The publishing biz is a lot of hurry up and wait, so while I wait to hear from my agent, my readers, and soon editors, I must talk of other matters related and "un".
Such are the trials and tribulations of getting published. So we get to talk of other mad things. Like the fact that reading has come of age. The thing that publishers of paper novels fear the most has come. I saw it on a full page ad in the New York Times Book Review and had to see it for myself. It’s the Sony Reader. An electronic device the size of a paperback with a reader-friendly screen (“like paper,” they tout) is on the market for the price of $350 or roughly 14 hardbacks. But that doesn’t scare technistas who love the latest trend in anything electronic. Like my son. If it’s got a screen and a battery and more than one purpose, he's in heaven.
Apparently, this little device can hold 80 volumes (that’s 8-0), as well as Word, PDF and the like documents, and you can listen to downloaded music. Who needs paper, right? I don’t want to sound like some relic that ticks her head and shakes her fist at those “new-fangled thingys”, but there are a few ways to look at it. First of all, I don’t poo-poo technology else I and you wouldn’t be here reading this. And I love my computer (I hope my computer heard that so it will NOT crash on me). It makes writing as a career a viable option. I couldn’t see myself typing away on a typewriter with my horrible mistakes, whiting out or using the erase tape and trying again, keeping to the requisite numbers of lines per page, physically cutting and pasting rewrites...you get the picture. And the internet is fabulous for quick look-ups and asking questions from learned colleagues. I chat with many a great person across the pond, many who go to the trouble of looking things up for me in archives I cannot access.
However. I like books. The smell, the feel, the sensuality of holding a book. I like bookstores. The thrill of finding something you otherwise would never have found if you hadn’t actually been present in the store and thumbing through the shelves. That may not be possible should such a format take hold of the market. True, you would simply go on a web site, pay and download that next bestseller. But what about the gems you’ve never heard of? What of the knowledgeable bookseller? You hear that? That’s the sound of my bones creaking.
What to do? What to think? Yes, it can be keen. I can see those folks who fly a lot and how handy one slim electronic device could be. Volumes and volumes at the touch of a finger. Does this mean the end of the home library? (Not that I’ve got one, but I want one someday, dammit!)
All something to ponder.
Comments