"An iPod moment" • 5 September 2010 • The SnowBlog
"An iPod moment"
Interesting article in the Guardian about the gathering pace of e-book popularity. It almost looks like a major shift in buying patterns. But you're not fooled. This is just a flash in the pan. The medium is partly the message and novels are terribly diminished if they're being read with the latest technology. And what about the smell of books? Never forget that the old-fashioned, musty, elitist whiff of books is part of their appeal. And what if you dropped one in the bath or sat on it? (Not that you'll buy the technology even when it is indestructible and waterproof.) And these sales are probably all celebrity tattle-tales, self-help and ghost-written auto-biogs. Frankly if this is the future they can keep it. What's so great about being able to touch a word to see its meaning and etymology? Or carrying five hundred books in your pocket with another million available to buy in seconds? Books aren't meant to be self-illuminating in the dark or to turn their own pages. Why can't we all just accept that it's still the 1950s in certain parts of the book industry and stop all this change for change's sake? Mutter mutter make our own fun in those days mutter mutter national service never did anyone any harm mutter mutter country's gone to the dogs mutter. What do you mean you can tune into last week's Archers and Gardeners' Question Time on one of those things? That's not possible, is it? Give it here.
Rob
Interesting article in the Guardian about the gathering pace of e-book popularity. It almost looks like a major shift in buying patterns. But you're not fooled. This is just a flash in the pan. The medium is partly the message and novels are terribly diminished if they're being read with the latest technology. And what about the smell of books? Never forget that the old-fashioned, musty, elitist whiff of books is part of their appeal. And what if you dropped one in the bath or sat on it? (Not that you'll buy the technology even when it is indestructible and waterproof.) And these sales are probably all celebrity tattle-tales, self-help and ghost-written auto-biogs. Frankly if this is the future they can keep it. What's so great about being able to touch a word to see its meaning and etymology? Or carrying five hundred books in your pocket with another million available to buy in seconds? Books aren't meant to be self-illuminating in the dark or to turn their own pages. Why can't we all just accept that it's still the 1950s in certain parts of the book industry and stop all this change for change's sake? Mutter mutter make our own fun in those days mutter mutter national service never did anyone any harm mutter mutter country's gone to the dogs mutter. What do you mean you can tune into last week's Archers and Gardeners' Question Time on one of those things? That's not possible, is it? Give it here.