New Section: The Library of HBM
I like to think that I read quite a bit—certainly more than the average person—but in reality, I read anywhere from one to three dozen books a year. When looking for new books, I occasionally purchase books that seem interesting or culturally relevant but are unavailable in a well-formatted, digital version.
Then I begin the arduous task of digitizing the book and creating an e-book version that will last a lot longer than any paper document. When I go about this, I usually spend weeks on each book; I fix typos, I ensure there are no weird errors in the formatting, and I try my best to present the information in the same way that the author intended. I don't modify these books per se (I wouldn't dare add or remove any information), but I do repair them when necessary.
Typically, I'll turn the text into a standard EPUB or into mostly-plain HTML (depending on the use case). These formats are almost universal and will render well on damn near every device on the planet. EPUBs and PDFs are very common in the e-book world, but while PDF is handy, they aren't as easy to edit and have some other issues that I won't dwell on. EPUB on the other hand is HTML + XML all wrapped up in a ZIP file. They're remarkably easy to work with using a piece of software like Sigil and they preserve the text for easy conversion to other formats if needed.
I preserve these books for myself as well as for future generations. If they're out of copyright or somewhat old, I will try my best to get them uploaded to the Internet Archive as I think that site is a great and noble resource. If they are of a more sensitive nature, then they'll get stored in my personal library until I decide if and where I want to share them.
I also strongly believe in open access to information and I feel that piracy of digital goods isn't theft. That being said, I don't think it is right to sell someone else's hard work without inputting a significant amount of effort to transform or repurpose it into an original work. This isn't a complete opinion of mine and I plan to update this article or turn it into a complete essay someday.
Lastly, I have created a new section of this site named after my home library: The Library of HBM. I plan to upload some of the books I have helped to preserve (as well as a lot of other books that I have collected) to this site in some capacity, but I haven't fully decided how I want to share them.
I likely won't host many of these books directly on this site. Instead, you'll probably find them on the Internet Archive, shared via BitTorrent magnet links, or bundled in encrypted .zip files. I'd rather not risk violating NeoCities' content policies by hosting material I don't technically own, but I do plan on sharing my large collection of books somehow. Watch for updates!