Change any book to an e-book

Not everyone relishes walking around with a suitcase of books in their vacation. The latest batch of e-readers have deprived us of the weight, dust and fire hazard of paper. A modern e-book reader can easily fit 3.000 books and needs charging only once a month. Hopefully I have already convinced you that it beats paperbacks hands down. But what if your favourite book is not available as an e-book? No problem. You can easily change any book to an e-book. Here's how:

Step 1: Scan the book (about 1 hr on a flatbed vs 15' on a batch)

The first step is to have a corresponding jpeg or pdf file for every page of the book. If it's a heavy book, it will be easier to photograph each page with a digital camera. If the book is manageable, you can use a flatbed scanner. It takes roughly an hour for your average 200 page paperback. If you don't mind destroying the book, then you can remove the bind with a cutter and feed the individual pages in a batch to a scanner such as the Canon P-150. It will only take 15 minutes in total. When you are done, make sure that you have all the pages and in consecutive order.

'Double Indemnity' doesn't work

In 1944 it was nominated for 7 Oscars. The screenplay was written by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler. It is the first real Film Noir and it has an atmosphere thick enough to cut with a knife. And it ranks #29 on the American Film Institute's best American films of all time.

Still, it doesn't work on a character level.

Walter Neff (the story's narrator played by Fred MacMurray) confesses: “I killed him for money, and for a woman.” He sees the woman (Barbara Stanwyck) twice. He likes her a lot. The third time he sees her he agrees to plan and kill her husband so that she can get the insurance money. Perhaps after this they make love, we are not shown (we wouldn't be in 1944). Then he tells her that they must never meet again in private to avoid suspicion. He doesn't seem to want the woman. At no point does he ask for a cut, so he doesn't seem to want the money. Half an hour into the movie we know that he doesn't want the woman or the money. He is not shown to be a man of violent nature, more of a cold and calculating persona than anything else. Why then does he commit murder?