PODS, BLOGS, ETC

August

iThink, therefore iAm

Apple has not yet sorted out any deals with publishers in Australia for the distribution of books through its iBook application. So it's been forced to fall back on offering those titles that are safely out of copyright: classics of literature, history and philosophy.

One exciting consequence of this for those who've purchased an iPad is a treasure trove of free, insightful, and temptingly interactive books that provide the foundation for our values and society.

They run the gamut from the supertexts that inform the basis for cultural and social norms - including the Bible, Koran and the works of Confucius - to classic works of philosophy, from Hume and Marx through to Nietzsche, Kant and Plato, not to mention classics of Shakespeare.

Need a motivational speech? You could do worse than to dip into Henry V's St Crispin's Day address. Feeling a little lost strategically? Perhaps thumbing through Sun Tzu's The Art of War will hold a nugget of truth. Overwhelmed? Here's Immanuel Kant introducing his Critique of Pure Reason: "Human reason, in one sphere of its cognition, is called upon to consider questions, which it cannot decline, as they are presented by its own nature, but which it cannot answer, as they transcend every faculty of mind." Indeed.

With iBooks' capability to highlight, note and keep all your favourite bits from each book together tidily at the front of each title, there's enough here to keep you going for years. The wisdom of the ages, delivered via wireless. How very 21st century.

Mike Hanley