I received a Sony Reader for Christmas. I overdosed on ebooks. But this last month I've had a few paper books to read, and I've been surprised by how it feels to go back to that medium.
I always try to finish a book when I've started it. But there's a lot to read out there and my life is finite, so if I get to 50 pages and I'm still uninterested (or worse, antagonized) I quit. Sorry, Little Women. Sorry, Gormenghast.
I hadn't been quitting very much since I got my ereader. But when I bought a few paper books again I found it much harder to keep going.
At first I thought it was because I could physically feel the length of the book. The little page number sitting at the bottom of the ereader screen is not as much of a psychological barrier as holding 600 pages for hours at a time. My ereader is also a lot easier to carry around with me than a book. I already know it fits in every purse and bag I own. It isn't difficult to balance on one hand on the tube.
Then I realized the truth. It's not about length. It's that if I quit reading a paper book, I still have the paper book. It's visible on my bookcase and I can always tell myself, "Well, I'll probably read it sometime," whether that's true or not.
With an ebook, if I don't read it quickly I'm probably not going to. It's not that I'm unable to save the file, but I lose the buzz that got me interested and it's just a filename in a long list. It's off the front page, and like a lot of information these days, it gets lost. So I'm more inclined to go ahead and read it right away. I've paid for it, after all. I want the story.
What does this mean for ebooks and paper books? It might mean that paper books still have one up on the digital: they have some value beyond the reading experience itself. But it also might mean that ebooks are in fact more valuable because I'm more likely to read them, and it's a good thing to be more about the reading experience than owning a chunk of pulp.
What do you think?
Photos: #28/100 by northnorthwest & Webster's 1956 Dictionary by aj marx on flickr
It's early days yet, but ebooks do seem to be changing reading habits. Take my wife. Since she commandeered my Kindle (I don't get a look in these days) she is reading her favourite authors by the corpus. She bought the complete works of Wilkie Collins (about 50 titles for about $3) and read them from beginning to end. Then she bought the complete works of Trollope - another 50 books (another $3) - and is about half-way through those. I haven't seen her read in this way before.
ReplyDeleteI predict a crop of PhDs on the subject of how ebooks affect reading habits in the next few years.
Thanks for your comment, graywave. That's another fantastic aspect of ereaders, as you say: so many books, altogether in one place. And usually very easy to acquire. I love knowing that if I finish one book there's another right there to read.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I'm going on holiday next week and had a sudden paranoia that if I only bring my ereader and something happens to it I won't have any books with me at all. I suppose it's a trade-off, and as the technology improves that paranoia won't be as much of a problem.
Sounds like you'll need to get another ereader if you ever want to read with it again. :)
Too true! I'm holding out for the Kindle 3 though...
ReplyDeleteI don't always finish my print books, either. There are plenty of bookmarks sticking out of different volumes on my shelves.
ReplyDeleteI read on my Kindle, Blackberry & netbook. Not sure if my reading habits are any different, but it's very convenient to always have a few books with me for "standing around" situations.
I hear you, Tony. If I don't have something to read for queues and travelling I go a little crazy.
ReplyDeleteThat's a fascinating thought, Jen.
ReplyDeleteI also have shelves and shelves of books that catch my eye every time I walk into my living room or office, thousands and thousands of words just waiting for me to find an hour to take some collection down, open it, run a finger down a page. All my life I've stood in front of my bookshelves, scanning titles, whenever I had a free afternoon.
When I lived alone in San Francisco many years ago, I believed a writer should keep stacks of books everywhere in their apartment. It was part of my manifesto. For a fiction lover, living among your books is like living your entire life as a child in an inexhaustible candy shop.
Interestingly, I used to treat movies this way, too, back when we had to open the paper or call the theater to find out what was playing. But now that we watch them all on the computer. . .yeah, we never watch them more than once anymore.
Great post Jen... You bring up so many good points and I'm like you... 50 pages in... if I'm not diggin' it, I bail. I mean, by 50 pages, I have to be really really wanting to read it.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to get an e-reader or a tablet of some sort. I'm sure I'll overdose on all sorts of hemingway and Bukowski and Carver.
Again, really neat post.
Victoria, your library sounds gorgeous. I can't imagine not being surrounded by books, too. And on lazy Sundays I stare at the DVDs until something looks interesting enough to watch. I hadn't really connected the two, but you're right. There's a scary similarity there.
ReplyDeleteBukowski, I can't see your name without thinking of my friend who turned her Nintendo DS into a kind of ebook reader and read Bukowski and James Joyce until her eyes bled. (Okay, they didn't bleed, but she tried.)
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed the post. :)
I rarely make it through a print book (with the exception of reading bedtime stories to my son) because I can't keep them with me, they're bulky, and it's just inconvenient. OTOH the ebooks can be read while waiting in line at the store or waiting for a movie to start, etc. My phone is backlit so I can read them in bed in the dark without disturbing my husband. I have some books that are paper that I reread, but its just not nearly as convenient. I will buy a paper version of an ebook I really love though, either to have on hand myself or to share with other people.
ReplyDeleteNice post.
This is a really interesting way to look at it given I'm considering getting a Sony Reader soonish.
ReplyDeleteI can definitely feel like it would be easy to forget about an eBook which is why I'm more curious to try out short fiction first.
ganymeder, I buy paper versions of books I love, too-- either to get it signed or as a collector's item. Ebooks have not yet figured out how to make themselves beautiful enough to be "collected." I wonder if they ever will.
ReplyDeleteIsn't the backlit function great? I don't miss it on my Sony Reader but on my iPhone it's great for the odd moment reading in the dark.
Benjamin, my ereader has helped me enjoy short fiction a lot more. I loved reading The Red Book on it and it's nice to have a little directory of short stories that I can visit when I don't feel like a long book. I'll be interested to see how you like it.
ReplyDeleteEnter the "Peter and the Wolf" theme music.
ReplyDeleteAfter working all day long on computers, the last thing I want to do is pick up a electronic device to read a book. Granted that a book reader saves on bookcase space. I imagine it must look very lonely on the bookcase all by itself. There is just something more involving to me about reading a book, especially hard covers. They have a presence that anything electronic doesn't. If I need to read a guide for example online, I actually have to print it out first, I don't like to read off the computer screen.
This debate reminds me of the LP records vs CD debate... or digital cameras versus Film Cameras. Convenience has taken the driver seat to quality. LP's are big cumbersome, but actually have a different sound to them, and a slightly larger frequency range than CD's. Where a record is analogue and has constant sound and digital, no matter how fast, is still numbers... bits, broken up and played very fast so you can't hear the breaks in sound.
Books again like records have cover art, something there visible to be seen, to look at. You won't soon flip through an ebook library to enjoy the cover art. Likely they will be displayed in small thumbnails if anything.
And the film versus digital thing? right... not book related, but again, print quality of digital is still behind film even after 10 years. Much lower colour depth.
Interesting perspectives, Anonymous. Particularly coming with ominous background music. ;)
ReplyDeleteI sympathize with not wanting to bother with another gadget after a day spent at the computer. I've found that reading on my ereader is as relaxing for my eyes as reading a book (the iPad would not be this way, and neither would any backlit screen, but the e-ink is pretty good) but for aesthetics alone there's definitely a difference until you're lost in the story.
Once I'm lost in the story I don't notice what I'm holding. Maybe not everyone's this way.
Your points about the quality of LPs and film are interesting, but I have to note that the quality of the story and the writing is thankfully not affected by the ereader or paper, unless the formatting is bad. So like you say, not really book related. But the way these mediums are changing is fascinating.
Give it a few more years and a lot of entertainment will likely be near unrecognizable.
Part of the reason I love my book shelf is that I can flick through all the papery pages now and again. And they smell nice. Do ebooks smile nice? No, no they don't.
ReplyDeleteNo. No, they don't.
ReplyDeleteThere's "cat butt" air freshener. I wonder if they make "good book" scent.