"So I don my juvenile female fairy costume (with wings), and shrink down to about 3 feet tall."
By Renée Magriel Roberts
It's 11 PM and I've finally finished stacking orders for tomorrow, dispensed with all today's correspondence, special-ordered books, finished and uploaded today's data entry. So I don my juvenile female fairy costume (with wings), and shrink down to about 3 feet tall. I'm ready to go exploring, exploring virtually, that is, in the realm of Second Life (www.secondlife.com).
I'm not alone. At this moment there are almost 50,000 visitors to Second Life, who within the last 24 hrs. have spent over $1.3 million in a 3D digital world that is designed, imagined, and executed by its 11 million residents. This is a world being used in every imaginable way and is still in its infancy -- major universities use it for courses and simulations, residents buy and sell everything from how one's avatar (the virtual being that you control) looks and acts, to what it wears, where it lives, what it listens to, and what vehicles it drives, and most importantly for our purposes ... what it reads.
What is Second Life? It is an open-ended, resident-created three-dimensional world, opened in 2003, and populated by individuals all over the world. It is full of opportunities for social networking, creating new environments, and building new businesses.
Because residents maintain the rights to their digital creations, there is a vast marketplace on Second Life. The Linden dollar (L$) is the currency of this world and it trades with other world currencies. Second Life may look like a game, but it is decidedly not a game. Investors like Mitch Kapor (Lotus), Ray Ozzie (Microsoft), Pierre Omidyar (eBay) and Jeff Bezos( Amazon) have bet big bucks that Second Life will be one of the next coming things.
While Second Life costs nothing to explore (including creating one of the stock avatars), buying "property" costs Linden dollars (L$), currently trading in real life at about US$1 to L$300. In addition, residents can purchase anything imaginable in this virtual world, including ... books.
I'd like you to imagine sitting in your living room, in front of a very big screen digital display. Through your avatar you are exploring a street of antiquarian bookstores in a mythical or "real" virtual village. You go into one and inquire about their collection of materials on Benjamin Franklin. You can pull virtual books down from the shelves and open them up to see their title pages or illustrations, or their bindings. Through streaming audio and video you can find out more about each book, as well as related titles.
A bookseller avatar, in real time, can discuss the books with you and send you descriptive information which your avatar stores. You can chat or talk with an audio link. You can also link, in real time, to outside websites.
Sotheby's Fine Books, Manuscripts & More Available for Immediate Purchase
Sotheby’s: William Shakespeare. The Poems and Sonnets of William Shakespeare, 1960. 7,210 USD
Sotheby’s: Charles Dickens. A Christmas Carol, First Edition, 1843. 17,500 USD
Sotheby’s: William Golding. Lord of the Flies, First Edition, 1954. 5,400 USD
Sotheby's Fine Books, Manuscripts & More Available for Immediate Purchase
Sotheby’s: Lewis Carroll. Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, Inscribed First Edition, 1872. 25,000 USD
Sotheby’s: J.R.R. Tolkien. The Hobbit, First Edition, 1937. 12,000 USD
Sotheby’s: John Milton. Paradise Lost, 1759. 5,400 USD
Bonhams, Dec. 18: A Very Fine Composite Atlas Magnificently Illuminated and Heightened with Gold in a Fine Contemporary Hand Throughout. $300,000 - $500,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Saint-Exupéry's Revised Ending for Wind, Sand and Stars. $40,000 - $60,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Edith Wharton's Gold Medal from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, 1924. $20,000 - $30,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Salinger on the Glass Family and on Detachment. $10,000 - $15,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Fanny Burney's Groundbreaking First Novel. Evelina, Or a Young Lady's Entrance into the World. $10,000 - $15,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Kafka's Earliest Extant Piece of Writing. Autograph Note Signed ("Franz Kafka"). $10,000 - $15,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Wagner Signed "Ride of the Valkries." $6,000 - $9,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Dickens on the Death of Little Nell. $5,000 - $8,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Sylvia Plath's Copy of Joy of Cooking. $4,000 - $6,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Walt Whitman and Friends: Whitman to James Russell Lowell. $8,000 - $12,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Walt Whitman and Friends: The Genesis of his Lincoln Lectures. $6,000 - $9,000
