My Foo Is Strong

The problem with technical books.

Introduction

Technology books (especially programming books) are a required item for most software professionals and my office at work is littered with them. At any given time there are a dozen books that I may actively reference on a day-to-day basis for the projects that I’m working on. My main library, literally, is my home. I cycle books in and out of my house with the regularity of a public branch library; albeit one dedicated to technology. I have racks of books in my basement where they are shelved and ready to be used when needed. While not necessarily grouped and classified using structure of the Dewey Decimal System, it’s good enough for me.

If you’ve been around software long enough you’ve been exposed to the almost universal maxim regarding software — it almost never stops changing. Software changes and grows, sometimes organically, sometimes in rough and abrupt ways, but rarely does it stay constant. Nascent projects change so rapidly that any attempt to produce good documentation usually leads to those same documents being outdated before they are published. Luckily, maturity usually means a certain level of stability where documentation can be produced and consumed before a new version of the system is released and the documentation has to be updated. It becomes an infinite, but necessary loop.

At some point someone may write a book on the subject at which point in time the current state of system is not only captured, but actually printed and bound, effectively freezing the state of the system for all time. But if software is constantly evolving, doesn’t the material physically printed in these books become obsolete? Yes, and it’s a common problem that those of us who purchase technology books have come to accept. A technology book isn’t like most other books — it has a built in but hidden expiration date. Because almost all software invariably changes, the printed page being a physical immutable object can no longer accurately describe the current state of the system. Most readers of technology books learn this, and book publishers have grown smarter about it and started to identify the version of the software that the book applies to.

The Problem

At some point the printed material itself becomes more than outdated, it becomes obsolete. I have collected hundreds of technology books over the years. Some for work endeavors, others for personal learning, but all have served me well. Unlike non-technology focused books, I have to periodically purge my collection to avoid the issues described earlier. There may be someone who becomes interested in the lineage of a particular piece of software and therefore the book becomes a historical reference capturing the evolution of a piece of software. But for most of us, they simple become unusable and start collecting dust.

With book prices typically ranging between $30.00 and $70.00, purchasing something that’s going to be out of date in the near future may not be the best financial decision in the long run. Witness the prices for a used Java EJB book on Amazon.

This particular title, is selling for $0.29 used. Anyone who purchased this book new and at list price has lost 99.99% of it’s original value. It’s understandable why. This particular book has been in print since late 2004. The subject matter is mature but now outdated. The value that this book provides is limited to anyone who must still use or support this older version and the audience will continue to shrink over time.  To be fair to the authors of the book, an updated version of this book has already been released that addresses the improvements to EJBs. The changes are sufficiently large enough to warrant re-purchasing the book again even if someone currently possesses the previous version.

After years of this, I think it’s getting wasteful. Both on my wallet and the amount of dead trees that I currently house in my personal library. For my technical collection, I have wished for a solution that avoids the dead tree and continual update syndrome for those of us who purchase technology books are subject to. I want authors to get paid, high quality material to continually be published, and I’m willing to re-purchase for documentation that contains significant changes or for new version. However, I also want to have access to updates and fixes to typographical and code examples. Printed material just can’t offer that and my books are usually marked up with errata found on the publishers or book’s web site. It’s not an optimal solution by any stretch of the imagination.

An Interim Solution

One interim solution that I have used for the last couple of years is Safari Books Online. Safari has multiple membership levels, and I subscribe to the one that gives unlimited access to the library for approximately $40.00 a month. So for about the price of one physical book, you get access to a dizzying array of technical books for the same cost. For me personally it’s worked well. Here’s an example of the book discussed earlier.

Safari allows me access to all versions of this book. As new editions are released, the updates are also released into the library satisfying my need for access to timely updates to typographical and code corrections. The interface gives a true print fidelity view as well so what appears on the screen is what the book actually looks like printed. Just as important, you can annotate, bookmark, and make notes. Additionally, as a bonus, you are also given tokens that can be redeemed to download chapters and/or entire books into PDF form and kept offline. Safari has a ton of features so it’s worth a look for someone who is purchasing books on a regular basis.

The problem with Safari is that it is a service. Once you stop paying, you lose everything. PDF’s you generate and have downloaded are yours, but everything else is gone. So far it hasn’t been an issue, but it’s something to be aware of. Finally, and this is a personal issue, I don’t really enjoy reading on a monitor. Usually with most technical books it’s done in a reference type mode so it’s usually not a continual three hour session but nevertheless it’s not very ergonomic.

Overall Safari is great. It deals with most of my issues about owning technical books. I still have to read them online, but for the price, my technical collection expanded a hundred-fold and I never have to donate a book again. As an interim solution I think it has worked well and I’ll continue to subscribe to Safari just for the unfettered access to a huge technical library. Still, what I really want is something that I can hold in my hand but has the power of Safari.

The Perfect Solution

What I really would like is for the publishers of technical books to always provide a version of the book that could be used with the latest eReaders like the Barnes & Noble Nook or the Amazon Kindle. If I could tote around one of those with a couple hundred technical eBooks, I’d be loving life. I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if I could get access to Safari using the eReader as an interface. The eBook concept, especially for technical books, is a great idea that is being offered more and more. They’re priced considerably less that the printed version, and I don’t have to deal with the disposal issues later.

I think we’re close enough that I purchased a Nook. The screen may be smallish for technical reading, but it’s a start and it has to be better than the monitor. It can hold an entire libraries worth of book and it’s portable. Only time will tell, but it’s a start. As a result, I think I’ll convert this article into a series about getting technical material on eReaders. As I progress I’ll continue the series. Happy eReading for all.

30. November 2009 by Jason
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