Jason Bradbury

I find the majority of articles discussing the shape of Apple’s ‘latest creation’, frustrating. What bugs me is their collective lack of commitment and their constant need to apologise for being part of the hype around what will be the world’s first, full-colour digital e-reader. Let me place my neck squarely on the block and predict the most important dimension of the next Wednesday’s launch: it will change publishing, forever. Yep, it’s a multi-touch tablet that will play music and movies and apps and propose an initially frustrating on-screen keyboard solution, which will ultimately prove blissfully easy to use – but the real news, the point that needs making, is that the device, which will certainly not be called iSlate, will lead to a complete overhaul of how most of us read.

This quantum shift in the way we read newspapers, magazines and books won’t happen overnight – just as the music industry didn’t embrace iTunes’ seminal solution to the problem of making money from digital pop - but it will always be perceived as the beginning of reading, post printing press.

I have it on good authority that several major UK newspapers have been approached to format their publications for ‘a tablet device’. And as an author with my own book available in digital format, I can tell you that publishers and authors know that a move to the next phase of publishing is long overdue. But my main reason for focussing on the e-reader part of the new tablet equation, is that as a race of word hungry wretches, we’re all crying out for someone with Apple’s clout to push us to the next and inevitable rung on the reading ladder. Whether we realise it or not, the option to download any book, any newspaper or magazine from any year, month or day, in full colour, in an instant, is as inevitable as the death of the combustion engine.

For some sage commentary on Apple’s latest offering I recommend following @claudineb (Technology Editor for The Telegraph) who will be at the launch in San Francisco next Wednesday.

This is my very well thumbed proof-copy of Airman by the brilliant Eoin Colfer. It is one of my favourite books (and that’s not just because Eoin was very complimentary about my own book! B-) Puffin is holding a competition to film your own flying machine in action and offering a really cool prize. You can check my own origami effort on Airman’s website www.isitabird.co.uk.

Ray Kurzweil is a brilliant scientist and futurist. His book maps out a startling vision of the fusion of biology (namely us) and technology. It’s a dense read, but it’s not a difficult book to understand because Kurzweil is fond of graphs! His sections on Moore’s Law are fascinating and he makes it clear that, because of the exponential growth in computing power,  those of us who are around for the next fifty years will see Star-Trekian advances in technology. ‘It is reasonable to expect [the] hardware that can emulate human-brain functionality to be available for approximately one thousands dollars by around 2020.’ I just wish it was lighter, so I could carry it with me on the tube! Check out more books from My Library.

In many ways, this book is the research document for the book Max Brooks wrote next ‘World War Z’, which happens to be one of my all time favourite reads. ‘The Zombie Survival Guide’ is perfect public transport fodder. See more in My Library.

I’ve got a thing for ‘Tips’ books. I bought this one when I was visiting MIT, in Boston. Check out more books from My Library.

I’ve just been to Martha’s Vineyard, where the movie Jaws was filmed. You can see a video of me ’shark hunting’ filed under Dot.Robot. This book, The Swarm is a bit like Jaws, but, as the name suggests, the monsters of the deep in this oceanic thriller move in packs. The book is also a warning, a very convincing projection for a number of ways the natural world might react to what we’re all doing to it. It’s a doorstop of a novel, but it’s an easy and exhilarating read.

A collection of twelve editions of Commando, a comic book I loved as a boy.