I spent this morning becoming increasingly frustrated with Mobipocket.com until I finally gave up and conceded that I should have done better research before believing I could ever read their ebooks. They belong to Amazon, and share many of Amazon's irritating and occasionally insulting ideas about ease of use and the proximity of the Kindle to the center of the universe.
I then wrote a post about this, my first ebook purchase experience, and how frustrating it was, so that even I-- usual advocate for the future of ebooks and regular books living together in harmony and happiness, with dreams of pleased readers and users travelling around with their paperbacks and their Stanza libraries bundled together-- Yes, even I decided I'd rather retreat to the room furthest from the computer with a "real" book and marvel at how easy it was to turn the pages, and how good the paper smelled.
But I have shuffled that post away into the long archive of "Things I might regret later." Instead you get a muttered and ill-defined reference to Pandora's Box, something about Hope always being last to appear, and a non-sequitur reminder that birth is always incredibly painful no matter how much you want the baby.
Birth is always painful but not every birth produces a healthy or viable life. I worry about ebooks for a number of reasons. As an author I visit a lot of bookshops to talk to readers at my book events. Meeting an author is an experience online suppliers can't offer to readers. I think it is important, not least because our bookshops are disappearing. We spend an increasing amount of time communicating remotely through keyboards and screens. Feel free to visit my author blog where I write about writing.
ReplyDeleteHi Leigh, nice to meet you. I understand your worries about ebooks & authors. I think a lot of authors wonder how they're going to market their work (especially since the future seems to be a place where they're the only ones marketing their work!) if it exists only as a computer file. But I'd like to believe that ebooks and regular books can co-exist, and one will support the other. I guess time will tell.
ReplyDeleteI've visited your blog and see your events schedule for London. I'm having visitors this month but I hope I can make it to a signing!
I have no desire to read an ebook, or kindle or anything of that sort. I like having a bookshelf, I like holding a book, and I like going to bookstores and libraries. All of this even before I wrote. This is the reader in me speaking.
ReplyDeleteA lot of us book lovers are tactile, dinosaur types who love not only the text but the package the text comes in. I can't imagine a world without physical books, but the idea of taking my library with me on a long trip is pure seduction. I haven't bought an e-book reader yet, but I suppose I will eventually. The other point is that I love not only books, but trees as well.
ReplyDeleteJennifer, it's good that you know where you stand! I don't know if technology will ever force you to change your habits but I really share that love for books, bookshelves, the whole physical element. Stories are really more than just ideas in the air.
ReplyDeleteThe trees appreciate your support, Claire. ;)
ReplyDeleteI really doubt the world will empty of real books, no matter how ebooks thrive. I actually think they fill separate needs and I'm interested in how that will evolve.
Oh Jen, I hope not!!
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