Personally, I like reading in the bath. Not sure that taking my lap-top is a brilliant idea, and at least if I drop a paper book, it'll dry out, although it might not be too pretty. I know how it feels.
Personally, I like reading in the bath. Not sure that taking my lap-top is a brilliant idea, and at least if I drop a paper book, it'll dry out, although it might not be too pretty. I know how it feels.
Dafydd Manton, A Legend In His Own Lunchtime!!www.dafydd-manton.co.uk
My Work Has Been Spread Over Many Fields!
Last weekend I bought a Kobo eBook reader from Chapters. I personally, at least right now, enjoy it more than a typical book. The big thing for me is that I ride the bus quite often and never know what mood I'll be in on the way home; and I used to need to carry 5+ books at a time. With an eBook reader I have 100+ with me right now from many different genres.
Worth the 150$ in my opinion.
Currently Reading: Anathem, Finnegan's Wake, The Brothers Karamazov
Paper all the way for me, even if it's just for the fine odour of "fresh" books. And the joy of stalking through the library in search of something to read.
Sadly, I fear that someday they may become the same conossieur object vinyl records have become
Pessimism aside, I hate audiobooks since I read much faster than some dude (or woman) can narrate and thus get bored. Anyone else sharing that quirk?
Strangely after reading and looking around, it seems that China has pretty much gone down the route of e-publishing without the rest of the world, where people pay per word for novels, almost exclusively pop fiction. what this implies is, to me, a recreating of the Newspaper years of 19th century serialized novels, where people will pay per subscription, per word pretty much, to grab the latest volume of literature and find out day to day how their favorite stories finish.
At the moment, 90% of best selling romances begin as e-published texts commercially.
If that were to hit the American market, which combined with other English countries would make up a sizable netizen population, the implications for mass-genre producing presses are dreary - Harlequin would become obsolete quickly, if, as we model on the Chinese example, the first 1/3 of a book is handed for free, and the rest readers pay per page - in that world, capitalist fiction connects directly to the readers as before, recreating the traditional serialized world of fiction in the modern day.
To me now, looking at it, it seems only a matter of time - and probably sensible in its conceptualization, especially when those e-readers become 60$ or less (that also is only a matter of time, as sooner or later cheaper equivalents will emerge, as it isn't too difficult to make an e-reader). When that happens, commercial printing will become bound to e-publishing.
What is slowing things down is generally the nature of our markets - TV sitcoms rather than TV dramas are the norm, so adaptation, which feeds much of the Chinese market, is impossible. Likewise, the demographic of people reading is dismal, whereas by sheer number of netizens, a Chinese market has millions of teenage and 20-30 year olds reading in mass numbers.
The transition will happen eventually though, since 10$ for a book that may be bad isn't plausible anymore, and 20$ surely isn't. Novels seem better suited for serialization anyway, given their derivative nature, so I think I must retract my early statements, and say, though my preference is certainly in favor of printed books - they are better to me, - electronic books will dominate in the near future, and take over.
It makes sense to me. I like books - i'm a book nerd - i got an inordinate amount of pleasure selecting the book covers I had on my original editions when I recently signed up to Library Thing.
Yet I know I'll end up with an e-reader. it will make economic sense, as JBI points out, plus all the other advantages too. paper books wil be really special then, and a dying breed.
it's not even that - there are literally millions of people who read on smartphones now, rather than printed form. the actual practicality of such an idea, plus the necessity to innovate will have these e-readers cheaper and cheaper as soon as e-text as a medium advances in the English market.Originally Posted by Paulclem
I think it's just dependent on linguistic barriers now. China has 385+ million netizens, reading in Chinese, so it's easy for them, who have a very strange publishing industry anyway (books are like 1$, and often start as ebooks before being published due to popularity).
Also, our presses don't have a great relationship with the television, which creates another problem, so if we take Japan for example, the Manga artist can expect, if successful, some sort of adaptation (even if they are drawing the worst, most deranged of pornography) and the Chines romance writer can expect some Soap Opera adaptation.
Here we don't have that, which makes commercial writing too tied in with publishing - also publishers (and we are talking the big players) don't seem to want to adapt, because of their ridiculous foothold on profit margins.
If we could get the pay-per-read going on from net reading, and even move that into other genres, not only could reading and writing advance, but also much of the copyright problem of infringement can, to some extent be avoided. As it is, if the readers gain popularity, there is little venue for good commercial writing on the net, so people will just resort to illegal e-texts. IF there was a market, the same way Itunes works for songs, the author would fair a lot better. As it is the author is making a 10% margin on royalties - that same amount can be made while getting books at a much cheaper prince - people would be willing, for instance, to spend 2$ a book, and if 1$ goes to the author, they have made the same profit, only people can read more for their dollar, and the advertisement can be brought up to speed.
That being said, some text will always exist, as the best-selling will be published, or republished traditionally, but electronic text for commercial writing has, to my knowledge now, become so persuasive as a better commercial option, that authors will be inclined to move to.
It will begin with mediocre authors, then pulp authors, until best-selling authors begin publishing in both mediums conveniently, then eventually its influence will spread, to the point where genre writing will be so tied to the internet, that even non-fiction and poetry will feel the need to adapt.
Poetry will be hard to go with, but as it is poetry is not commercial, so maybe people will recreate that communal identity of poetry readers onto the web, where discussion and understanding have begun to move anyway. Look at this forum for instance, if discussion of literature is heading onto the internet, as well as in the street, then ultimately publishing online is sensible.
Paper, please!
I'd rather have questions that I can't answer than answers that I can't question.
Having over a thousand books at home, paper is my first choice, but I recently spent a few minutes playing with a Kobo at Chapters when I was in the other day, and it's a pretty neat toy. My issue is how many of us with personal libraries will end up with multiple formats of the same text? For example, I have it at home in paper, but want an easy way to travel with it; or I loved it on e-text, and now I want a hard copy for my library. Computers, of any sort crash eventually, and how is the system backed up?
The advantage in coming years would be for us university students to be able to download onto a digital reader our required texts, from a campus bookstore website. That would be great! I was very angry this summer when my inter-session class required a specific edition of a two-hundred old text which was over $50 new in paperback! What a rip-off.
Most people read faster than they talk. Or that narrators talk. I don't regard that as a quirk.
What may be my personal quirk is that I like well-crafted prose that sounds good when read aloud. I deliberately read slowly, and often read aloud, if the prose is good enough. My problem with audiobooks is that the person reading doesn't perform the work the way I would - sometimes that's very annoying!
I've read a lot of e-books and can safely say that I'm never gonna switch. It's easier on the eyes and you can customize the font to what suits you best...I personally think paper books, at some point, will cease to be produced in a massive scale. If you take into account environmental factors, E-books provides a reasonable option.
Just read in a mag yesterday about publishing e-books. It's a growing market. Some authors are turning to e-publishing without the constraints of paper poublishing. It'll be big.
I personally read ebooks now that i have an ipad. I find they are great as far as being practical and convenient but the only drawback is you cant really share the book with your friends.
Although I much prefer the hard copies for reasons already stated, lately I had to succumb to e-books due to financial situations. I suppose this is where the library would be best to turn to, but the availability and selection is not always there. Those Kindle/nook devices seem to have their conveniences, especially for space making, but they are not the same. Electronic devices cannot be fully reliable.
I wonder how you burn an e-book.
Paper books will last longer and I can flip back and forth between the pages faster? Not too sure since I haven't actually read an e-book before. But for now I'll say that I find paper books more.. pleasant.
I'll definitely try those e-book readers one day when they take over the world or something.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
