So I've been on vacation for the past couple of weeks. It's been draining to try to keep up with a good writing schedule while slamming down martini's in Chicago bars and shaking hands with Mickey Mouse in Orlando. Yet, during my travels, I made a fabulous observation -- about ten percent of the airport clientele were carrying their e-book device around with them, be it Kindle or iPad. So I started asking all about them. "Can you take them on the beach where it's bright and sunny?" "Can you see full-color illustrations if, say, I want to read my five year old a picture book?" "What if you accidentally drop it in the toilet?" (Hey, it could happen!) The responses were interesting and varied. A lot of people were telling me that they had just gotten their e-book device and were getting used to it. I understand editors and journalists can't live without it. But for the layperson, there's definitely a mental switch-over that needs to be made from holding a book with its chunky cover and crinkly pages and, let's face it, that awesome book smell to holding this cold, anesthetic, digital form. I get that one day children will laugh at the prospect of reading a paper book, but for right now, I want my kids to enjoy that sensory pleasure.
Still, intrigued by the whole digital publishing craze, I when I got home from being a jet-setter, I found this great article one of my friends in my critique group had sent me from The New Yorker, which shows the impact of e-books on the industry and compares iPad to Kindle. www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/04/26/100426fa_fact_auletta Interesting stuff and certainly reminds me that when I'm 80, I'll be saying those oft-uttered words, "When I was young,..."
If you've got one of these e-book dealies, tell me what you think of it. I'd rather get my info from friends than from strangers in the airport anyway! Glad to be home!
H
Hey H. I'm still reading the article (it's a long one), but I would say that paper books wouldn't go away, they just wouldn't be commercial products. They would be collector's items. I think that's great! I think a book collection is about the quality of the books, and someone with bookshelves stuffed with King and ... that other K guy. Koontz. Or what have you. That's just not a library. I have dreams a lot of being in a bookstore and finding a massively oversized edition of Shakespeare, with leather covers, gilt pages, and gorgeous illustrations. :-)
ReplyDeleteAs far as the reading hardware goes, I would wait and pay for what Google is coming out with. The Kindle is good, from what I gather, and will read PDF files, but the Google product will read pretty much anything. It'll be a way to read documents comfortably. I personally curl up with books, but find it uncomfortable. You have to get the light on the page, and if you're reading a big book, it's hard to hold it up at the end. We're talking about something that is backlit, so it's easier on the eyes, with crisper text, and lighter. Easier to curl up with!
Also, not to plug, per se, but the books I do on my own site will look perfect on an ebook reader, like a Kindle. At least, I'm pretty sure they do. I don't have an eBook reader. Again, I'll probably end up with the one Google puts out this year.
Hope you're well.