Books, E-Book Readers, and Audiobooks
By Matt Margolis | July 3, 2008
Nick Hornby has a very interesting post on his blog regarding about the future of the conventional book.
In branches of Borders, they are trying to flog us their e-book reader, the ‘Iliad’, for £399. Meanwhile in the London Evening Standard, David Sexton seems quite taken with Amazon’s version, the Kindle. In my branch of Borders on Monday, the Iliad was piled high on the left, just as you walk in; on the right is their wall of bestselling paperbacks, many of which are being sold at half price. It was a quiet Monday morning, and there didn’t seem to be too much interest in the four hundred quid e-book reader; what was striking, though, was that there didn’t seem to be too much interest in the four quid books, either. Attempting to sell people something for four hundred pounds that merely enables them to read something that they won’t buy at one hundredth of the price seems to me a thankless task.
According to Hornby, “there is currently much consternation in the book industry about the future of the conventional book,” but believes the book will prove itself to not being going anywhere. He gives a number of reasons.
1) Book readers like books, whereas music fans never had much affection for CDs. Vinyl yes, CDs no. They are too small for interesting cover art and legible lyrics, the cases break easily, and despite all promises to the contrary, they are extremely easy to break and scratch. Books have remained consistently lovable for several hundred years now. For readers, a wall lined with books is as attractive as any art we could afford to put up there.
This is very true. Books, unlike digital their counterparts, can be signed by the author and collected. Early editions of classic novels are big collectors items. I personally enjoy the convenience of listening to audiobooks, but if I enjoy an audiobook enough, it is safe to say that I will buy the book to give it its deserved spot on my bookshelf. Nick Hornby’s A Long Way Down and Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, are two examples of novels I first experienced in audiobook form that I’ve since bought in traditional book form, in the earliest edition I could find. Book readers like to keep books long after they’ve been read to serve as a testament to hours of reading done by the reader.
2) E-book readers have a couple of disadvantages, when compared to mp3 players. The first is that, when we bought our iPods, we already owned the music to put on it; none of us own e-books, however. The second is that so far, Apple is uninterested in designing an e-book reader, which means that they don’t look very cool.
Another good point. I might be open to trying an e-book reader, but the biggest problem I have with that, besides the cost of a e-book reader, is that I have nothing to put on my bookshelf.
3) We don’t buy many books – seven per person per year, a couple of which, we must assume, are presents for other people. Three paperbacks bought in a three-for-two offer – expenditure, fourteen pounds approx – will do most of us for months. The advantages of the Iliad and the Kindle – that you can take vast numbers of books away with you – are of no interest to the average book-buyer.
I’m sure I’m part of the minority of people who buy (and read) closer to twenty books a year for myself. While the advantage of carrying a vast number of books with me at time, that’s only one small convenience gained by the e-book format. Audiobooks, similarly, can downloaded and stored in large numbers on your iPod, and given that all you need to do is put on your headphones and hit play, you can, with some limitations, multi-task while you listen to the audiobook. The e-book is still read the same way as a tradition book, and multi-tasking would be extremely difficult.
The advantage e-books have over audiobooks is the price. E-books cost less to produce and thus cost less than traditional books. Audiobooks cost more than traditional books — even as purchased downloads rather than in tape or CD format.
4) Book-lovers are always late adaptors, and generally suspicious of new technology.
When it comes to new technology regarding books, this may be true. Audiobooks are a good format for me, because the format allows me to multi-task. E-book readers may be cool devices to carry around, but I’d just as soon read a real book than try to read a screen.
5) The new capabilities of the iPod will make it harder to sell books anyway. How much reading has been done historically, simply because there is no television available on a bus or a train or a sun-lounger? But that’s no longer true. You could watch a whole series of the Sopranos by the pool on your iPod touchscreen, if you want. Reading is going to take a hit from this.
I’m not as concerned about this as Hornby is. As our daily lives continue to become increasingly digitized, I still say books will continue to fill up our bookshelves.
Topics: Books, Nick Hornby | No Comments »
For The Moment…
By Matt Margolis | June 19, 2008
…I’ve put All the Sad Young Literary Men by Keith Gessen on hold, and started reading Personal Days by Ed Park. I haven’t taken to Gessen’s novel the way I hoped it would, and I discovered Personal Days listed in my book recommendations from Amazon. The book tells the story of a nameless Manhattan office. I suspected I would like it since I enjoyed Joshua Ferris’s Then We Came To End.
I’m probably about a quarter of the way through now, I hope to finish it in the next week.
Topics: Books, Fiction | No Comments »
Recently Bought
By Matt Margolis | June 3, 2008
Browsing through a local Barnes & Noble I picked out a few books that I felt i wanted to read:
Johnny One-Eye: A Tale of the American Revolution, by Jerome Charyn
I’ve never read Jerome Charyn or historical fiction before… but I thought I would give it a shot with this new novel. I look forward, not only to the story line, but to the depictions of life during the Revolutionary War.
The Scandal Plan: Or: How to Win the Presidency by Cheating on Your Wife, by Bill Folman
As someone who likes politics and fiction, and who wrote a book corruption, I anticipated enjoying this story, about a Senator and presidential candidate who creates a phony sex scandal to spice up his candidacy. This is Folman’s first novel.
Another debut novel, this one from Joe Dunthorne. I don’t know if I will like it or not, but since I enjoyed Nick Hornby’s Slam, which also has a teenage male for the main character, I figured it was worth a shot.
World Made by Hand, by James Howard Kunstler
I’m not sure if I’ll like this one. It depicts a future “when the oil wells start to run dry, the world economy will collapse and society as we know it will cease.” But it takes place in upstate New York, where I’ve recently moved to,
Still working on a couple other books, but I hope to get started on these soon.
Topics: Books, Fiction | No Comments »
James Patterson Redeems Himself With ‘7th Heaven’
By Matt Margolis | May 7, 2008
As big a fan of James Patterson as I am, I’ve been quite disappointed with some of his latest efforts. The past few installments of the Alex Cross series have failed to impress me. The Maximum Ride series has gotten progressively worse. But, thankfully, the Women’s Murder Club series has managed to stay strong. I finished ‘7th Heaven‘ earlier today and I have to say I was pleased. While the Alex Cross series has been fading away, the Women’s Murder Club series has remained consistent. While some twists were anticipated, the story overall kept its suspense. I hope Patterson can keep it up.
Topics: Fiction, James Patterson | No Comments »
Maximum Ride: The Final Warning
By Matt Margolis | April 19, 2008
James Patterson’s Maximum Ride series certainly had promise. I enjoyed the first installment, The Angel Experiment. Unfortunately, each installment got progressively worse… The latest of the series, The Final Warning, is by far the most disappointing.
The novels have followed the story of 14-year-old Maximum Ride, a human-bird hybrid girl and four others just like her, who are on the run after escaping from “The School” where they were created. It was established in the first novel that Max had been created for a purpose: to save the world. A cryptic voice in her head has guided her and her flock along the way as they fight for their lives in their quest to fulfill that mission. Until The Final Warning, what that mission was exactly, they did not know. Quite frankly, I don’t think James Patterson knew until he started writing The Final Warning, because the mission seems entirely anti-climactic. The series has had human-wolf hybrids and robots out to kill Max and flock, and hints of a decades-long global conspiracy involving genetic research with recombinant life forms. Sounds exciting and thrilling doesn’t it So what is Maximum Ride’s mission really about?
Global warming.
That’s right. The Final Warning takes Max and her flock to Antarctica to study penguins, and ultimately to Capitol Hill, where Max gives a speech to Congress, urging them to heed the alleged warning signs and to do something to slow down global warming.
Instead of tying up all the loose ends from the previous books of the series, Patterson seems to have gone on a tangent by making global warming the focus of the latest novel of the series. Patterson may think he’s doing a service by using his popular series to “educate” kids about global warming — but ultimately the story has suffered.
The Maximum Ride series seems to be suffering from premature burnout. Patterson’s Alex Cross series started off very strong but started really going downhill with The Big Bad Wolf. After ready the most recent of the Alex Cross series, Double Cross, I felt that Patterson had taken the Alex Cross character as far as he could. Well, with Maximum Ride, he’s taken the series in the wrong direction and should stop. Unfortunately, despite the implication of the title, the ending implied there’s more coming.
And yes, I’m sure I’ll read it, but I can’t say I have high expectations for it.
Topics: Fiction, James Patterson | No Comments »
Starbucks Brings Pike Place Roast To The Masses
By Matt Margolis | April 10, 2008
This week, Starbucks made its exclusive Pike Place Roast available in all its locations. Starbucks is promoting the widespread availability of Pike Place Roast with rebranded cups featuring (temporarily, I assume) the original siren logo.
The original siren logo is slightly modified, however. The siren’s hair covers more than the true original logo, but, more importantly the circular band says “Fresh Roasted Coffee” instead of “Coffee • Tea • Spices.” Considering recently publicized problems Starbucks has had, the new emphasis on their coffee selection process and freshness is undoubtedly intended to address those issues. Starbucks suffers largely from an image problem. People who aren’t Starbucks regulars associate the coffee-chain with high-priced espresso drinks or coffee that is “too strong” for them. Starbucks is now attracting attention to their commitment to quality, fresh coffee by posting the “roasted on” date with with daily brews.
I’ve had the Pike Place Roast every day since it became available. And I have say it is one of my favorite roasts. I think Starbucks is on the right track to fixing it’s overall image problem. In fact, I would suggest they continue to not only emphasize their coffee selection processes and commitment to freshness, but also keep showcasing the original siren logo. Another aspect of their image is problem is the bleeding heart objections to big corporations, and the old logo doesn’t have the corporate look that the current logo does. Renewed attention to their roots can’t hurt and reminds consumers that Starbucks started small, and grew into something larger because it has a quality product.
Topics: Thoughts | 2 Comments »
Then We Came To The End
By Matt Margolis | March 5, 2008
Today I finished reading ‘Then We Came To The End‘ the debut novel from Joshua Ferris. It is the story of the employees at a Chicago ad agency in the late 1990’s when the economic bubble burst. Ferris ’s diverse cast of characters bring a realistic humor to the everyday mundanity of the office setting.
The most interesting aspect of the story is that it is told in the first person plural… an extremely effective way of making the omnipresent narrator feel as one of the characters in the book.
At times it is hard to follow all the stories (comedic and tragic) and idiosyncrasies of all the individual characters, but they all are important parts of the novel, as they demonstrate that people are more than what they are when they are on the job.
‘Then We Came To The End‘ is a clever novel anyone who has worked in an office can relate to, and anyone hasn’t should read anyway.
Topics: Books, Fiction | Comments Off
‘Strange Wilderness’ Reviewed
By Matt Margolis | February 2, 2008
I didn’t particularly want to see Strange Wilderness, but I have to admit I did go see it this weekend. And, while it had its funny moments it was a bad, pointless movie that gets you from start to finish with dirty jokes in various forms.
The plot was absurd and pointless, and so much of the story seemed gratuitous. Yes, I laughed, but I laughed more at ‘Superbad’ and ‘Knocked Up’ (both of which are significantly better movies) but just because I laughed doesn’t mean it was a good movie.
Topics: Movies | Comments Off