MetaBook

A book about a book.

The ur-MetaBook line is probably the Cliffs Notes series (to the extent that they can be considered books - I'd says they qualify as Thin Book-s).

A possible example sitting unread on my shelf is The Sign Of Three ISBN:0253352355 . Now I that I notice a Charles S Peirce reference, maybe I'll graze again.

Now I've discovered that Barnes And Noble are starting a series, so I picked up the "companion" (ISBN:1586638637 ) to Jared Diamond's Guns Germs And Steel since I've never forced myself to buy the original (I'm interested in the argument but whenever I browse it I'm put off by the writing itself).

Hmmm, should really short summaries count? Hmm, the below are business-focused, I wonder whether there's another category that would be viable?

Do I need to buy a license to the original book to avoid Copy Right issues, if I want to sell a MetaBook?

  • nope, just don't copy out chunks of the original without being clear that it's a quote
  • but be careful about over-quoting

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