CAIRO—If my sense is correct, e-readers will soon replace printed books as the dominant form of literary distribution. There are already plenty of groups who have good reason to go digital: the environmentally conscious, penny-pinching school boards, bookish families, citizens in dictatorships that ban various paper books, elderly individuals who can’t lug around heavy books, graveyard shifters with substantial downtime. But the group with perhaps the most reasons to use e-readers is travelers, particularly globetrotters.
My wife and I were early adopters of Amazon’s Kindle. We live and work in Cairo, and in 2009-2010 she or I have visited or will visit the U.S., Singapore, Israel, Cyprus, Jordan, Kuwait, and possibly Tunisia. We’d be nuts to carry paper books to all of those locations since we now don’t have to.
Also, as a journalist who reports from many of these countries, being able to carry around a small library is invaluable. In Singapore, I wanted to quote Fareed Zakaria’s book The Post-American World for a piece in CJR. I had what I needed from my Kindle literally in seconds, and didn’t need Internet service to get it.
Ours is an isolated story, but think of the other roughly 5.3 million Americans living outside the U.S., a figure that doesn’t even include military personnel. Or consider the tens of millions of German readers—those living in Germany are much more likely to travel internationally than Americans—who now have access to digital books in their language on the Kindle. With airlines charging passengers for even thinking about luggage, paper weights are even less attractive cargo.
Also consider that hundreds of thousands of American students study abroad every year. Taking a class in economic history at the London School of Economics? You can shell out good British sterling for the print version of Adam Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, a 600-page anvil, or you can get the book absolutely free on a Kindle, as the volume has long been in the public domain and free of copyright limitations.
E-readers are money-saving devices, and the savings margin is often the greatest for individuals purchasing books outside of the United States, where international shipping costs are much higher and there are often fewer options to purchase used books.
My graduate journalism students are required to read Best Newspaper Writing, 2008-2009, published by the Poynter Institute. The paperback book is available new from Amazon for $27.78. For my students to buy the same book from our university bookstore, they pay 70 percent more: around $47.00. The book, not yet available for the Kindle, might cost $15 on an e-reader.
Perhaps the only folks aching to see paper books remain the dominant form of literary provision, aside from companies that process wood pulp, are readers sentimental about the “feel of curling up” with a paper book. But this group of traditional bibliophiles is dwindling, which will only continue. People have the tendency not to want to “curl up” with unnecessary expenditures. I was committed to the paper book before I tried an e-reader. Now I’ll never buy another paper book unless it’s a must-have item that isn’t yet digitally available.
In the late 1990s, plenty of letter writers were committed to handwritten notes over e-mail, but just ask the U.S. Postal Service how revenue has been over the last decade. (The Postal Service as we know it now will not survive, a fate that, interestingly enough, will be partly tied to the death of the paper book and the non-shipping thereof).
The setbacks of e-readers are frequently discussed and legitimate. Scores of books are not yet available on e-readers. To lend a book to a friend you usually have to lend them the entire device. And you don’t want to use it in the bath, poolside while kids do cannonballs, or in a sauna (although I don’t at all doubt that waterproof e-readers are in our future).
I hope to God I will never have to touch an e-reader.
#1 Posted by Avery, CJR on Fri 17 Sep 2010 at 10:03 AM
I don't have an e-reader. You make some good points. I do like to 'curl up w/a good book'. My eyes and vision also need a break from the screen. I'll probably jump on this bandwagon in the next, say, 18 months, but I will still go to the bookstore and buy books.
#2 Posted by kim/ohradiogirl, CJR on Fri 17 Sep 2010 at 12:21 PM
hmm. That's a very alpha-traveler view of the world. I agree that users in transit are driving the enthusiasm for electronic media. And it's possible that the tools of their preference and convenience will force the rest of our society to abandon the technology of the printed page, which has thus far successfully educated every adult person who has played a role in creating and promoting our new electronic toys. But it's over-reach to say that these changes are absolutely superior to our well-honed cultural artifact, the printed word. We can say with certainty that the new tools are convenient, useful, and can be satisfying. But. Until digital readers are as ubiquitous as the television or the book, then we cannot say with certainty that they are a level field replacement. Sure, the teaser-rates for eBooks look good now but just wait and see what happens to prices as we move farther along the electronic toll roads into the future.
Yogurt and cheese might contain the same nutrients as milk but no one would ever say that yogurt and cheese are no longer useful, necessary, practical, economical, or desirable now that we have refrigeration and everyone can have fresh milk whenever and wherever we want it. True, no one misses papyrus scrolls although we do still lament the loss of the library at Alexandria. I predict that a frontlist published only in digital format will create a vibrant market for the backlist published in paper and found only in used bookstores and yard sales.
#3 Posted by MB, CJR on Fri 17 Sep 2010 at 01:46 PM
MB: Many thanks for your thoughtful feedback. The paper book will die, though. Amazon now sells more electronic books on Kindle than it does hardcover books.
Kim: Also, thanks for your thoughts. Most e-readers aren't backlit and aren't 'computer screens' as we know them. Ever see a Nintendo Gameboy from the early 1990s? The screens look like that. I actually prefer reading scholarly articles and other PDF documents on my e-reader, precisely because the device looks nothing like my computer screen and doesn't strain my eyes.
Whatever method of reading you choose, though, enjoy!
#4 Posted by Justin, CJR on Sat 18 Sep 2010 at 04:14 AM
I totally agree. In fact, I'd advocate the use of digital content for a country like Egypt, just to cut-off the prices and give access to less empowered citizens. Makes a lot of sense to me as an under-grad student.
But speaking as an Egyptian/Arab, I still don't think of e-readers as successful products in my society for now. Unlike the US and the UK, there isn't really this strong cultural book reading environment. In other words, a mere number of people are fans of reading generally. I'm sad to say encouragement to read in my country isn't that strong, or at least convincing. Not to mention the fact we , as citizens, don't resort to technology in productive matters. Only Facebook and chatting count in as our technological needs ironically.
#5 Posted by Ahmed, CJR on Thu 23 Sep 2010 at 01:20 PM
Ahmed: You make a number of important points here, and I strongly agree with you about the lack of book reading culture in Egypt (and the larger Arab world). I recently wrote a piece for CJR on this very topic that you might be interested in: http://www.cjr.org/behind_the_news/digital_killed_the_biblio_cres.php
#6 Posted by Justin, CJR on Fri 24 Sep 2010 at 10:14 AM