Books in the Age of the iPad — Craig Mod

I probably could have quoted the whole article, but you’re better off reading the original, because it’s as beautiful to look at as it is good to read…

FOR TOO LONG, the act of printing something in and of itself has been placed on too high a pedestal. The true value of an object lies in what it says, not its mere existence. And in the case of a book, that value is intrinsically connected with content.

I will say, for the record, that I collect books and probably always will. I love the feel of a book and I love the authors who write the books that I collect. But there is something true about what’s being said here, and I can’t wait to see what comes of books/mags designed for the iPad.

With the iPad we finally have a platform for consuming rich-content in digital form. What does that mean? To understand just why the iPad is so exciting we need to think about how we got here.

One last thought as it relates to the quote above, I’ve said here on several occasions that it’s not the mere fact that you can get a book on an iPad, or a Kindle, or a Nook that matters to me, it’s how that content is delivered and how easy it will be to, say, access back issues of Outside Magazine, or Harpers, or The Economist. But there’s another point too. Have a look at Craig Mod’s web site. It’s designed like you’d expect any good magazine to be designed, it has layout and character, and something beyond the text that draws you in. Obviously the text is important, in fact it’s the most important part, substance over form and all that, but it’s important to note that there’s something beautiful about the way this site looks, and the iPad will allow you to have the kind of formatting and page layout that used to be reserved for print media.

I could read this on an iPad. I’d WANT to read this on an iPad. And it’s design like this and content like this that is going to make the iPad stand well above anything that’s on the market at the moment.