Wednesday, June 22, 2011

I have a book. The same book you have.

Imagine that I walk into your house, and on the table I see an I-pad, a Kindle or a Nook.

Imagine that I walk into your neighbor's house, and on the table I see an I-pad, a Kindle or a Nook.

Imagine that I walk into your brother's house, and on the table I see an I-pad, a Kindle or a Nook.

How bland. How Orwellian. How....shudder, Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Imagine that you walk into my house, and on a bookshelf are Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. A batch of mysteries. A book about ancient Rome, another one about gardening, and so on and so forth.

How interesting. How human. How individualistic.


Or how about this.

I walk into your kitchen, and in the cupboard is a box of pills. There's a red one for spaghetti, a green one for salad, a blue one for steak, and so on.

I assure you these pills taste every bit as good as the best gourmet meals, plus they are easy and cheap to buy.

Imagine I walk into your neighbor's house, and there in the cupboard is a box of pills. There's a red one, a green one, a blue one and so on.

What do I know about you? How bland. How uninteresting.


Imagine, if you will, that I walk into your living room, and there is a table. It's a beautiful table that does everything a table should do, it was delivered to your door, and it was ultra cheap.

Imagine I walk into your brother's house and he has the same table and it its beautiful and functional and cheap and convenient.



I hope and believe that individuality will emerge. That people like owning things, showing what they like and don't like, showing that they read certain books, being reminded of those books daily, surrounded by those books.


The problem, as I see it, is the majority of books that we read that we don't feel the need to keep. The e-readers function very well for your average pot-boiler that you're reading on summer vacation.

How do we keep the physical books around when 80% of the books purchased are digital? How do we keep the physical publishers, distributors, and book sellers in existence, for those of us who want to own the real thing?

My question is -- in your rush (you-all) to buy digital, are you going to force me to be like you? To have that I-pad, that Kindle or Nook on my table? Are you going to force me to search even harder for the real book, and pay much more for it?

Probably.

Welcome to pod world.

7 comments:

H. Bruce Miller said...

"The problem, as I see it, is the majority of books that we read that we don't feel the need to keep. The e-readers function very well for your average pot-boiler that you're reading on summer vacation."

Exactly. That's the type of reading I do on my Nook. I continue to be delighted with the convenience of it. In fact, because of that convenience, and the slightly lower cost of e-books vs. hardcovers and trade paperbacks, I'm reading more books now.

"How do we keep the physical books around when 80% of the books purchased are digital?"

Books with illustrations, maps, complex graphics, and other elements that can't be effectively reproduced on an e-reader will continue to be produced and sold. So will lavish hardbound editions of the classics, which most likely will include LOTR and maybe even Martin's works. The ephemeral stuff probably will all be digitized eventually. And I think that'll be a good thing.

This will not mean the end of publishing, much less reading. What's happening in the book world now reminds me of what happened in the music world when MP3s were introduced. The death of the music industry was widely predicted, but it didn't happen. People are purchasing and listening to more music than ever before; they're just purchasing it in a different form. And vinyl LPs, of all things, are making a comeback among audiophiles because of their superior sound quality.

RDC said...

I have found that e-book formats work even better for books you want to keep than they do for throw away's. The benefit is you do not have to find bookshelf space for them. The only physical books I still have are ones that have not appeared in e-book format yet.

I have over 1000 books in electronic form. I reread them often.

I have even started to get technical books in electronic form.

What is better then to be on a trip and to be able to bring up a reference book on the city you are visiting without having to lug a heavy book around.

H. Bruce Miller said...

"What is better then to be on a trip and to be able to bring up a reference book on the city you are visiting without having to lug a heavy book around."

That would be cool. But I don't think an e-reader or iPad, much less a little smart phone, could adequately display things like complicated maps.

The portability of e-books, I believe, will encourage more reading, just as the portability of MP3 files has led to more music-listening. I have hundreds of albums stored on an iPod that's small enough to slip into a shirt pocket. Imagine trying to carry that many vinyl LPs or even CDs around.

H. Bruce Miller said...

"My question is -- in your rush (you-all) to buy digital, are you going to force me to be like you? To have that I-pad, that Kindle or Nook on my table? Are you going to force me to search even harder for the real book, and pay much more for it?"

Probably. And isn't it a shame how that guy Gutenberg and his stupid damn "printing press" have made it impossible to find illuminated manuscripts on parchment anymore?

RDC said...

HBM,

With the new technology that started with the iphone that allows you to blow up displays by separating of squeezing your fingers helps out in some formats on some devices such as the Xoom.

Works well enough that I was using it instead of carrying topo maps on a backpacking trip I did last year. Had both the maps and a guidebook on the area.

H. Bruce Miller said...

RDC: I know you can zoom, but that's not nearly as convenient as being able to see the whole map at once.

Anonymous said...

Once again rdc proves he has the mind of a 12 year old boy.