Nick Hornby is not an e-book fan

[TheLongshot]

While a well appointed bookshelf might look nice, it is also nice if you have enough room for one. I live in a townhouse, and my bookshelves are overflowing with books.

Both me and my wife love books, but I have to find a better way. A hard drive is pretty compact.

Jason

[Amalthia]

Originally Posted by TheLongshot

While a well appointed bookshelf might look nice, it is also nice if you have enough room for one. I live in a townhouse, and my bookshelves are overflowing with books.

Both me and my wife love books, but I have to find a better way. A hard drive is pretty compact.

Jason

I have over 2k books and it's such a pain to move and so I'm slowly but surely replacing my paper collection with an e-collection. My goal is no more than 4 bookshelves.

[ath]

Originally Posted by grimo1re

Here's another one I really don't agree with: "Book-lovers are always late adaptors, and generally suspicious of new technology." Need I even address this?

I think you do. It's not a truth or falsehood that is immediately obvious to the eye -- so if you have evidence to the contrary, why withhold it?

Just don't fall into the error of assuming that because Mobileread is full of booklovers who clearly are not late adaptors or suspicious of new technology, this particular constituency is even remotely significant statistically.

(Vice versa, of course, I'm not clear there is any support for Hornby's statement in the first place, but that's the other side of the coin -- it should be polished separately.)

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by ath

I think you do. It's not a truth or falsehood that is immediately obvious to the eye -- so if you have evidence to the contrary, why withhold it?

Just don't fall into the error of assuming that because Mobileread is full of booklovers who clearly are not late adaptors or suspicious of new technology, this particular constituency is even remotely significant statistically.

(Vice versa, of course, I'm not clear there is any support for Hornby's statement in the first place, but that's the other side of the coin -- it should be polished separately.)

Actually, the mere existence of MR does disprove the quote from Hornby. Note the use of 'always' in there. As we as MR exist, however small a percentage of readers we may be, what Hornby states is untrue.

[axel77]

1) Book readers like books, whereas music fans never had much affection for CDs. Vinyl yes, CDs no. They are too small for interesting cover art and legible lyrics, the cases break easily, and despite all promises to the contrary, they are extremely easy to break and scratch. Books have remained consistently lovable for several hundred years now. For readers, a wall lined with books is as attractive as any art we could afford to put up there.

This is a logical fallacy. Many readers read primary 'texts'. Not 'books'. If it was about books paperback editions wouldn't be sucessfull as they are, and people would only buy hardcovers, because they are much more beautiful in the wall lines of books. I consider people claimed the same at the start of the gutenberg area, that handwritten books were much nicer than printed books. What one considers beautiful is a personal thing, I really also like a harddisk full of books a lot, i know I """own""" (under at least 3 quatation marks) them, and can consult them everytime I want. Its just like people who are collecting say movies... Do they like the casings so much on their wall, or do they just love to just have access to a lot of movies...?

2) E-book readers have a couple of disadvantages, when compared to mp3 players. The first is that, when we bought our iPods, we already owned the music to put on it; none of us own e-books, however. The second is that so far, Apple is uninterested in designing an e-book reader, which means that they don’t look very cool.

a) When I rethink the copyright issues, at least when it came to the wishes of the publisher do we really had the right to rip the cds, or did we just do it? If yes, don't we have the same ownage rights to books we buyed already to scan them for our ereaders?

b) This is just a redicolous argument, as apple would be the only developer able to make things look cool.

3) We don’t buy many books – seven per person per year, a couple of which, we must assume, are presents for other people. Three paperbacks bought in a three-for-two offer – expenditure, fourteen pounds approx – will do most of us for months. The advantages of the Iliad and the Kindle – that you can take vast numbers of books away with you – are of no interest to the average book-buyer.

How many CDs did we buy per person per year? I mean pre-mp3 to have a fair comparison.

4) Book-lovers are always late adaptors, and generally suspicious of new technology.

The area of Book-lovers is a great field. I doubt there is a much different early/late adaptor distribution than any other random pick out of society. Yes there are this 'hardcore addicts' that will really stick to book no matter what eReader/Books are available. But wasn't it on the music the same? The real hardcore music crazy are still sticking to vinyl and tube amplifiers and especially detest anything mp3. They just can't live with even the thought that any electronic encoder/decoder could have stolen them a single bit of music information.

I have seen the switch to mp3/ipod world myself (as most here have) and I can say especially the 'big music fans were the most critical about this mp3s. What happened nevertheless?

5) The new capabilities of the iPod will make it harder to sell books anyway. How much reading has been done historically, simply because there is no television available on a bus or a train or a sun-lounger? But that’s no longer true. You could watch a whole series of the Sopranos by the pool on your iPod touchscreen, if you want. Reading is going to take a hit from this.

First there are different areas for reading. the Ipod sure does not take any from the academic reading market. Also think for example of Rowling, books made her richer than most (if not all female) sing stars. And what is this supposed to proof, with a good eBook reader I can read whole series of books by the pool, if I want. Listening is going to take a hit from this.

[daffy4u]

I noticed on his actual blog site that he has the comments turned off. Prefers to oblivious to opposing opinions?

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by axel77

This is a logical fallacy. Many readers read primary 'texts'. Not 'books'. If it was about books paperback editions wouldn't be sucessfull as they are, and people would only buy hardcovers, because they are much more beautiful in the wall lines of books. I consider people claimed the same at the start of the gutenberg area, that handwritten books were much nicer than printed books. What one considers beautiful is a personal thing, I really also like a harddisk full of books a lot, i know I """own""" (under at least 3 quatation marks) them, and can consult them everytime I want. Its just like people who are collecting say movies... Do they like the casings so much on their wall, or do they just love to just have access to a lot of movies...?

Oh, good one. Let's take that a step further. According to that bozo, movie buffs only like to view "films." So, if we really love movies, we should all have giant depositories of film cannisters in our homes, because watching a move on DVD ... well, that would just be wrong!! So, DVD players and the media they play should not be a success ... gotta have a projector, screen and lots of old film stock ... or you just aren't into movies.

His arguments are simply a crock. No wonder he turned comments off.

[grimo1re]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

OK,
Does he have a reader? Does he buy and read ebooks?

He may not even be a reader! Not all writers are readers.....

[grimo1re]

Originally Posted by ath

I think you do. It's not a truth or falsehood that is immediately obvious to the eye -- so if you have evidence to the contrary, why withhold it?

Just don't fall into the error of assuming that because Mobileread is full of booklovers who clearly are not late adaptors or suspicious of new technology, this particular constituency is even remotely significant statistically.

(Vice versa, of course, I'm not clear there is any support for Hornby's statement in the first place, but that's the other side of the coin -- it should be polished separately.)

Your right, of course. My "need I even address this" was clearly intended for this community. I supposed that people reading my little post wouldn't need me to explain...

Yes, I know we e-book lovers aren't (yet) a big group. But that's fine, not all products need to address the mass market. As long as there are profits to be made it can be a viable market. I still think e-books and readers, after overcoming their respective hurdles, will become mass market items. That something is currently perhaps only used by a small group doesn't mean it won't be a bit thing later on, Mr. Hornby!

[Spartacus2112]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

Oh, good one. Let's take that a step further. According to that bozo, movie buffs only like to view "films." So, if we really love movies, we should all have giant depositories of film cannisters in our homes, because watching a move on DVD ... well, that would just be wrong!! So, DVD players and the media they play should not be a success ... gotta have a projector, screen and lots of old film stock ... or you just aren't into movies.

His arguments are simply a crock. No wonder he turned comments off.

God forbid you have Tivo, or some sort of DVR....The end of the world is nigh!!!!

I may read one book a week, I may read one in a month. I am not going to buy one to justify it financially, but rather for how practical the device is. So, if Mr. Hornsby, or as someone referred to him earlier, Mr. Horny, would include me in his "on average" category, I still have plans on purchasing a reader. It will not be the iliad, but it will be something practical, for an average person like myself!

[RickyMaveety]

Which puts me in mind of another product that was a wee pricey when it first came out. The ubiquitous DVD player. They didn't always run cheap, folks, and there wasn't always a good supply of DVDs for rent.

In fact, the closest DVD rental place (back when I got my first player ... which was a little over $400), never had any of the movies I wanted to see. So many of them weren't even in DVD format back then.

So, I took to purchasing the movies I watched. Content was generally (and still is, generally) $20 a pop. However, I justified it by reminding myself that I was getting movies I would likely watch more than once, and by looking at the theater ticket prices, cost of popcorn and soda, doing a little match ... and I was saving money.

Now, there's Netflix, and I'm watching movies right, left and sideways. Netflix is making a hefty profit, my DVD players (which have come down in price) have paid for themselves many times over ... and all is well. Maybe not so much with the theater owners ... but I got tired of having strangers talking on their cell phones during the best parts of the film, and really tired of being told I could not bring my purse into the theater because I "might" be sneaking in my own M&Ms. And, apparently, so have a lot of other people.

I look at ebooks the same way. If the content provider is smart, then the entry level of the device will come down in price. Someone will start up a SD card book rental club, and for $10.00 a month you too can have all the books you can read!! Return postage prepaid!!

[Nergal]

just left my mark over at penguins.

One of my geography school-teachers had a good proverb for the way of generalizing a personal problem: "Do not make your problem to the problem of the group!" Thiel
Original: "Mach' Dein Problem nicht zum Problem der Gruppe!"

So I learn from this, that Mr. Hornby loves books, that he is a very late adaptor of technical devices (that he assumes on the 399 BP is only the latest best seller book ), that he feels more elite if he states that many people do not read at all, and that he is so bloody boasting proud of his personal library that he even did not feel ashamed to mention it in an essay about ebook-readers. Okay this was more personal, as was his essay when he generalizes peoples behaviour.

It is a pity, that a seemingly smart man is not able to look beyond his nose.

[corleone]

I'm kind of not agree with Mr Hornby opinion. That is not true and considered as isolated case.

[Tattncat]

Originally Posted by Amothea

I have over 2k books and it's such a pain to move and so I'm slowly but surely replacing my paper collection with an e-collection. My goal is no more than 4 bookshelves.

I am limited to my 6 bookcases +, so I am going digital. I am hoping to expand my ebook collection to cover all of my old favorites. (i.e. Ayn Rand, Zane Grey, etc)

[axel77]

Also I wonder, why do people always tend to compare eReaders to the iPod. Both fullfill so very different needs, I don't see the comparison valid. You can compare eReaders with same reasons as well with vacuum cleaners, not?