(no subject)

[megwrites]

There's been a lot of TL;DR (too long; didn't read) in the blogosphere about AmazonFail and eBooks/eReaders and I've tried to keep up for the most part with those sources that know what they're talking about and have common sense.

But one thing I think a lot of these people are forgetting is that eBooks are not a reality for a great majority of people. Most people are still reading paper books. I read this excellent post about eReaders from ktempest and one thing that occurred to me is that while talking about this is great, what about the folks who don't even have iPods much less the iPad yet?

I'm not just talking about techphobic Americans, either. I'm talking about those who can't afford it, too. And I'm talking about places in the world where this great technology is just not available, and people read in those countries, too. They have books and magazines and newspapers, too.

One privilege of being an American who can afford to buy shiny new things is that we are almost exclusively the first to get the really cool stuff, or at least not so far behind that other countries are Twittering and blogging about their new tech while we're still wondering when companies are even going to begin selling a version for us.

Talking about the eBook revolution is great, but so far it's a very small, contained revolution relative to the total population of readers out there. I think that, especially in this economy, a lot of people are going to be wary of making those kinds of technology purchases. Never mind the places where the technology isn't even available.

Plus, when I hear people speaking of the bugs yet to be worked out in the system as far as formats go, it doesn't encourage me to want to delve into this technology. In fact, the more I hear, the more determined I am not to make the leap to eBooks for the next few years because I just don't want to waste money on something that won't be truly convenient or functional until about 2015.

I think if Amazon had merely pulled Macmillan's eBook titles, much of this furor would never have occurred. I think it was the pulling of the paper book titles that truly got so many people angry, because in the end, that's still the most accessible, cheapest, and most functional format for the majority of people out there.

ETA: Fixed broken HTML.

Comments

[takumashii.livejournal.com]

Sherman Alexie has been very vocal about the economic privilege that ebooks require. The great thing about print books is that, if you don't have any money, you can still go to the library, you can go to the used book store, you can go to the thrift shop, and Alexie talks about relatives of his getting a whole box of romance novels from the thrift store for 25 cents. And we NEED to find a way for that to work with ebooks, or it's going to be that much harder for people who are poor to have access to information.

(This is near to my heart as a librarian, because we're facing a 25% budget cut, and it gets harder and harder to justify my salary when politicians say "It's all on the internet anyway!")

[fiction-theory.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear that. I'm really frustrated with all the people who insist that this is the future of books and that if you're not with it, you're such a troglodyte or something. I'm really tired of hearing that. Because I'd love to be hip to the future, I just can't frikkin' afford it and sorry, I'm not going to sacrifice one of my medications this month to get a bug riddled device with format problems and a limited selection.

Not when used bookstores, retailers, and libraries have books with NO format problems and won't cost me money I don't have.

If this is the future, it's going to leave a lot of people behind - and that's sad.

And God Bless libraries. For many people, me included, I wouldn't have been able to read or access as much as a kid if I hadn't had school libraries and public libraries and some FANTASTIC librarians to go along with them. Oh, Mrs. Wilcox. She got third graders to learn and get good at the Dewey Decimal system. We even had races to see who could find books the fastest. I mourn for everyone who won't have her as their librarian. But I digress.

I hate to hear about library budget cuts, because the only place some people have for information, access, and education once they leave school is the local public library. Saying it's all on the internet anyways leaves out how many people use the library for internet access - or how important it is for them to have a place to get materials in hardcopy that they can borrow and take home, even if they are available on the internet.

Ebooks

[inverarity.livejournal.com]

Right now, ebook readers are expensive toys. However, eventually prices will go down and they'll become commonplace and almost universal, like most consumer electronics. Where they will really make their mark -- and where they could be a boon to less privileged communities -- is in education. One of the major barriers for ebook readers right now is textbooks. The current models just don't deal well with books that display lots of pictures, graphs, charts, formulas, color, etc., and you also need an easy way to add notes, do cross-referencing, and so on.

Once the technology allows that, and it's become cheap enough that schools can issue ebook readers to students, they'll just download the texts for their classes. Students will no longer have to carry around backpacks full of books. That (and the cost of books) is not an inconsiderable factor when you look at poorer countries (and poorer communities in the U.S.). So I think in a few years, ebook readers will go from being pricey gadgets for affluent geeks to essential tools, with major initiatives to make them available to under-resourced communities. (I'm not terribly impressed with the iPad itself, but it's a step in that direction; most students don't need a full-fledged laptop or even a netbook, but they do need something that can display full-sized textbooks and also go online, run educational apps, etc.)

As for libraries: it will be sad to see physical buildings with physical books disappear, much as it's sad to see used bookstores disappear, but I think it will happen. Many libraries are already "lending" ebooks, and eventually it will just make more sense for libraries to be mostly virtual. (Unlike used bookstores, I don't think physical libraries will disappear completely, but communities that really can't afford a staffed building full of books can afford to purchase thousands of ebooks with lending licenses.)