Nobody even recognizes what a hypertext book is. http://Meaningness.com says “this is a book” on every page, yet nearly everyone refers to it as a blog. “Blog”—a collection of essays structured only by publication date—is the only recognized form of self-published web site.
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“You should publish this as an eBook". Duuude, what for? You're reading it on a screen now, and the experience is far richer than a bad electronic imitation of a dead tree. And still so much more is possible than the half-baked affordances I worked intohttp://meaningness.com
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Replying to @Meaningness @andy_matuschak
I want to agree, don't you think we ought to to look at the repeated comments "you should make this an ebook" as a sign that people want something out of a reading experience that hypertext books still do not deliver?
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What regular texts lack in interconnectivity they more than make up for in narrative coherence. they are much easier to read and retain. Even with meaningness, which is excellent, the bulk of the reader value is contained in the big essays which have coherent plotlines
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Replying to @tobyshorin @andy_matuschak
I’d like to think this is because most of the book is missing (due to interruptions to my writing) and if the whole structure were there, reading it front to back would be a thing
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As in you’d just linearly flatten the hierarchy and call it an ebook?
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I don't think I would for the whole of Meaningness; it's much too big. (Or would be if it existed.) But yeah, that's the plan for The Eggplant. As with other Kindle books it'll have a table of contents and chapters and stuff.
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Replying to @Meaningness @garybasin and
And it'll also go out on the web, in a richer hypertext version with links and popups and stuff. It's starting to look like it might be ~500 pages, which is getting on for "too long for a Kindle book" :(
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Replying to @Meaningness @garybasin and
132,725 words as of this instant, which is ~400 pages, and only 2/5 of it is done (although the file contains extensive notes for the rest)
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What about after you let an editor take an axe to it? :D
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I’m now down to 132,645. Progress!
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Have you removed all weasel words
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My writing is naturally free of mustelids
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