Too many books? or too few?

I have too many books, I know it, I'm trying to get rid of some. But even after filling 2 boxes, my shelves still look almost the same.



It's discouraging to think of how many more I'll have to give away or sell to make a difference.



And it's so hard to get rid of them! I'm not sure why. It's not because I love my books -- I'm not even trying to part with the ones I love. But even when I don't love a book, it's still hard -- maybe because I'm admitting that I'll never read it again (or in some cases, read it at all!),

or ever go back to the places (travel books) or finish the project (books on King Arthur -- I was once going to write a book about him; make my own clothes -- books on how to that; and even, for some bizarre reason, books on learning Gnu emacs and, less bizarre, Swahili).

Maybe that's always why getting rid of things is hard: you admit that you're never going to wear the great shoes that cost $100 on sale but never fit; or that the beloved cashmere sweater, while flattering and the perfect color, has so many holes that it looks weird-- or as an English friend more kindly put it, "as though you don't care what you look like." But by getting rid of the things you're not going to do or use or wear, you make it easier to do or get the things you really want -- in this case, go to Scotland for six months!

When my resolve to get rid of something weakens, I say:
"Every box of books I get rid of now is one less to move, pack, and store later."
(will be true of kitchen stuff as well when I move on to that category.)

Okay, that's the end of one essay....another was that one thing I find myself saying as I put books in the "to sell" pile is: "Well, if I ever want to read this again, I can read it online." This, I know from experience, though, is only true for some things -- classics, say.

The books that used to form the bulk of my reading (and the publishing industry!) are those well-written books that aren't quite classics and aren't bestsellers, either. This by the way is the category Jane Austen's books were in when they first came out "People are more likely to borrow than buy my books" she said. Now, I'm thinking of the novels of people like Angela Thirkell or Patrick O'Brien -- and many others, too many to list here. Their books don't exist as ebooks -- I know, because I tried to buy them when I was loading up my ipad for my last trip to Scotland.

What's going to happen to books like this when no one (even libraries) has hard copies of anything anymore? Will they just disappear if they didn't get made into ebooks? Maybe there are both too many and too few books -- too few of the kind I really like to read.

Two interviews, plus self-publishing vs. traditional publishing

Two interviews:
I had the wrong link for my interview with Jenny Han in my "Beyond the Book: CLARA LEE AND APPLE PIE DREAM" post last week. I've now fixed it; find the interview here.

Jerry Spinelli's Maniac Magee was recently named an "Essential Book for Children" by Amazon.com, and Jerry recorded a special introduction for the occasion. I also did a short Q&A with Jerry. (Now, I'm usually pretty comfortable recording these kinds of things, but for whatever reason, I felt really awkward during the interview. I sound like a robot. But Jerry is wonderful, of course!) Listen to both on the Amazon book page here. (under "check out related media.")

Self-publishing vs Traditional publishing:
So, have you all been following the news going on with the author Amanda Hocking? She's an author who writes paranormal romance for teens, and has thus far achieved amazing success self-publishing her books as eBooks. This is a good introductory blog post for you to read to find out who she is and why everyone started talking about her.

And here's a NY Times article about the breaking news last week. Basically:

Amanda Hocking, the 26-year-old author who shot to fame by selling more than a million copies of her self-published books, has signed up with a traditional publisher for her next series.

The traditional publisher was Macmillan. This news broke just days after we found out that bestselling thriller writer Barry Eisler chose to leave Macmillan and turn down a half a million dollar deal to self-publish. Read a fascinating interview with Barry Eisler here. He also addressed the Amanda Hocking news:

A lot of the Twitter conversation I've seen regarding the news has been of the "Which one is right?" variety. And at the risk of sounding a little harsh, I have to say, it's a pretty stupid question. Publishing, legacy or indie, is a vehicle, and you can't opine about whether someone has chosen the right vehicle if you don't know where she intends to drive it.

Very true. I was thinking that the decision to self-publish or go the traditional publisher route can be compared to the "agent or no agent" debate. For some people, I think it makes sense to not have an agent. For others, having an agent is absolutely necessary. Some people enjoy the business side of publishing more than others. Some enjoy the marketing side more than others. Some are better at it. Everyone will have their own priorities and goals. Amanda discussed her reasoning for accepting a deal with a traditional publisher here.

iPad, and more on eBooks

I'm somewhat of a geek in terms of coveting new technology. But I'm also fairly conservative when it comes to actually spending money on big ticket items. I bought a Macbook many years after first seriously thinking about it, because I needed to suck all the life possible out of my ancient and virus-ridden Dell desktop, and also I needed to save the money for buying it before actually buying it. (Sounds like common sense, huh? After years of digging out of credit card debt, i had finally learned my lesson.)

I longed for the iPad as soon as its existence was rumored. But as a owner of both of Macbook AND an iPhone, I just couldn't justify the cost. I thought I'd seriously look into it once the 2nd generation was released (rumored to be in early 2011). But when I was given one for work last week (no, not everyone received one--right now one, maybe two people in editorial, marketing, and design have one), I was pretty darn excited. Yes, I'm spoiled.

my new iPad!

I immediately went out and bought two different cases, one to just carry the iPod itself for every day use, and a fancy one from Brookstone with a built-in keyboard. In fact, I drafted this blog post using my iPad and keyboard on the train up to CT to visit Libby, and then back again to NY. It basically looks like a much lighter, smaller laptop:

iPad in the Brookstone keyboard case

It won't replace my laptop by any means, though--the biggest disadvantage is that you can't run Microsoft Word, which is crucial for my job. I'm using the "Pages" application which can read Word docs, and it's adequate for reviewing and writing documents, but I won't be able to use the Track Changes function to edit. Darn. If I had that, I'd be set.

At another editor's recommendation, I'm trying out an app called iAnnotate PDF to edit, but I'll have to save my Word docs as a PDF in order for it to work, and then I'll have to most likely transfer my notes manually back into Word in order to send them to authors. But, it's more streamlined and neat than bringing hard copies of the paper manuscript around with me, or lugging my laptop around. I'll give it a shot and we'll see how it goes.

But overall, it's shiny and new and fun and I love my new toy.

The real reason I have the iPad is not necessarily to edit manuscripts on it, or to read submissions on it, although I will probably end up doing both on occasion. The main reason I was given an iPad is that my company wants to make sure in-house editors, designers, marketing folks, etc are up on the newest technology and are also aware of what is possible with the new technology. This is necessary in order to better know what we can be doing with our own books in terms of the new digital realm. We've also ordered in the new B&N Color Nook that Meghan posted about previously. It's pretty nice, too. We have a few of our books up for sale for both the Color Nook and the iBookstore for the iPad. In both cases, we've been pretty selective and careful both in terms of the quality of the final product, and the comfort level of the authors and illustrators.

In general, it's been pretty interesting to see that the large majority of authors and illustrators and agents we work with are really excited that their book is going to be available in a new format. There are a few agencies and authors and illustrators who are not open to having their books available as eBooks for various reasons (mainly royalty rates and quality of the format), but overall I think everyone (publishers included) are worried about being left behind, and feel that we need to forge ahead in order to test the market. Also, what we've done so far are straight eBooks--no bells or whistles, no movement, no games. So far, at least for picture books, we've tried to remain as faithful as possible to the original paper book reading experience.

Again, as I've said before, I don't think paper books will disappear in my lifetime, especially for children's books, but I can see people using picture book eBooks as a great tool for car trips, traveling, etc. My hope is that if people love a book, they'll buy it in multiple formats! :) One for home, one for the road. But overall, I do think eBooks will continue to grow in market share (right now I believe it's just under 10%)--as more and more people start owning iPads and Kindles and Nooks, this number is bound to increase.

I have to say, I love that a book still looks like a book on the iPad. It has a gutter, and a page turn, even. It's kinda silly and somewhat antiquated that I think that, I suppose--I mean, if I want the gutter and traditional page turn, why not just read a paper book? (which is probably why I still haven't read an eBook!) But because it tries to recreate the traditional book reading experience, I can see getting used to reading books on the iPad more than I can see getting used to reading books on my Sony Reader, which, as I've said before on this blog, I haven't been able to bring myself to do, mainly because it just doesn't seem like a book. On the iPad, you never forget that it's still a book:

Perhaps the iPad will be my gateway eBook reader. Perhaps it will get me addicted to eBooks. Perhaps not--the backlit screen might hurt my eyes. Anyway, I'll keep you posted.

I'm curious:
1) do you think print books will eventually disappear? If so, in how many years? If not, what percentage of market share will eBooks settle in as compared to print books?
2) What percentage of book sales will be eBook sales be in five years?

My answers:
1) No, print books will not disappear--at least not for a very long time. I think the market may eventually settle into a 80% eBooks to 20% print books in about 50 or so years. (this is a COMPLETE guess, mind you.)
2) In five years, my guess is 25%. But for children's books, I think it will be lower. Maybe 15%.

The eBook market is still a bit like the Wild West right now, but I've been trying to absorb all I can. I'm happy to try to answer any questions you all may have!

Also, check out this opinion piece about Dr. Seuss and children's eBooks in the Wall Street Journal:

Something is always lost as technology advances, and this will be true of the decline of print. But since technology can't be stopped, we should make the most of it. Or, as Dr. Seuss urged in his final book, "Oh, the Places You'll Go": "Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So . . . get on your way!"

The future of publishing

Meghan's post last week about the Barnes & Noble color Nook drew some great discussion. I think everyone in the publishing industry has been someone holding their breaths to see just how this whole digital publishing thing shakes out. Well, not holding our breaths, exactly. We're all doing things, hiring more people, creating new divisions, but we're all kind of stumbling around in the dark a bit. Some of us are excited about all of the changes going on, and some of us are worried if we'll all survive. And some of us are both (me).

In terms of the question "Why do eBooks cost so much," I thought I'd link to this publisher's perspective. In it, the CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers states that there are three new costs associated with eBooks: digital preparation, quality assurance, and digital distribution. He also states that:

physical manufacturing and distribution expenses cost less than you think. Some people assume that these two items represent the bulk of a book’s costs. They don’t. Together, they account for about 12% of a physical book’s retail price. So eliminating these costs doesn’t do much to reduce the overall cost structure.

As I mentioned in the comments, another new cost associated with eBooks is fighting piracy--Hachette Book Group has partnered with a company that monitors the internet and send take down notices when necessary. Incidentally, if you ever see an illegal download available for one of our books, you can report it here, and someone will look into it.

I'm not crazy about eBooks myself. I have yet to actually read a published book on my Sony Reader, although I do LOVE LOVE LOVE my Sony Reader for reading manuscript submissions, and am so happy I don't have to lug heavy manuscripts around with me wherever I go. But for published books, I still prefer paper books, and I probably always will. I especially love paper picture books. Although I will say, the color Nook and the iPad are more appealing to me for published books than the Kindle or Sony Reader, because the design of the book stays more true to the paper book, and that's important to me. And some of the picture book apps I've seen on the iPad are pretty darn cool. But I see eBooks as another format of the book, just like a paperback, hardcover, or audio edition. It's another opportunity to reach consumers.

The change isn't really being initiated from the publishers or authors. Just as with the music industry, the change did not come from the record labels or musical artists. It came first from the technology sector. A product was created that consumers embraced. And I suspect that's what's happening with the publishing industry. Some feel that there will be a demand for electronic readers. They never really stuck before, but it's starting to stick now--although to what extent remains a mystery. Will eBooks replace paper books completely in the future? Or will they plateau and coexist with the other formats? Either way, we have to work to adapt, and we're all finding our way. I think a case in point is this article about a e-Books rights panel in September. Publishers and agents argued about the royalty rate and the costs of making eBooks:

Inevitably, though, the conversation looped back to that digital royalty issue. Moderator Jim Milliot’s question about what the costs for publishers actually are in creating digital books not only led to Aiken’s aforementioned math but, again, to a back-and-forth between the panelists. While DeYoung said profitability needs to be measured across all publishing formats and that a publisher’s costs can’t be measured “in a vacuum,” Aiken pressed the notion that the current digital royalty rates cannot stand.

I don't know the right answer to Meghan's question of how authors and illustrators will get paid fairly. Right now, I do feel that publishers are incurring all of these new costs, and who knows what will work and what won't. But eventually the market will settle into a model that works for both the publishers and the authors and illustrators. Well, that's the hope. Because all of the players involved--the publishers, the authors, the illustrators, the agents--want to make sure that we all stay in business and stay profitable, and that all parties can earn a living,

Just this morning I read this fascinating interview of Cambridge University professor John Thompson, who wrote the book Merchants of Culture on the book publishing industry, spending five years researching  the industry in the US and UK. He claims that the changes the publishing industry are going through right now are not mainly due to the rise of eBooks:

It’s at a bit of a critical juncture but it’s not necessarily because of the rise of electronic books. It’s the outcome of two interwoven processes—one that is social and economic and one that is technological, each of which has its own history. On the social-economic side is a process that began in the 1960s and led to a gradual transformation in the field of trade publishing. This process was shaped by three factors: One was the growth of the retail chains and the revolution of retailing, the second was the rise of the literary agent, and the third was the consolidation of publishing houses under the umbrella of large corporations. And those three processes led to a social and economic transformation in the field of trade publishing that’s effects are felt today.

He also mentioned the rise of the agent as a factor in forcing the consolidation of the publishing houses, forcing smaller houses like FSG to Knopf to be swallowed up by the big corporations:

But once the agents became significant players they demanded high advances at a time when retail chains were growing and houses like Simon & Schuster and Random House were coming under the umbrella of large corporations and were able to afford the large advances. Farrar Straus and other publishing houses could therefore no longer play the game—they couldn’t keep their authors and they were out-maneuvered by the larger houses. So they had to decide to sell to corporate owners and it was no longer possible for those once-independent publishing houses to remain independent. So the field became polarized where you have a small number of large, corporate groups that now own the former independents because they have deep pockets and then small presses.

It was a quite enlightening interview to read--I think I may have to read his book! And I was happy that he ended the interview on a hopeful note. I do love the hopeful endings, could be why I'm editing books for kids and teens.

I think it’s important not to take an apocalyptic view of the future of the book and the future of publishing. You have to counter that with the fact that books really matter to people. There are many people who just love books and they love the ideas that are expressed in books; they love the stories that are told through books and all of it. They’re very attached to it. You only have to go to a book festival, of which there are more and more these days, like the Brooklyn Book Festival, and see the hundreds and thousands of people who flock to these book festivals—more than ever before—pack the audiences, pack the halls, to hear their favorite authors, or even an author they don’t really know very well but want to get to know, and listen to them talk, hear them read from their books, buy their books, get them signed by the author. They cherish the book. And they believe that this is an artifact that they want in their lives. And some of the technological commentators in this industry just completely miss this point. They fail to see that books have this cultural value in the lives of ordinary people which is very deep and very profound and which is not likely to go away very quickly.

Cherish the book!

More on eBooks

Thanks everyone for participating in my technology poll from last week. I chose a name from a hat, and the winner of a Little, Brown book of her choice is...


Annemarie O'Brien. Congrats! Please email me your mailing address and choice of book at bluerosegirls at gmail dot com.

Check out the comments in the original post for a fuller view, but to summarize very roughly, although there are still some people who edit with the traditional paper and pen/pencil, for the most part it seems that most people have transitioned to editing electronically in some way, although perhaps not exclusively.

Of course, the million dollar question these days in publishing is: What is an eBook worth? (Question #5 in my poll) How much are consumers willing to spend? The answers varied, of course, but the general consensus is that the eBook should cost less than the physical book.

I don't disagree. But there's a reason why publishers are fighting against Amazon's $9.99 price point--because the price difference with the hardcover format is too high, and they feel it devalues the product. People believe the eBook should be priced lower because you don't have the costs associated with printing the book. So if the price of an eBook should equal the cost of creating and selling the book (editorial, design, copyediting, sales, marketing, overhead, etc.) minus the unit cost of the actual physical properties of the book (the paper, the printing, binding, etc.), as well as the physical warehouse rent and transportation of shipping a physical book, plus some profit for the publisher, of course... well, I don't know exactly how much this would add up to, but I know that the difference of costs between producing an eBook versus a physical book is negligible. I'd estimate less than 10% of the total cost.

Honestly, as a consumer, I get it. I love low prices! Especially when there's no physical "product" to hold. I'm a book lover, and yet I very very rarely purchase hardcover books because of the price, unless it's a gift (or on my expense account). Instead, I wait for the paperback edition or go to the library. But what I don't expect is to be able to purchase a book at a paperback price right away. And if I don't want to wait, then I pay the hardcover price. I know the concept of delaying editions is pretty much off the table now because of consumer push back and other reasons (although a year ago was becoming the norm), but the practical part of me always thought this made sense.

There are reasons why people buy different formats not always related to price. They buy a hardcover book because they don't want to wait, they want something to keep on the shelf that's lasting, something that they can share, they want to purchase a gift. People purchase an eBook because they invested in an eReader, they travel and don't want to carry a lot of books, they like the convenience of downloading books, they like keeping their bookshelf virtual. Consumers buy paperbacks because they don't want the weight and heft of a hardcover book, they want something they can share, they're purchasing a gift, and yes, the price.

It's too early to tell if eBook sales cannibalize hardcover sales--I think to a certain extent these sales are in addition to hardcover sales, because the people buying the eBooks are not the same people who would purchase the hardcover edition. If there are many others like commenter saramoohead...:

5) SUCH a tough question. I admit that I'm keep on the Amazon $10 ($9.99). I know there are a lot of issues surrounding that but as a customer, I don't want to pay more than $10. I'd buy lots more books if they were only $10. I barely ever buy in hardcover (and I'm a hardcore book lover) because they are so expensive. I would never pay $27 for an e-book, ever.

...then the lower profits for eBooks may be equalized by increased sales.

Stephen Roxburgh of namelos has said that books are simply "word buckets"--and whether you're buying a physical book or buying an eBook, the crucial component that you're buying is the particular combination of words that the author has written, not the physical "bucket." That's where the true value lies. I tend to agree. The same goes to music--I never bought CDs for the physical object, I bought them for the content.

I could go on and on, and pretty much every discussion point in this debate has been raised in the very detailed and excellent comments. This is an ongoing discussion, and one that will take a long time to sort out. A lot of the decisions people are making today will shape the industry for years to come. I just hope that authors and publishers are able to survive in the digital age, ten, twenty, one-hundred years from now. These are scary, exciting, pivotal times in publishing!

Free eBooks experiment:

I received this email from Kent Brown, Executive Director of Highlights:

I normally trash any e-mail that includes the word free in it. And I often ignore any that mentions e-book, as I'm not up to date on that technology. But I concocted this experiment and egged on my friend Stephen Roxburgh, who is an early adopter of e-books and things high tech. I got used to seeing him in a rocking chair engrossed in his Kindle. Stephen has been a student of the book in whatever format most of his life and is articulate on the importance and magic of story, independent of platform.

Front Street, founded by Stephen and now part of Boyds Mills Press, has among its recent publications four great novels, which we selected for this experiment. They are characterized by the gentle hand of Stephen Roxburgh and the skills of colleagues he trained and inspired.

The novels are ACCORDING TO KIT by Eugenie Doyle (2ce4), CITY OF CANNIBALS by Ricki Thompson (d35f), THE DOG IN THE WOOD by Monika Schröder (3bd5), and WARRIORS IN THE CROSSFIRE by Nancy Bo Flood (2ac4).

To get your free electronic copies, go to www.namelos.com and locate the book by title or author by browsing or use the "search" option. When you get to the book page, enter the unique code provided for each book (shown in parentheses above) in the box in the lower-left corner of the page (under the list of prices) and click "submit." You will be asked to provide your name and e-mail address and to select the file format you want. You will receive an e-mail with a link that will download the file you selected to your hard drive, from where you can transfer it to your preferred reading device.

The code will allow you to download one file format per title. If you need a file format that is not provided, write directly to Stephen (roxburgh@namelos.com) and he'll provide it.

Frankly, it's an increasing challenge to get attention for novels, particularly first novels.

So, in cooperation with Stephen Roxburgh and his new venture, namelos llc, we are offering for a limited time downloads of the four novels. From now until April Fools' Day, you can put these on your e-reading device without charge. And since we are doing this to get the word out, we would be very happy if you shared the opportunity with your friends.

We want everyone to know about these books.

Boyds Mills Press has the hardback editions in stock, and they are available through all the places you buy books. Namelos llc will be selling the e-book versions of these titles in April and beyond. Almost all other Front Street novels are available now for purchase to download at www.namelos.com.

If you take advantage of this special offer, you can expect namelos to keep you up to date on the books they are offering in e-book format. If that's not to your liking, you will have a chance to opt out.

I cannot answer your technical questions—Stephen can do that—but I'd be happy to hear about your experience with this experiment.

Kent Brown, Executive Director, Highlights Foundation, Inc.
Former Publisher, Boyds Mills Press

SCBWI Annual Winter Conference 2010

This past weekend I spoke at the SCBWI Winter Conference in New York for the first time. I've participated multiple times in the Writer's Workshop the day before the conference, but never spoke at the big event, so was excited to see what it was all about. I was also curious to see how it would compare to the Annual Summer Conference in Los Angeles.

So, how did it compare? Well, it was equally wonderful, inspiring, and well organized. The conference was kicked off Saturday morning a keynote speech by the incomparable Libba Bray, who certainly started things off on a humorous, touching, and inspiring note. I especially loved the story about her son: When asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, he said, "I want to be a giraffe!" Wow. Me too. (okay, not really, I wanted to be a dolphin.) She declared this year the "Year of Writing Dangerously."

Then we broke off into workshops. I led one called "The Real Deal about Literary Novels" which I gave twice in the morning and once in the afternoon. I attempted to define "Literary Fiction," (in general, literary novels are more character focused, whereas commercial fiction is more plot focused--but really, it took almost the whole horror hour to just define it!), gave examples (Firegirl by Tony Abbott, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, North of Beatiful by Justina Chen Headley, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin, etc.), read some gorgeous descriptions from the latter two novels, read some examples of literary "voice" (including the opening of Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which most people recognized right away), and weaved in the different definitions of "literary fiction" that I gathered from my colleagues. One of my favorites compared literary fiction to eating a chocolate truffle: "a little goes a long way, you savor each bite slowly, enjoying the nuances of the different ingredients, the textures and how they work together, the coating, the presentation, etc.” I also read a passage from agent Nathan Bransford's very excellent post giving his definition quite clearly. Thanks, Nathan!

The lunchtime keynote was by Jacqueline Woodson. It was soothing, personal, and powerful. I could listen to her talk all day! I wonder if she reads her own audiobooks...

And the afternoon keynote was by Peter Sis. Peter Sis is one of my heroes. I absolutely love his art. I'd never heard him speak, and had never heard his story (except from reading his books), and wow. What a life.

And then it was over. At least for Saturday. I wasn't speaking on Sunday and needed to get some work work done, so stayed away. But I checked out the fabulous Official SCBWI Conference Blog to catch up on everything I missed. Great stuff. If you're a writer and need a kick in the pants of inspiration, I highly recommend attending an SCBWI conference.

***

In case you're interested in learning about the Amazon.com versus Macmillan ebook kerfuffle that happened over the weekend, you can check out the most excellent summary and interpretation of the whole thing as it unfolded over at Scott Westerfeld's blog here. And read the NYTimes article here. This development, combined with the announcement of the new iPad (yes, I want one. But I'll wait), makes me more interested than ever to see how the ebook industry will develop.

***

In other news...how is it possible that it's February already?!?! And, I dunno...I have a feeling that this month is going to go by faster than the other months. Just a hunch.

Ebooks couldn't

Our local bookstore (Bank Square books) has a big table of ARCs -- lots of places (A Libris, for one) sell these, even though it's illegal. At OUR bookstore, you donate a dollar per book and it all goes to our local library,which spends the money on new books. They've collected, and spent, over $200 so far.

I love this idea! Partly because of that, and partly because I am a hopeless addict when it comes to book-buying, I got:*

even though I'm moving on Tuesday and have already moved 20 boxes of books to my new apartment. As I was lugging them up the stairs, the thought did occurr to me that if I had a digital library I wouldn't have to be doing this....but I LIKE my books. In fact, I love many of them. They are my friends. I've had some since I was 4 -- and read some so many times that they are falling apart.

Some contain messages from people I love: my parents used to always write things in the books they gave us for Christmas. Toys were from Santa, but books were signed with love from Mommy (or Mummy in England!) and Daddy; or, sometimes, just one of them. A few years ago I read this in Charles and Mary Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare--
"Dearest Libby,

We hope these plots will enrich your appreciation of Shakespeare's expression when you read him.

A very happy Christmas

Mommy & Daddy"

I have very few things (2 letters and 1 postcard) addressed to me in my father's handwriting, and this was like getting a real message from him, all these years after he died.

Another inscription makes me smile -- a childish hand has written:

"To dear Susan Koponen, with love from Grandma."

The real inscription (probably to me or one of my other sisters) has been erased. I have the book now because none of my siblings wanted it -- or any of our childhood books. So I suppose there will always be people who think of books as clutter and don't want them around, but I'll never be one of them.

I may buy ebooks to read on trips, but I won't abandon my old friends or stop buying new ones.

Have fun at ALA, everyone!
_______________________________________
*The Book of Dragons (because I love E. Nesbit -- AND, this clever volume is 2 books in one: the other side has The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald)
*Scones and Sensibility, because of the Jane Austen connectin
* The Fairy Godmother Academy, because the heroine is Finnish, like my father and half of me

Ebooks

It was very synchronistic that Alvina posted about her Sony reader yesterday as I was listening to this really interesting show on npr last week when the Kindle was released, which got me thinking about reading and technology.

I remember when I was going to art school one of my parent's friends asked me how I felt about the fact that I was going off to study a dying art form (book illustration). I said that even though technology changes the context of art, that doesn't mean it has to die. Photography changed the nature of representational painting (when we could take photographs, painting suddenly evolved to serve a different purpose than capturing reality), but this didn't cause people to stop painting.

I wonder how much that metaphor can be applied though, now that technology like ebook readers are getting closer and closer to the experience of reading a book. So my question is, what is it that is special about reading a printed book?

I can quickly list the tactile things that I love about reading paper books: the weight in my hands, the smell of the ink and the old browned paper. The anticipation that builds as you turn a page, the sound of that page turning, like the flap of a bird's wing.

I can also quickly bring to mind the things I hate about reading on a screen: the haze that comes over your eyes from long stretches of staring at something bright, the lack of design (most web sites use the same, universal type faces for the text). The confusing mish mosh of information and advertisements that, when poorly designed, can be overwhelming.

But apart from these tactile differences, which technology promises to overcome at some point (as the show above points out, it was only 50 years ago that a single computer filled a room), what about reading a printed book would be lost if all goes digital? Ultimately when you are really lost in a story, does it matter in what form you read it? Is there an inherent difference when it comes to children's books in particular?

Because picture books are so much about the art, it seems that the readers out right now are a far cry from catching up to duplicating the experience of a printed page of artwork... so perhaps printed picture books will live a longer life than printed novels. But it does beg the question, what do we value about reading with children, and how will the essence of this change or stay the same as we move away from printed books, if this is the trend?

One of the guests on the show points out that these new devices help us connect with authors more, since we have access to more information about them... blogs for instance open up the writer/reader relationship in a whole new way... more and more it seems necessary that writers actively interact with their audience for their books to be successful. Do ebooks provide ways to further this connection?

If reading a book must increasingly be an interactive, participatory event for the reader, so that they can feel part of the story and the author's world... and if technology makes this easier, does that take some responsibility away from the author/illustrator to accomplish this with the skill of their craft alone?