Cites & Insights 11:5 (May 2011) available

Cites & Insights 11:5 (May 2011) is now available for downloading at http://citesandinsights.info/civ11i5.pdf

The 44-page issue is PDF as usual, and consists of 1.5 essays. Each essay (or portion) is also available as an HTML separate; click on the essay titles. If this seems like an all-ebook issue, that's not intentional.

This issue includes:

Perspective: Writing about Reading (continued) pp. 1-16

This essay completes Perspective: Writing about Reading from the April 2011 C&I, with sections on how ebooks will (if you believe the authors) change reading and writing; "all singing! all dancing"--in which the only future for books is as multimedia extravaganzas; and writing about writing. It's snarkier than the first portion, even though it's been heavily desnarked.

The Zeitgeist: 26 is Not the Issue pp. 16-44

This abecedary goes from Absurd licenses to... Well, no, the topic is the only one truly suitable for the Zeitgeist label at the moment--HarperCollins, pay-per-view in some form, deals with the devil and what you lose when ownership turns to licenses.

If this one seems long, I'll note two things:

1. It's actually the shortest of this year's major essays--but it's all appearing at once, instead of being split over two issues.


2. I was drawing from some 100 source documents, and in a few cases those really needed to be quoted in full. Most cite-and-comment essays average around 500 words per cited source; this one averages fewer than 250 words per cited source. (Yes, I skipped some of the original 100...)

Enjoy! Or, you know, don't.