The New York Times Laments Forward Progress with the Kindle
By Joe Wikert
The Kindle prevents you from learning more about the stranger sitting next to you on the subway, or so this New York Times article suggests. Gone are the days when you could tell whether that person was into sci-fi, sports or politics, for example. Well how about just knowing they’re an early adopter who loves the portability, power and flexibility of an e-reader?!
I’ve had more people ask me about my Kindle (in airports, conferences, etc.) than I’ve ever had ask me about the print book I happened to be reading; and don’t forget I’ve had a Kindle for less than a year but I had been reading print books all my life prior to that.
How about this little gem from the article?:
Will they (Kindles) help or hurt book sales and authors’ advances? Cannibalize the industry?
It’s called “progress”, people, and it’s not a bad thing. The same fears probably kept some people from making that scary jump from horses to automobiles 100+ years ago. I’m glad nobody squashed that idea, although current GM shareholders might disagree.
I laughed out loud when I read this excerpt:
Publishers will no longer get the bump that comes when travelers see someone reading, say, the latest James Patterson and say to themselves: “I’ve been meaning to get that. I think I’ll buy a copy at Hudson News before I hop on the train.”
Just how many people does the typical commuter influence like this? And isn’t that number kinda tiny when compared to the more modern forms of e-promotions, including e-mail blasts, Twittering, etc.? Maybe this Times columnist is living in the era of horse-and-buggy transportation after all.
I nearly cried though when I read the part about David Rosenthal, EVP and Publisher at Simon & Schuster. Here’s a publishing executive who owns a Sony Reader, uses it to read manuscripts but won’t read a published book on it. Yeah, you read that right. I wonder if he trusts his computer’s spreadsheet to analyze P&L’s or if he still insists on doing things the old-fashioned way, with a sliderule, pencil and paper.
Meanwhile, back to the snobbishness of carrying around a book rather than reading it electronically. Maybe there’s a market for someone to produce an e-reader cover with a see-through slot in front where you can print out and insert whatever book cover you want to impress everyone with. I’d put a Mad magazine cover on mine, just to be different.
Editor’s note: the original post can be found on Joe’s Kindleville Blog here. PB
April 26th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
*sigh*
Will someone kindly lead the NYT down into the valley, and start the wildebeast stampede already?
April 26th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
with a Kindle, you can buy the book ON the train! I know I’ve bought more books since I got mine.
April 26th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
The “snobbishment” of carrying books on a train???? I can think of a lot of commuters in my city who would probably have free ebook readers for school & university students high on their wish-list, just so they can avoid the 50kilo back-packs littering the buses/trains. I don’t know where this man has his office, but I suspect it’s too high up, perhaps he ought to get down to ground level for a while. Does he really think the average commuter could care less what he reads? Get real!
April 27th, 2009 at 12:59 am
Yeah, just like the advent of the iPod stopped me from buying all the new music I used to hear on douchebag’s boom boxes on the train.
April 27th, 2009 at 5:57 am
I actually like the privacy aspect of ebook reading. I don’t always care to advertise my reading habits to others. Certainly on a recent flight I shared with my mother, where one of the books was a little on the racy side, I would not have wished to field comments from her on my reading choices
April 27th, 2009 at 7:56 am
True. As a reader of SF for most of my life, I’ve come to appreciate the generic book cover, and generally use it when I’m out and about with a (gasp!) printed book.