Came across an interesting statistic the other day: Digital books are outselling hardcovers these days.
This is one of those statistics that’s supposed to say something Important and Significant about the state of the world, like the claim that salsa now outsells ketchup in the United States, which is usually cited to illustrate the growing influence of Latinos on the U.S. economy but could as easily mean that nobody doesn’t like salsa.
The economy’s still kind of wobbly, digital books are cheaper than hardcover books, so, of course, they’re going to outsell hardcovers.
This doesn’t bother me. I’m basically a glass-half-full* kind of guy. I’m just glad people are reading. I’m especially glad people are still willing to pay money to read.
What’s more, digital books make it easier to buy books you ordinarily wouldn’t be caught dead with. I can’t imagine Fifty Shades of Grey becoming a bestseller if the women buying it couldn’t buy it online, anonymously.
However, there is a downside to the shift toward digital books: With a Kindle, it’s harder to show people how smart you think you are.
For a serious reader, a book is like a trophy case. The books you choose to display tell people what you’ve read, what you’re thinking about, how you look at the world.
When I walk into someone’s home, the first thing I look for is a bookshelf, or, absent that, a book. If you have books, there’s a good chance we’ll become good friends, especially if it turns out you’ve read a lot of the same books I have, especially if you have some literary or obscure book I love that most people haven’t heard of.
You can’t do that with a Kindle.
Your e-reader could be loaded with great books, but no one’s ever going to know it. You could open the bookshelf on your Kindle and leave it lying conspicuously on the coffee table when you go answer the door, but the screen will probably go dark before anyone notices.
Likewise, when you visit someone’s house, you can’t really start thumbing through someone’s Kindle. That would be like flipping through someone’s diary. It would be rude, and there’s a chance you’ll see things you can’t unsee (such as those Fifty Shades of Grey sequels).
Without a bookcase to help you, your only option is feeling the other person out, which can be tricky. If you walk into someone’s house, and there’s a bookshelf, you tend to pick up on the titles you recognize or like (Love in the Time of Cholera, for example) and ignore the titles you don’t (such as Kitty Knits: Projects for Cats and Their People, which is a real book and not something I just made up).
If you ask someone, “Read any good books lately?” you’re putting the other person on the spot. They’re under pressure now to come up with a book they think you might like. If they say Kitty Knits: Projects for Cats and Their People, and you’re a dog person, or they try to play it safe and say, “Oh, I’ve been so busy, I don’t really have time to read,” well, what might have been a beautiful friendship may be dead in the water.
This doesn’t mean Kindles are a bad thing. I think they’re really useful. I love hearing about a book then having a copy seconds later. I love being able to download public-domain titles such as Walden or The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn free of charge. Plus, unlike paper books, Kindles let you play Angry Birds and stream Netflix. (There is a hack for this, of course: Simply draw a little cartoon on the bottom corner of every page then flip the pages to see it move.)
I’m just saying new technologies bring new challenges, new challenges that, sooner or later, someone will write a digital book about.
*Technically, I’m a glass-is-completely-full kind of guy. The bottom half of the glass is full of water. The top half of the glass is full of air. So there.
PHOTO by jonathanpberger via Flickr
I like to think that my books are more along the lines of salsa rather than ketchup, but most of my friends (completely different taste in reading) would say it’s more like straight hot peppers — too much to handle. However, I loved taking a library on vacation this year. Last year’s six hundred page hardback weighed as much as the dozen or so books I selected for this year. Brilliance.
Also, thanks for the “glass-is-completely-full” explanation. Now I know how to say it right.
Yeah, I love actual, physical books, but the convenience of a Kindle (or a Nook or an iPad or whatever), especially for a vacation book, is awfully hard to beat.
I’m an engineer. The glass is twice the size you need for that amount of liquid.
OK, but what if you get more water? Then, the just-right class is suddenly too small.
Then you get a larger glass. Sheesh. Non-engineers…
I’m curious. If you care to answer this question, go with your immediate reflex answer. . . unless it’s Fifty Shades of Grey: What one book title would most make you feel like you’d met a kindred spirit if you saw it on the shelf of a new acquaintance?
That is a great question, Hipster. I don’t know that there is a single book, but if I saw a well-worn copy of Walden, I’d take that as a hopeful sign.
Ah, a kindred soul! I, too, love to browse bookshelves — you can learn a lot about a person from what he/she reads. Kindles have their advantages, but they don’t smell like books. Nor do they feel like books.
Plus, no one’s ever going to stumble across an old data file and leaf through it (assuming it’s still compatible with current technology). Old books, on the other hand, still work (assuming they haven’t disintegrated).
So that’s why fifty shades of grey is the top three on a bunch of the times bestsellers list! The convenience of books on my PHONE is great, and some titles are only available in digital form, self published by the author, but I am currently in the process of rebuilding my bookshelf, lots of vacancies there, like a mouth that’s been punched out a few times too many.
That’s my theory, anyway. I think it’s a lot easier to download that stuff than risk running into someone you know at the bookstore.
I really enjoyed your thoughts on this. Especially “nobody doesn’t like salsa.” It’s so true.
Salsa rocks.
Wonderful post! Great blog. The difference between salsa and ketchup is that a few people can easily go through a whole jar of salsa in one sitting, whilst ketchup is only used a teaspoon or so at a time. Ever since I got my Sony Reader I’ve noticed my actual bookshelves are frozen in time, at about 2008. I used to go on holiday with about 20 pounds of books – now with my Reader I can bring the equivalent of 60 pounds of books and order more as necessary (the Borders in Waikiki closed last year, rendering Waikiki totally bookstoreless).
Hi, Lea! Good observation about your bookshelves being frozen in time. I still buy books, but my music collection is frozen in time. I can’t remember the last new CD I bought.
I’m still a book girl. There is just something about holding a book that holding a digital device does not match. I have a couple books on my iPad that I want to read, but I just never think about “reading” when I’m on the iPad. I have a ton of classics on my Kindle (the first thing I downloaded was all those free gems), but have not actually used it beyond that AT ALL. Yet, I still buy books from Amazon. I still go to used book stores for books. I trade in all my old books, and then get some more. I just love books.
I visited a bookstore yesterday for the first time in a long time, and it was just so delicious! That tactile experience can’t be gotten from a Kindle, but on the other hand, I can’t buy a book from a traditional bookstore, while in my pajamas, in the middle of the night and be reading it two minutes later. Even though I was in the store, I checked Kindle for every book I considered buying, to see if the ebook was cheaper. Two books were cheaper, so I put them back. Two were the same or cheaper in paper form, so I purchased them there. One book I specifically wanted in paper form. There is room for everything, and for everyone to get what they need out of the book-buying experience. Clearly, we don’t want just one experience – we want it all.
But I still love to thumb through other people’s magazines and books at their house. I can’t help myself.
Well Todd, you may have just inspired me to start writing about what I’m reading. That will show everyone that I’m smart without pulling out the ipad, eh?
A lawyer I know ran for prosecutor in my hometown. He was asked by the local paper what was the last book he read. “Concrete Mama” he said, which is really a picture book about the State Prision at Walla Walla, Washington. At least he told the truth. In my hometown that gets you elected.
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I like the IDEA of a Kindle, I do. Once Kindle is in hand, I find myself aching to fold a page corner or stick my little arrow post-its onto the sentence I want to write down. Ache, I tell ya. Physical books it is, for me.
Am I the only person who doesn’t like to visit peoples’ homes unless I know them well? And doesn’t like people coming into my home unless they know me well? By which point I know they like to read, because generally speaking I don’t become good friends with people who don’t enjoy books.
I do find a major disadvantage to digital readers, however, and that is when I am out on the SkyTrain or in a coffee shop and I am reading and do not want to be disturbed, when some dude inevitably comes up to me and asks me what I’m reading (because obviously this is how you hit on a woman; it totally doesn’t show her that you are NOT a reader because if you were you wouldn’t think this was a good tactic) I can no longer hold up the book to show him the title, looking over the top of the book and giving him my patented death-glare. I must actually engage in conversation, and while I am good at death-glares, I am not so good at the verbal equivalent.
I am proud to have been your high school librarian. Loved the article about books vs. Kindle. I’m stiil a book person. June rice