#22 ebooks

I've already ranted about my dislike of listening to people talk at me. I have now discovered a whole new circle of my private idea of hell: listening to a computer "read" a book to me. As horrible as the toffy English guy reading Conan Doyle was (I lasted about 20 seconds), he was way better than the American-inflected monotone of the computer attempting to read Middlemarch.

And what is it with the dead white men? I can understand the dead part, what with copyright law and all that kind of thing, but a bit more diversity would be nice. Three four women on their full list of computer-generated atrocities. Under-representation in artistic butchery! I shall launch a protest at once!

The whole exercise has made me feel extremely sympathetic towards blind and sight-impaired people, who must have to put up with a lot more Hal-speak. I think I'll have to have some carrots for dinner tonight.

Obligatory foray into library usefulness: in principle, useful, especially as an alternative to audiobooks, but until the quality improves to the point where one could listen without wanting to surgically remove one's eardrums, I can't see there being a lot of traffic.

As for the kids' books, which I can't see in detail without paying $8.95 for a month, a quick perusal of the title list leaves me thinking that maybe, just maybe, this would be slightly more popular if the most recent title wasn't published in 1929. No wonder Amazon gets more hits, with their evil, copyright-flouting "search inside this book" ways.