Comments on: eBooks Mess With Poetic Intent

By: Serena

Serena — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 14:58:17 +0000

I hadn’t thought about those books…that would not be good to take out the interactivity for those books.

By: iliana

iliana — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 00:04:04 +0000

I hadn’t even thought about how poetry books would be affected by eReaders. This is has got to be so frustrating for poets. I was thinking about something similar when it comes to books that have pictures or are more interactive. I was thinking specifically of the Griffin & Sabine books and I’m thinking the whole experience of those books is based on being able to open envelopes, looking at the colors, etc. and how obviously an eReader wouldn’t serve those books. Very interesting stuff and definitely curious to see how things will change (or not) going forward.

By: Serena

Serena — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 00:41:36 +0000

I’m glad you enjoyed the article. I’m like you in that I love regular books that I can hold in my hand!

By: Amused

Amused — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 23:42:44 +0000

This is fascinating! Thank you for bringing this to my attention! I still don’t own an ebook and think it will be a long time before I do. I just don’t see the allure for me yet. I love traditional books far too much but far, far beyond that, how painful for poets to have their work misrepresented like that. Interesting to see how ebook translators respond to this.

By: Serena

Serena — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:31:18 +0000

Thanks for checking out the post and weighing on the issue.

By: Beth Hoffman

Beth Hoffman — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:40:45 +0000

Yes. And one of the joys of reading is (for me) the visual of perfect formatting and the publisher’s selection of typeface. Sadly much is lost on an e-reader.

By: zibilee

zibilee — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:37:09 +0000

I had never considered this issue before, but it makes sense. I think if I were a poet, it would probably be incredibly frustrating to know that it might damage my work to be translated into e-book format. I think publishers have a responsibility to the poets and to the readers to get it right the first time. Very interesting post!

By: Shirley Sherrod Is Going to Fo… | america1first.com

Shirley Sherrod Is Going to Fo… | america1first.com — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:15:53 +0000

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By: Serena

Serena — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 14:44:10 +0000

I agree. I don’t have an ereader, but the loss of formatting is astonishing to me…even with novels, which I had no idea about before I posted this on poetry.

By: Serena

Serena — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 14:43:31 +0000

I cannot imagine seeing your first ebook of poetry for the first time and wondering what the heck happened to your poems.