Oct 2, 2009 11:18 pm US/Eastern
Custom Copies Of Your Favorite Books, In 4 Minutes
CAMBRIDGE (WBZ) ―
All it takes is four minutes. With a device Gutenberg would have found hard to believe, you can have almost any book ever written in your hand – in four minutes thanks to a new invention called "The Espresso Book Machine."
There are only two to be found in the entire country, and one of them is right here in Cambridge, MA.
I've used it myself and it's phenomenal. I requested a brand new copy of
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott and the Espresso Book Machine took off after the file was chosen by the attached computer. I had a custom copy of my favorite book from my girlhood – printed in a flourish, precision cut and with a real cover. And it all happened in the promised four minutes.
Owner Jeff Mayersohn of the Harvard Book Store just launched the service this week and says it just adds to the quality of his store in the heart of Harvard Square.
"It's a machine which has a data base of about three million books, so it effectively, significantly expands the inventory of the store."
Read:
Espresso Book Machine
The publishing industry has changed dramatically over the past few years, with a lot of readers going for electronic devices like the Kindle from Amazon, but with the Espresso Book Machine, readers still have easy access to millions of titles, and in the end what you get is a REAL book.
Many devoted readers fear the loss of the turning of the page, the smell of a favorite read, and Mayersohn says this invention is the instant answer to the convenience of digital books.
"I think that digital technologies have their place," concedes Mayersohn, "but I don't think that the Kindle will replace the physical book, and this all of a sudden gives a tremendous advantage back to the physical book."
Advantage back to the book – and back to the bricks-and-mortar book store. Many independent stores have gone belly-up as Amazon has siphoned off business. But now, starting at $8 - you can get almost any book ever printed.
Mayersohn began with the beginning: "The first book we printed," he says proudly "was the first book ever printed in North America which was
The Bay Psalm Book and that was printed in 1640 here in Cambridge."
If this concept takes off, Mayersohn says it could put your neighborhood store back on a level playing field because the book store will no longer mean slow.
"If someone comes in to the store and looks around and can't find something on the shelves, they go over to the information desk and they will ask 'Do you have this?' and we will say 'No, we don't, but we can get it for you in four minutes.'"
And yes, they really can.
Right now, Google is currently scanning every book ever printed so the data base of available titles continues to grow. Books no longer protected by a copyright cost $8. Books that are still covered cost whatever the publisher would normally charge.
And if you have an interesting Family History or the next Great American novel in you, you can also self-publish for an additional fee.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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