What E-Books Can't Give Us
Issue/Publication: Red Room Original
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The buzz over Amazon’s Kindle and other e-readers—as well as electronic publishing in general—has officially reached the deafening level.
Call me skeptical. E-books comprise only a microscopically small portion of all of the books sold annually, so perhaps this is just a lot of hype. On the other hand, I don’t want to be like the guys who stood next to piles of vinyl records in 1982 and said confidently, “These aren’t going anywhere.”
E-book boosters say e-books represent the future of publishing. They promise that e-publishing will fling open the door to almost everything that has ever been printed. Any book, in or out of print, can be scanned and zapped to an e-reader.
That’s nice. Of course, book lovers could continue doing what we’ve been doing all along: buying these old books at used-book stores or through websites such as BookFinder.com and Half.com.
Those old books, I believe, present a real challenge to electronic publishing. Book lovers know that a book isn’t just a device containing information to be sucked out and processed—it’s much more. We love the tactile experience of reading something between two covers, for one thing. And books reveal things to us beyond the words on their pages. Electronic publishing can never duplicate that experience, and that’s why I think books will never be as rare as vinyl records.
Books can age gracefully, and they can reveal tidbits about the people who owned them before us. Anyone who haunts used books stores knows the special joy of getting a lagniappe (a little something extra) with your purchase. Sometimes an old receipt or scrap of paper pressed into service as a bookmark falls out. A friend once opened a used book and found an impassioned two-page love letter circa 1970. I’ve found business cards, postcards and notes lost within the browning pages of old books.
People mark their ownership of books in many ways. A name jotted on the inside cover is most common, but some people go through the trouble of creating special stamps. My cheap paperback copy of Balzac’s Eugénie Grandet once belonged to the unlikely named Gari Pivvs. Lord Jim was the property of Gus Wilson, who had good penmanship.
Ethel Blaine had style. Her copy of Classic Myths in English Literature and in Art (published in 1911) comes with a card pasted on the inside cover. Her name is embossed on it, along with an image of a stylized skyscraper. I imagine her as elegant and erudite. I’d like to think she lived in an art-deco apartment building with a little dog and wore elbow-length gloves when she went out. I love that she loved her books well enough to have those cards made.
And then, of course, there are inscriptions. My copy of Vampires, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality, by Paul Barber, was originally presented to Chris for Christmas in 1996 as “just a little light reading.” Inscriptions are even better when provided by the author. I have a copy of Darwin’s Ark, a collection of poetry by Philip Appleman, signed by both the poet and the illustrator—to Elsie with “warmest regards.” (Where does an author inscribe your e-book download?)
An old book can even add a little mystery to your life. What was the “NCWC News Service,” and why was its copy of Ivar Lissner’s The Caesars: Might and Madness stamped “Requested, 10-29-58”? A little web research gave me part of the answer: the National Catholic Welfare Council’s press office. I’ll never know who requested the book in 1958, but I’m going to pretend it was a scruffy, fedora-wearing reporter, eager to blow this thing about the Caesars wide open.
You learn unexpected things: My hardback copy of Vladimir Nabokov’s King, Queen, Knave still bears a price sticker from a local grocery store chain. These days this chain sells a few genre-fiction paperbacks at the checkout line—yet they once sold Nabokov. Who knew?
I know e-readers have their uses—for researchers, travelers, and so on. And if a book is in danger of being lost because only a few copies are extant, then by all means, get it on the scanner.
But I think we were meant for something better: a close encounter with the written word on the (preferably yellowing) page—maybe even a little must and dust.
And we were meant for the secrets of books. We were meant to open an old book and find something unexpected, something beyond the information contained within the binding. Perhaps we were even meant to feel a little sentimental as we pick up and behold evidence of the lineage of something that’s so much more than a collection of pixels beaming up at us from the gadget of the month.
Rob Boston is a writer and editor in Silver Spring, Maryland.
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Camille Marchetta says:
thank you
The first book of poems I ever bought was very old and out of print and inscribed "To Daisy, From Louis, With Love." Your essay reminded me of that and of the time I spent imagining those two, wondering how their lives had turned out. It drove me as well to my bookshelves in search of a Billy Collins' poem, "Marginalia", which I hadn't read in a while. And instead I found one called "Books" that I'd totally forgotten: "From the heart of this dark, evacuated campus/I can hear the library humming in the night,/ a choir of authors murmuring inside their books . . . " That's a big debt of gratitude I owe you. Camille Marchetta
Michael Pokocky says:
Interesting
I liked your essay but would like to add the fact nobody knows.
My bet is that traditional publishing will always be around. Anything technologically related to books are promotional mediums to reach a wider audience.
Ponder this. Do yo think writers are getting too messed up with their concerns about the future of publishing at the expense of losing time writing books?
Kindest,
Michael Pokocky
Charles Purdy says:
"The Scarlet Letter" and others....
I have a beautiful antique copy of "The Scarlet Letter"--it is inscribed:
A.G. Painter
Christmas 1900
From His Wife
I have always wondered about this long-ago Christmas gift. What was Mrs. Painter trying to say, exactly, with it?
Another favorite of mine is in "The Secretary's Desk Reference," published in 1945--in it is inscribed:
This book is the personal property of Myrtle McCall
You couldn't possibly make up a better name for a 1945 secretary than Myrtle McCall. You just know she ran a tight ship, at whatever company she was a secretary at. And don't even think of swiping her reference books.
I love finding these things in books. And I leave things in books, as well--not only my name but also plane boarding passes (I leave paperbacks in airports for other travelers), notes, shopping lists.... It feels as though I'm participating in a poetic conversation with other readers.
Thanks for a lovely essay.
Lisa Jensen says:
Paper vs Plastic
Thanks for the post, Rob. Call me a dinosaur, but I couldn't agree more!
When I read, I want the full monty — to touch the paper, smell the ink, see the shape of each word as it enters my brain, hear the rustle of pages, in all ways savor the strangeness and exotica of the world I'm holding in my hands.
Of course, as a writer, if anyone wants to read my book via Kindle, braille, Morse-code, or an old View-Master, I couldn't be more thrilled. But as a reader, all I ask is the right to one simple, tactile pleasure that doesn't have to be recharged, connected, or booted up for me to enjoy.
I bloged about this very subject recently (http://www.redroom.com/blog/lisa-jensen/objects-desire) after finishing a great book I couldn't bear to put down. I couldn't feel the same way about the Kindle.
Gina Collia-Suzuki says:
Aside from the pleasure of
Aside from the pleasure of reading an actual physical book, there's the hunt for that elusive tome that you have a million to one chance of ever finding. There's nothing quite like searching through the dusty shelves of antiquarian bookshops, working loose that one volume that's slipped down the back of the bookcase only to find that it's just what you've been looking for... complete with thirty year's worth of dust. I love the smell of those places, the atmosphere, and the thrill of the chase. Being able to pop along to Amazon and download a book in a few seconds is just too easy, smell-less, and lacking in cobwebs.
Vicki Nikolaidis says:
tactile experience
Well said Rob! I know when it comes to the feel and smell of books many of us (especially the Taurus sign) will never let go of real books.
As generations pass there may be fewer and fewer books as ebook technology becomes more available and sophisticated.
I think about all the people living in tents and on the street and I can't believe that ebooks are going to be a priority in their lives anytime soon.
A lot of people complain about the price of books but I love a new book with thick creamy pages (ok I wait for sales but the books are still new and enjoy that a lot).
I like to find things written in used books, too. I especially like finding forgotten bookmarks and scraps of paper from a former reader.
and Lisa, I have to agree, what could be easier to use than a book? An ebook wouldn't be nearly so reassuring slipped under my pillow when I just absolutely can not keep my sleepy eyes open anymore no matter how much I want to finish "just one more chapter."
Irma Tijerina says:
my husband is a printer
Gabriela Tijerina
Hello, I´m from México , and I just look for the word "kindle" . I looked on google, and I saw the video. I was amazed by it. I thought "I want one". Then I show it to my husband who is a printer and he was really worry. Since the company depends on printing books, he wondered ¿what will happen in the near future? And it tranquilize me to read all this comments. So , good for the modernity, but lets keep the paper books
Tim Chambers says:
E-books are the wave of the future
Sorry, Mr. Boston,
but, much as I love my old books, and shopping in used book stores, and finding the treasures of which you speak, I am in my late fifties and grew up with such things. There are generations behind me who do all their reading online and love the convenience of being able to download anything they want in minutes. To them the ebook is what they read, not the dust gathering tree-killers of yore, and as small a market segment as it is today, it is growing like a weed and will continue to grow. It is simply inevitable.
Given that the marginal cost of producing and marketing ebooks is zero, they will increasingly be used by publishers a way of publishing and marketing new writers, as they don't have to underwrite paper, print, distribution, and disposal costs, should the book fail, as most do.
I believe this is something authors should welcome, especially unpublished authors, because it drastically reduces the risk and expense of promoting new talent. It will will mean that the publishing business is no longer dominated by the publishing oligopoly, but will be open to new, more competitive houses which will share the cost savings with the authors they publish.
Hard copy will still be around for a long time, but mostly for established authors, just as vinyl records are still around. But, sad as it is to say it, they will also become increasingly rare.
Vicki Nikolaidis says:
Ebooks the wave of the future
Hi Tim, what concerns me the most about the loss of publishing paper books and the turn to electronic books and information like the news is the unfairness of this turn of events.
People with no computer and no access to computers will be left in the dust, more uninformed than some people are now. (Looking in your crystal ball) do you think they will be taken into account?
Also the issue of publishing paper books is cultural. Perhaps in several hundred years old-fashioned books will be thought of as a myth, I suppose this will happen.
But now in Greece books are still being written and published like crazy. No one can get rich this way but anyone with the creative urge can put a pen to paper. Even students of engineering and the hard sciences consider themselves a poet at heart. A textbook may include a poem or lyrical prose, wonderful!
My big concern though is the lack of access to electronic books and Internet.
I have a practical concern, too. Unless the world accepts using free energy available from the sun and wind, electricity is only going to be available to a few. That's going to happen sooner than later. Probably the U.S. will be hit the hardest by the loss of what they have used for electricity these past three generations. Countries with less access to big centralized electrical grids will fare better cause the change won't be so drastic.
Happened to see your post and wanted to throw in my two cents worth!
Vicki Nikolaidis says:
computer availability and use
I thought just now I should add that I'm most concerned about people in the U.S. living in tents or on the streets & children going to poorly equipped public schools.
In Crete we have all kinds of access to computers and computer support (friendly and patient) plus very knowledgeable computer sales people. Everyone in their 30's in Chania seems to be well versed in computers and every other person off to university this year is in computer science or engineering.
I would like that to be the case in the U.S. as well as in Africa etc.
The U.S. has fallen behind so I think other reasons exist for this (perhaps perception of) lack of a future for paper book publishing. One main thing-no regulation of monopolies. What do y'all think?
Lynn Henriksen says:
Appreciated your essay and
Appreciated your essay and everyone's comments. In addition to what was said, I wonder what the effect will be of the push now to do away with hard copy textbooks.
My daughter, just beginning grad school with a prestigious university, printed out a stack, over 1” high, of text as a part of the homework for the 1st class assignment. I asked her why she printed all of that out; she said because she needed to have it in her hands to highlight and organize it so that she could write a paper. I think young people still need the connection to the real deal, and I'm glad they do.
I love to look at the books in my bookshelf. I like that some are autographed. I like the collage of colors and font and graphics on the spines. I like to scan the shelves with someone else at find that book I'm loaning them to read, and when it jumps out at me I reach for it triumphantly. I smile. I'm happy. The three of us connect in real space, not cyberspace.
Tim Chambers says:
Ebooks the wave of the future
Hey,
I'm not saying I like it any better than anyone else, but if you don't fancy the ebook format, there are imprints out there already that do nothing but POD. POD is a book, preserved in digital form, for reproduction on paper. One doesn't need a Kindle or a computer to read it. It is hard copy. And I lowers the publisher's cost to virtually zero to take on a new writer. What is there not to like about that, particularly if you are just starting out as an author? I recently read about a POD publisher that puts its resources into helping promising new authors prepare their books for publication, with a content edit and a blue-line edit, as a service, whether or not the company choses to publish the final result. How many old-line imprints do that?
What I like about digital, as opposed to analog, is that it democratizes the creative process, and lets everyone be a culture creator rather than a culture consumer. For people who don't have the money for a computer and internet access there are plenty of places to rent computer time. I read some years ago that all those emails from Nigerian con men originate from internet cafes in Lagos.
I recently participated in a small project on smashwords to send free ebooks overseas to the troops. I sent out a total of 17 emails with a link to my book and 7 of them chose to download the whole thing after reading Chapter One. That's seven readers I would not have had. All it cost me was a few minutes of my time.
Please don't shoot the messenger because you don't like the message.