I swear, it’s happening. It’s really happening. The era of the paperback/hardcover is ending. Slowly. Soon bookstores might turn into kiosks with workstations holding Macs and PCs, sort of like a FedEx Kinko’s. No more shelves, no more mounds of books. No more reading areas. No more coffee. (well, maybe they could swing that–ya gotta have some of that Starbucks!) No more nice couches and chairs!
DEAR GOD!!!
I’m talking about that rising beast of the book biz, the e-book. Yes, I’m writing another post about the e-book.
I can’t count how many times I’ve seen some news or an article regarding the e-book–we’re hearing news about the Amazon Kindle, that new Sony eReader, the new app called “Stanza” that works on the Apple’s iPhone, turning your phone/camera/browser/gaming device/coffee maker/vibrator into, also, yet again another function, a freakin’ book reader!
Let’s face it, e-books are on the rise.
One of Nathan Bransford’s newer posts asked a pivotal question in literary history. Simply this: Will You Ever Buy Mostly E-books?
It’s a fabulous question. And it deserves a fabulous answer. Don’t worry, Nathan. I may get the chance to actually answer in a little bit on your own blog. Just know that your question hath spurred me to rant on my own. I feel it in my veins.
In my budding career as a writer, I’d have to say a number of things about my habits and reading ‘projects’ I take on. Put it this way: I have many friends who are also writers. I have a couple friends who are actually published writers. I have some of their books. I don’t know if it’s in the water or the air, somehow subliminal messages pass into my brain via mechanical fruit flies (sort of like those ‘flies’ from the remake of “The Day the Earth Stood Still”); but as much as I take on my own projects, I feel a certain need and place to also read other writers’ work. Not necessarily for enjoyment, mind you. Do you understand what I’m saying?
Take my soon-to-be upcoming video book reviews, hopefully first one coming out in the next century. (I’m close to finishing your book, Sarah, I promise!) It is, in my opinion, a common fact that if you read something critically, you also write for yourself actively. Call it assimilation. A Borg, I am not. But close. Watch out, Captain Picard. Call it immersion in the literary world. Call it anything. But whatever you do, don’t say it’s simply for pure enjoyment. It is no longer.
I can say the same for our wondrous literary agents and editors out there, too. Regarding our manuscripts, NONE of it is for enjoyment (unless they’re finding they really, really, really, really, really, really, really like a particular manuscript). It’s business.
And here is my point. I would give everything save my soul to be able to download as many unpublished works onto some device that allows me to read in the privacy of my own bed, on the floor, on a train, on a bus, walking down the street to the doctor’s office to have my prostate checked, you get the idea. Saves time. With a device like that, I’d have Sarah Jensen’s book finished about ten decades ago. But that’s not possible; all I have is a freakin’ desktop. That I sit in. On a chair that’s bent to one side (hey, if it works, it works).
There lies my absolute value in a Kindle or eReader. In fact, for several weeks now, I’ve been dying for an app to be available for my Verizon Voyager that allows me to download Word files and be able to read them as if on a Palm Pilot. That would be the coolest thing. Soon I’d be reading Michelle McLean’s historical romance, and Mary Lindsey’s YA paranormal, H.L. Dyer’s THE EDGE OF MEMORY, Elana Johnson’s sharp work, Scott Tracey’s coolness. EVERYONE who’s striving for publication, I want to read! And a Kindle/eReader/reading application thingy for cool smartphone multifunctional device would help tremendously in that department. I’m sure, based on Nathan’s life, that it benefits him as well.
Will then the traditional paperbacks/hardcovers go bye-bye? No. Not at all. At least not for me.
Like I said, being a tiny budding writer in this big literary world, my concept of reading has changed. I don’t read simply for fun anymore; actually, let me rephrase: what I read for fun is now supplemented by what I read for business. And if you do the math, that’s a hell of a lot of reading! But it’s cool.
I have my favorite authors, you know? I still love Terry Goodkind. I will own his books until I’m dead and buried. And I will pass on his books to my son. I’ve owned a few classics as well–Nathaniel Hawthorne, Isaac Asimov, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Edgar Allan Poe. Can you imagine owning these classics via a ‘reading device’? That’s almost like owning a Bible via implants in your brain (although that would be extremely efficient). There’s a certain honor to owning a piece of work in the literal ‘flesh’. Especially if you have that loving autograph written on the first page! (squeals like a little girl)
Now don’t get me wrong–you purchase a book through the Kindle or eReader, you’re still owning it for sure. But the concept is slightly different. I’m sure you understand.
My answer to Nathan will probably be this: no. I won’t mostly buy e-books. I might buy a few e-books for fun. But not many. Most of the books I’d read for enjoyment will still be in paperback or hardcover.
Ever heard of the ‘beach read’? Can you imagine being out in the beach, wearing sunglasses, with your electronic Kindle? Can you see the sun melting away the Kindle, or the sand getting stuck in its crevices? I’d feel more comfortable with a wrinkly, slightly moist, curled-up awesome paperback with a sweet cover on it. It’s…timeless.
I don’t know if other people feel the same as I do, but the fact of the matter is–books have been around literallysince, well, biblical times, I’d say. That’s a long time, last I heard. There’s always a place for an awesome, cozy paperback or hardcover in my home. ESPECIALLY for a bestseller of which I happen to be a fan. I’d own anything Stephen King if my life depended on it. You’d probably not find him on my hypothetical Kindlereaderstanzaphone at all.
Pass me the timeless beach read any day, baby. (That is, of course, after I finish reading Sarah’s book, and then Jordan Dane’s book, and then Michelle McLean’s book, and then H.L. Dyer’s book, and then….)
