The new phone books

Mon, Mar 3 11:34 AM

Penguin just launched three books and #8230; to be read on your mobile phone! Yes, you read right, but whether or not you will be able to read equally right on your mobile phone is another question. Says Hemali Sodhi of Penguin India, "In the early lot of books that we have chosen, we are looking at giving user-friendly snippets from the particular book or subject as a mobile alert that the user would subscribe to for at a fee.

" Upwardly mobile Besides Penguin's three - The Joy in Loving: A Guide to Daily Living with Mother Teresa, The Path to Tranquillity and The Book of Prayer, Rupa and Co. also has books like the Driving Holidays series and Guide to Homoeopathy out on mobile phones.

Comic books like Chanda Mama are available in this format too. All these books are available through Mobifusion, a mobile content application firm The books are available through mobile alerts, SMSes or through Java.

Monthly subscriptions are between Rs 30 to 300. Mobile expert Veer Chand Bothra points out that Amazon.

com has also launched a hand-held reading device called Kindle where you can download books onto the memory card and then read them. Books that you download from the net can be read only at a certain screen space.

Says Bothra, "Your screen size should be approx 170 pixel by 280 pixels; on one page, you can read upto 60 to 70 words." Non-fiction rules Interestingly, Indian publishers aren't making popular fiction available on the service.

Publisher Kapish Mehra of Rupa and Co. reasons, "Fiction is something that one has to pursue over a period of time.

Yoga and other self help books make for a quick read over a mobile phone." It's not just self help books that are proving popular, comic books are doing equally well.

As Prashant Gupta, MD, Mobifusion India, points out, "Comic books are generally divided into three columns and you can actually read them better. However, in some of our collection we have a graphic first and once you scroll down you have the text.

" Readerspeak It's a good that so far only non-fiction is available over your cell,because authors aren't happy with this trend. Says Timeri Murari author of The Small House, "If my books were to be made available on mobile phones, I'd have objections.

The sanctity of reading a work of fiction lies in reading a book and this cannot be negotiated." Readers are sceptical too.

Says 21-year-old Anuj Bansal, "Reading long SMSes is a pain, reading an entire book seems far-fetched.".

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