.

See https://mashable.com/article/fable-app-readers-goodreads
#Blog, #bookclubs, #books, #reading, #technology

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girlofthesea@diasporasocial.net
Girl Of The

#books #reading #tolstroy #russian

Leo Tolstroy
- Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, usually referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian writer regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time. He received nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature every year from 1902 to 1906 and for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901, 1902, and 1909.
Born: September 9, 1828, Yasnaya Polyana, Yasnaya Polyana, Russia
Died: November 20, 1910, Lev Tolstoi, Russia

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girlofthesea@diasporasocial.net
Girl Of The

#books #reading
My Book.
One Review: "Poet, lexicographer, critic, moralist, Dr. Samuel Johnson had in his friend Boswell the ideal biographer.
The result is a masterpiece that brims over with wit, anecdote and originality. Hailed as the best biography ever written and as a book 'beyond any other product of the eighteenth century', The Life of Samuel Johnson today continues to enjoy its status as a classic of the language. A shortened version is based on the 1799 edition."

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