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The new website Download the Universe reviews books about science that only exist in the digital world - the site won't even include reviews of print book spin-offs. But the reviewers define ebooks broadly: everything from self-published pdf manuscripts, to Kindle Singles about science, or even apps that have embedded games. The group hopes to eventually review new types of ebooks that readers can't even imagine yet.
They saw a great future in science books
This new venture started after a group of 15 writers and scientists gathered to talk about the startling growth of ebooks. They all felt that ebooks were becoming an extraordinary new medium, starting to rival print books and offering opportunities that printed books could not. But there was just one thing missing: a way to find out about these new science ebooks. So they agreed that what was needed was a science ebook review. Download the Universe will also use viewer comments to create a vibrant online community.
An impressive body of reviewers
Reviewers working for the site are accomplished writers with impressive titles of their own. Some of the reviewers include:
Annalee Newitz who is currently the lead editor for science fiction and science blog io9, which went live in January 2008 and has more than 2 million readers monthly. In early 2007, Seal Press published a collection of essays she co-edited called She's Such a Geek, about female nerds.
David Dobbs is now writing his fourth book, The Orchid and the Dandelion (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), which expands on his Atlantic article to explore the genetics of temperament - and the idea that the genes underlying some of our most troublesome traits and behaviorsalso generate some of our greatest strengths.
Deborah Blum is a Pulitzer-prize winning science writer and the author of five books, most recently the best-selling The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York. She is a professor of journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.