The New York Times had an article by John Updike yesterday in which he discussed this article that was published last month in the New York Times Magazine about the Google Print project and how it will impact the way we view books.
Particularly troubling to Updike is the notion that books could be reduced to snippets and compiled into a sort of "favorites bookshelf" by readers:
The book revolution, which, from the Renaissance on, taught men and women to cherish and cultivate their individuality, threatens to end in a sparkling cloud of snippets.
I personally find it unlikely that we're going to see book mash-ups replace books in readers' minds anytime soon - the technology will exist, but I think it will take a very long time for the culture to shift to such an outlook. The phenomenon that Updike seems bothered by seems more likely to become a favorites list where instead of merely linking a books title people are able to get immediate samples of a work.
Ultimately, Google Print is not going to be the end of authorship, it probably will not even change the concept of authorship significantly. But such changes may occur further down the road and everyone from authors to readers will be affected by them.


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