GalleyCat Readers Debate Kindle 2′s Text-To-Speech Function

All weekend GalleyCat readers debated text-to-speech technology as nine disability groups urged major publishers to activate the function that reads digital books out-loud on the Kindle 2.

One reader wrote: “I buy almost $1000 dollars worth of Audible.com and Amazon.com and Ereader.com books combined per year on average … If I want to buy an audio copy, I buy it because the reader / actor is a favorite of mine or gets good reviews on Audible.com. However, if I do buy the audio copy, it is at the expense of the text copy.” Another reader responded: “if I buy a scoop of ice cream, I pay a certain price. If I add chocolate syrup to it, I pay a little more. If I decide to make it a full-blown sundae–whipped cream, cherry, nuts, the whole bit–I pay incrementally more than that.”

Finally, another reader concluded: “So, you feel that just because you buy one form of my book, you are entitled to ALL forms? Would you insist that, once you have bought a book, you are somehow entitled to the Spanish edition and a free ticket to the film version?”

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