I don’t know how I could have missed this. Cyberbooks by Ben Bova, one of the seminal fictional depictions of e-books, finally became available as an e-book itself last year—and best of all, it’s a Baen e-book which means no DRM and a wide variety of formats.
Cyberbooks was published as part of the Ben Bova anthology Laugh Lines, available in the November 2009 Webscriptions month for $15, or by itself for $6.
The book is a brilliant, scathing satire of the publishing industry (in fact, I’m a bit surprised that the original publisher had enough of a sense of humor about itself to print it) that any lover of print or e-books should read.
TeleRead contributor Amos Bokros reviewed Cyberbooks in 2002. In 2006, author Ben Bova expressed excitement about the forthcoming Sony Reader.
When I click on the links for the webscription and the individual ebook I end up on a title called “Laugh Lines?”
Reread the second paragraph of the above article? 🙂
*facepalm* duhhhhh
I read this book when it was newly released as a paperback, and before I got my first PDA (one that I often used as an ebook reader). It’s a very funny book, and features a very plausible look at the future. Looking at the cover now, it’s interesting how the device shown there has much in common with current ebook readers, also borne out with the ereader described in the book.