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VOICE ONE:
This is Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English programEXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about a revolution in technology thatcould change the way many people read books. We tell aboutelectronic books and what they could mean for the future.
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VOICE ONE:
For a few minutes, let us imagine that it is two o’clock in themorning. You can not sleep. You get out of bed and walk into theroom where you keep your computer. You turn on the machine andslowly the blue light of the screen becomes brighter. You link yourcomputer with the Internet communications system.
Moments later you learn that you have no electronic mail. So youtake a minute to read most of the world news. There seems to benothing of interest. Then you remember reading about somethingcalled electronic books, or e-books. Maybe that might beinteresting.
You have the computer search for the word “e-book”. Immediatelyyour computer and the Internet find a great many choices. You go toa Web site that offers free electronic books.
A list of electronic books appears. Many were written by the manwho may be the most famous writer in the English language — WilliamShakespeare. As you look at the list of his works you see “Henry theFifth.”
You choose this famous play. And, there on your computer screenare the words of William Shakespeare. You begin to read:
“O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend The brightest heaven ofinvention, A kingdom for a stage, princes to act And monarchs tobehold the swelling scene! Then should the warlike Harry, likehimself, Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels, Leash’d in likehounds, should famine, sword and fire Crouch for employment.
But pardon, and gentles all, Theflat unraised spirits that have dared …”
VOICE TWO:
Within a few hours, you have read “Henry the Fifth.” Best of all,it cost you nothing. You have your computer save the Internetaddress of the free electronic book Web site. Soon you are off tosleep with dreams of the great play you have read.
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VOICE ONE:
The story we just told is not from the future. It is happeningtoday. If you do not want to read the plays of William Shakespeare,you could read thousands of other electronic books. Perhaps weshould explain just what an electronic book is. It is a book. But itappears on a computer screen, not printed on paper. E-books are nota new idea, but they are becoming more important, more interestingand easier to find.
VOICE TWO:
You can find free e-books many places on the Internet. One of theoldest and most successful Internet web sites is called “ProjectGutenberg.” Its name honors German printer Johannes Gutenberg. Heinvented modern printing during the fourteen-hundreds.
Project Gutenberg was the idea of Michael Hart. InNineteen-Seventy-One, he was a computer scientist working at theUniversity of Illinois. The university provided him with a largeamount of money and a huge modern computer to use for hisexperiments.
Michael Hart decided that the computer could be used to holdfamous and important books. He decided that these would be free toanyone in the world who could link to the project with a computer.The first important document Mister Hart placed in the computer wasthe American Declaration of Independence.
VOICE ONE:
Since then, Mister Hart has been joined by hundreds of people whogive their time to help place important books on the Internet.
The idea is to bring information, books and other materials tothe general public in a way that most people can easily search forread and use.
More than six-thousand Project Gutenberg electronic books are nowon the Internet. And they cost nothing to read. Anyone with acomputer can copy them on to paper, or make an electronic copy tokeep in their computer. It does not matter if you live in India,Japan, the United States, Italy or China. If you have a computer,you can link with Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg also offersmany of its books in fifteen different languages.
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VOICE TWO:
We have told about the thousands of free e-books you can findwith your computer. These books are most often offered for freebecause they no longer carry the legal protection called acopyright. Copyright protection makes it illegal to sell, print orpublish a person’s work without the permission of the writer andpublisher. Books still under copyright protection can be found onthe Internet, too. But you have to pay for them.
Many companies sell electronic books on the Internet. You pay forthem with your credit card number. Then you can electronically moveyour new book to your computer. Two of the book companies that offere-books are Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com.
VOICE ONE:
For example, Barnes and Noble isoffering many e-books this summer. They include the very popularbook about an American racehorse, called “Seabiscuit” by LauraHillenbrand. This e-book costs about eight dollars. The company isalso selling Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s new book, “LivingHistory.” This e-book costs seventeen dollars.
Amazon-Dot-Com also sells many e-books, including anotherbest-seller, Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code.” That e-book coststwelve dollars. Amazon also sells many kinds of science fictionbooks, including the popular “Star Trek” series. It also sells studyguides which provide information about books and writers. And thecompany sells e-documents. The most popular ones are aboutcomputers, education, leadership, business and jobs.
You can also find e-books on other serious subjects. For example,a company called “Science Week” sells e-books about cancer research,neurobiology, chemistry, and many more subjects.
VOICE TWO:
You need a computer that can link to the Internet to read ane-book. For some books you may also need special computer programsthat help deal with e-books. These programs make the electronicinformation easier to copy and read. Two of these computer programsare Microsoft’s Reader and Adobe e-Book Reader.
The companies that make both programs offer them for free.Several companies that offer e-books have special links that lead tothese e-book reader programs. It only takes a few moments to copythese helpful programs to your computer.
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VOICE ONE:
Many people do not like the idea of sitting in front of acomputer to read a book. They like paper books better. You caneasily take a paper book with you everywhere you go. For example,you can take it outside on a nice day and read it under a tree orwhile lying on a large chair.
However, you can not take most computers outside on a nice day.So several companies have now made it possible to move an e-book’sinformation from your computer to a small electronic device that canbe carried anywhere.
The device is called an e-book appliance or e-book reader. It hasa small screen about the same size as a page in a small book. Manyof these devices hold as much as ten-thousand pages of information.
That is the same as about ten large books. The more costly e-bookreaders also can play music, show photographs from an e-book and doother useful things.
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VOICE TWO:
E-books may become even more popular in the near future. Forexample, a college student who begins a new school year usually mustbuy a book for each class. In the future, a trip to the bookstoremight not be necessary.
In a few minutes, the student could copy to his or her computerall the necessary books and other written material for each class.
The student would also be able to copy books and classinformation into the small e-book reader that he or she carries toclass. In the future, the use of e-books could change education onall levels. Many experts say the e-book revolution has alreadybegun.
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VOICE ONE:
This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced byMario Ritter. Our studio engineer was Suleiman Tarawaley.Shakespeare’s “Henry the Fifth” was read by Shep O’Neal. This isSteve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for anotherEXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America.