The Future of Reading: The Syllabus

I recently received the following request from a friend & former classmate:

Can you suggest a few key / huge / current books on the evolution of e-books and e-media, especially in the face of print culture? Theory, numbers, personal essays, experiences? How print and electronic texts augment each other or not?

What a great prompt. It brought to mind all kinds of wonderful things I’ve read or seen lately—though most are not in book form.

I thought I’d share my response publicly, and also gather your recommendations in the comments, because I know I don’t have a comprehensive list (yet!).

Books

Book: A Futurist’s Manifesto (collection of essays)
The Case for Books: Past, Present, and Future by Robert Darnton (read an interview with Darnton, “Do Books Have a Future?”)
Clay Shirky has two books that look at larger cultural/tech shifts, both of which speak to writing/media/publishing quite a bit: Here Comes Everybody & Cognitive Surplus. (See below for more Shirky.)

Websites, Blogs, Events, Talks

BookTwo (James Bridle). Check out his blog entries AND his talks, where available.
Books in Browsers event. Scan for links to presentations and videos.
Lean Back 2.0. I’ve been mentioning this one a lot lately. See the presentation that kicked it all off.
The Institute for the Future of the Book. Check out their blog, if:book.

Specific Posts

How We Will Read, recent Q&A with Clay Shirky. And here’s Shirky’s blog.
Post-Artifact Booking & What Books Will Become by Kevin Kelly
Wikipedia & The Death of the Expert by Maria Bustillos

What else is there? Let us know in the comments!