January 2011

Our “Cogni-rights” to Private Thought

I heard a thought-provoking webcast today, offered by the Book Industry Study Group entitled “Digital Books: A New Chapter for Reader Privacy” and presented by an ACLU representative. She spoke of case law that has been passed protecting our reader’s right to privacy, whether that means prohibiting Google Books from recording our thoughtpaths, and subsequently aggregating, archiving, →

Saving Huck

Words inscribed on paper form a permanent record of our civilization. Just as a painter controls every brush stroke, a sculptor his chisel, so do authors deliberately choose each word, each signpost pointing to an idea or a thing. A book. A stunning achievement. Sometimes a genius captures in words the Geist of an era. As James →