Sunday, June 4, 2006
Redesigning Books

Dr. Aniruddha Malpani writes:


Here are three simple ideas authors and publishers of non-fiction books could incorporate, in order to make books more reader-friendly.

1. Design the book in a Q and A ( question and answer) format - after all, good books should be a conversation between the reader and the author , in which the writer answers questions the reader has .

2. Include a summary for the book at the end.

3. Provide a website for the book.

General | PermaLink | Comments (4)

Printing all books in the form of questions and answers is probably not a good idea at all. It may seem appropriate for scientific and technical works but it would not work at all for the social sciences where things are less precise. Where the 'fuzziness' or the shades of grey involved in any issue gives rise to many more dimensions -and many more questions. I thing even good scientific books have a narrative that is not scientific or technical in its essence. The field of technical writing is best done by persons who straddle two fields-technical and the literary simultaneously. Good editors play a very important role in creating any good book.

Posted by Joseph Antony

A Q&A format for non-fiction? Not really an idea that is applicable across non-fiction. For example, a cook book would sound really silly in Q&A format. So would travel books. Actually, when you think of it, can you imagine dear Percival Spear and Romila Thapar writing A History of India (non-fiction) in Q&A format? Note, this is not "The History of India", but "A History of India". I believe that non-fiction is largely interpretation of facts and putting it in Q&A format can be very misleading -- often giving the novice reader the impression that this is God's Own Truth.

Posted by Arun Katiyar

I agree it's not a format which you could use uncritically for all genres. But it would work with cookbooks too ! For example, at the end of the recipe, the author could have a "troubleshooting section" in a Q&A format - which would answer queries as to how to fix common problems with the recipe.
All learning is done by asking questions - and this format simply acknowledges the central role questions play in the larning process.
And I think it will also help to highlight our areas of ignorance - questions we don't have answers too !

Posted by Dr Malpani

Disagree totally. The very essence of writing a book is an art. It cannot be standardized, it has to be different for each. As a reader, a new style is always a welcome change for me. I like the highlights of a topic within the book. I loved Tom Peter's Seminars for this style. It's like he was making the notes for me.

Posted by Kshitij Chandan
Listening to Teens

Paul Kedrosky quotes Steve Jurveston:


Guy Kawasaki arranged a panel of 14-18 year olds to address that question for an audience of investors.

All six panelists have iPods and cell phones (50% Motorola, 83% Cingular) and are active computer users (50% Mac).

None of them buys ring tones or cell phone applications. None of them plays mobile videos or listens to music from their cell phone. They primarily use their phones and computers to communicate.

With the computer, multitasking is the norm -- with 13 open IM windows, music, email, browser and homework.

Gaming and TV were mildly interesting to 1 panelist.

Two panelists were MySpace users. The others expressed a certain backlash and purposeful resistance to the addiction of MySpace. One 14 year old used to be an active MySpace user but stopped after the police came to her school to warn the students about various dangers lurking there.

General | PermaLink | Comments (3)

I could be me, apart man that I am not a teenager any more and I don't have an ipod.

Posted by Kylie M. Lee

Me wonders just where Guy got this group of teens? 50% Mac?!? 83% Cingular? Not a MySpace user among 'em?

Either he picked the parents from real life revenge of the nerds or the campus of a well known computer company.

Whatever the case, I think the teens responses (judging from the small amount of information here) are seriously misleading and not remotely repersentative of the real market.

It would be a monumental error to go out and make business or investment decisions based upon what one heard in such a session when facts contrary to what people heard in that report continues to flow all around us.

Did anyone stop to wonder if these kids were even telling the truth? Or simply providing answers that they thought the people asking the questions wanted to hear?

It seems to me that asking kids what they do, what devices they use or how they communicate isn't nearly as useful (and won't generate nearly the amount of valid data) as watching what they do.

Actions speak louder than words and in this case, have a much greater likelihood of NOT being misleading.

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http://mobilecrunch.com

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