It's true, we really are moving towards a paperless world.
Allow me to say why I think that the Kindle is as much a form of new media as any Sullivan or Hilton blog. In the end, I believe that new media is about the reader getting the power. Before the progression of new media, the reader was at the mercy of the publisher every time. The publisher chose the material, the publisher chose how to advertise, the publisher essentially put words and images in front of you and made sure that thats what you read. With the kindle, this is almost eliminated. Consider this: how many times do you see someone on the bus/subway/rickshaw reading "The Life of Pi" by Yann Martel? Probably a few times. I know I have. Then you need to factor in how little people read at all these days. According to USA Today, 25% of the population read no books last year. Then you see someone reading one of these old compilations of papyrus, and it happens to be the same cover (life of pi) that you just saw that cute girl on the plane reading. The next train of thought would have to be: "that must be a good book!" So you go out to Barnes and Noble, or whatever corner bookstore looks the most pitiful, and you pick up a copy from the front room display. You are in and out in five mintues. Whew! That was a close one. Thank God there is a lion on the cover of "The Life of Pi" otherwise I'd have had to search around and read some titles.
Along comes the kindle, and this brand of marketing (the seeing what cover other people are reading) vanishes. Publishers have to scramble to find a new way to get their name out there. Lord knows they can't afford to plug Franzen's new novel during Halftime at the Superbowl. Budweiser has a pretty firm stranglehold on that spot. So Publishers now need to cater to individual reader's needs. They need to convince the bloggers of the world to promote their book. They have to get some space in People Magazine. They need to put an ad on the subway in Spanish, English, and Korean! Anything to make sure that they are being read.
Of course, the obvious counterpoint is that Kindles are in fact a way of reading books and publishers arent going anywhere. To which I say: I'm not stupid. I realize that the growing number of Kindle usages marks a growing number of reader's in the world. That should make everyone happy! What I mean to display is the paradigm shift from the producer to the reader. With so many options out there, the reader has never had so many alternatives to reading. Cover-recognition is a huge form of advertisement for publishers. Think of all the times that someone has wanted to seem important because they are reading Obama's Memoir, think of all the times a clueless guy has leaned across an aisle to lie to a cute girl about reading the same book. Publishing, like any business, is about branding, and the kindle is cooling down the searing hot Iron of Random House's brand.
Jordan,
ReplyDeleteThis post really, really made me think about the paperless world that we are living in. I’m a big reader and I might be in the minority saying this but, to me, there’s nothing like going into a bookstore, buying a new book, and smelling the new pages and feeling the cover of it in my hands. It sounds a little bit strange, but I think part of the reason I love reading is because I love holding the book in my hands. You’re so right when you say that there is something to cover recognition. I’ve spent my summers in New York interning in college and, while on the subways, I’m constantly looking around at who is reading what, whether it be a book or a newspaper or a magazine. The Kindle doesn’t allow for this kind of behavior because reading becomes a bit more privatized. People are unable to see the cover of the book, which is unfortunate to someone like me who is (nosily) interested in what people are reading. If I see a few people reading a certain book, I assume that it’s good and may look into reading it, too. Technology pieces like the Kindle don’t allow for this to happen.
Going along with this post, I wonder if anyone else agrees with me that holding an actual book or magazine in your hands is sort of stimulating as a reader? I’ve spent years holding a variety of books in my hand… the Babysitter’s Club, Harry Potter, the Twilight series. Because of this, I’m not sure that I can fully dive into the paperless world and get a Kindle. In case you were wondering.
Really enjoyed reading your post, Jordan. I have thought a great deal about the Kindle and how it alters one's reading experience. And I have resisted getting one because of the joy of feeling the weight of a book in my hand, much like what Allie said in her comment. The act of turning the pages and marking them with my pen creates a kind of intimacy with the author. And the act of giving a book to someone else--sharing something that you read and loved--is also a very personal and wonderful thing. We can't do this with Kindles. Kindles do offer other wonderful advantages. I shudder to think how much money I've spent moving my books around from one apartment to the other over the last 20 years. And as a writer myself, the idea of seeing my own work in print is much more exciting than seeing it in digital form--probably because of the idea I still hold that print is more lasting than digital, though I think that in reality it's actually the converse.
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