E-readers

Reading on your Phone

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IMG_2384Well, I finally drank the Koolaid recently and plunked down for a smartphone, retiring my five plus year old flip phone with a dying battery. I bought one of the new Samsung Galaxy S6’s and have to say I’m a convert, not entirely to the pleasure of my wife. There really are times I shouldn’t be playing with it! I’m slowly learning to have a time in the evening where I plug it into the charger and turn off the alarms.

One of the things about the new smartphones is the size and resolution of the screens (5.1 inches on the Samsung) that makes reading possible, particularly if the print size is fairly large. And so it was with interest that I read the Wall Street Journal article this past week on “The Rise of Phone Reading“.

I haven’t read any books on my phone yet, although I’ve downloaded the Kindle app, and also the Logos app (Android versions), so that all the content I have on these two applications on my computer, and in the former case, my Kindle reader, is now available on my phone. So far, the main reading on my phone has been email, and checking different social media, much connected with this blog. I also watched a missed episode of The McLaughlin Group, sitting in my driveway on a nice summer evening, streaming it over my wi-fi.

One sign to me that phone reading was gaining in usage was complaints about this blog before I went “responsive” back in April. The print was too small and it didn’t reformat well for the phone. Now it does, as I’ve discovered when I’ve checked out the blog on my phone.

Phones are also changing e-reading habits when it comes to books. The WSJ article indicates that using phones to read at least part of the time has grown from 24 percent in 2012 to 52 percent by the end of 2014. E-reader usage has dropped from 50 to 32 percent and tablet use from 44 to 41 percent in the same period.

The capabilities of the phone make it possible via GPS features to offer books at specific GPS coordinates like airports or train stations and some publishers are offering free access to some books at these locations. Publishers are also re-thinking covers and other formatting issues to make books phone-friendly.

I also discovered that the Goodreads app includes a bar code scanner that automatically enters a new book into your book lists on Goodreads–something you can’t do on the computer version, where you have to search titles or hand enter ISBNs to find your edition in their database.

And people are responding to these phone apps and adaptations. The number exclusively using their phones to read has grown from 9 to 14 percent in the last two years. And one can see the sense in this. I’ve already discovered that I almost always have the phone with me when I’m out, as opposed to print books and e-readers. Already, people have reported reading books like Moby Dick and War and Peace on their phones.

It seems to me, however, that the best type of book to read on this format are books that can be read in “snatches” without losing the continuity necessary for making sense of longer works. Short essays, meditations, “One minute…” kinds of things would seem to especially lend themselves to this format, where one is often reading while waiting for a bus, or a flight.

Interrupted reading is definitely more of an issue in the settings where many read using these devices. One thing that can help is turning off the alarms, which can be very distracting and enticing and put phones at a decided disadvantage to dedicated e-readers. As far as external distractions, they have always been there. If you listen to books on audio via headphones, you can tune some of that out as well.

I can’t speak to how the reading experience compares with e-readers or physical books yet. My hunch is that these, like e-readers are better for light reading than the kinds of things one would read closely. And I have to say that I won’t be using it in the places where I enjoy physical books. But I just might have occasion where I start a book on my phone, when I don’t have my e-reader or it isn’t handy. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Meanwhile, I’d love to know if you’ve seen a change in your reading habits if you’ve acquired a smartphone and what that has been like for you.

Are E-books Dying?

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My e-reader with a "Vicky Bliss" mystery loaded. (c) 2015, Robert C Trube

My e-reader with a “Vicky Bliss” mystery loaded. (c) 2015, Robert C Trube

There has been a spate of articles (for example this one on Publisher’s Weekly) recently resulting from a dip in sales of e-books, and possibly e-readers. This one on Bustle sounds the most alarmist but in fact is not, as you get down into the article. In the end they suggest that both formats will continue to co-exist, which is my own take.

What is more interesting to me is to see in which categories e-books sales are the strongest. It turns out that mystery and romance are the two leading categories. It appears that much of the dip in e-book sales was in the young adult category, where there was no blockbuster, like the Divergent series, to drive sales.

What I wonder is whether we are seeing a “leveling out” and “sorting out” after a “boom” in this new technology (the Bustle article points out that the Kindle only came out in 2007).  Here are some of the ways I think this may all be sorting out:

1. It is interesting to me that genres that are doing best in sales are those that lend themselves to e-reading. I wonder if we are figuring out that e-readers are great for casual reading when we are on the fly (in airports or places with distractions) but that print works best when we are doing serious reading that requires concentration. Also, books don’t have other apps on them that interrupt us–a problem when you are trying to concentrate on a more serious piece.

2. I also wonder if some part of the sorting out just has to do with market saturation. For the past seven years, many of us have been acquiring e-readers, smart phones, and tablet computers. Most who want to use this technology for reading now have it. I’d be curious about how many “new users” vendors like Amazon or Apple are gaining.

3. Another factor in the sorting out is what I might call the “backlog” or “TBR” effect. Many of us who acquired e-readers or apps in the past few years have found how seductive and easy it is to download things we think are interesting and may be realizing we have virtual “to be read” stacks and are limiting new purchases.

4. Finally, I wonder, and some articles (for example, this one in the Washington Post) seem to indicate this, whether there is a renewed appreciation for the aesthetics of a book, both as we read and on our shelves. Naturally, this means that some types of books will be more “disposable” and we may prefer to acquire them in the generally cheaper electronic versions (as opposed to cheaply made paperback versions that we also don’t want to save). I wonder if this might eventually lead to greater attention to the aesthetics of the books that publishers think people will want to savor and keep. It actually makes sense to not manufacture books that are most likely to wear out and be trashed, ending up in a local landfill.

So, just as many of us thought the purported death of physical books to be greatly exaggerated, I also think e-books are with us to stay. What I hope is that we are learning to use this technology more wisely and appropriately. That would be a good thing.

Cover-Snooping!

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I had a “gotcha” moment this past week. I was reading a review of a new book by Lauren Leto titled Judging a Book by Its Lover in which the reviewer mentions the author’s lament of the advent of e-readers as thwarting the ability to “cover-snoop.” I realized there is a name for what I have done for most of my life. In the review, this seemed to be connected to assessing romantic prospects. I’m happily married, thank you, but I still stand convicted of this though not for romantic reasons.

I mentioned this to my son and he said, “that’s creepy, Dad!” If that’s so, then I am guilty as charged of creepy-hood. But here’s what it comes down to–I am a bibliophile and a book I haven’t seen before in someone’s hands is something like raw meat to a dog. It’s actually not so much about the person as the book–as callous as that sounds. Now, if it is a romance novel, or some arcane technical book, that’s all she wrote as far as my interest. And I don’t go up to total strangers and start talking with them about their books.

There are times when I’ve struck up a conversation with seat mates on a plane or similar contexts asking “what are you reading?” if they seem disposed to conversation. If they are they usually tell you more than the title. I’ve been asked this as well, and have had some fascinating conversations. Creepy-hood is when it is clear that the book is their shield from conversation and you intrude.

The other place I cover-snoop is when I see books lying around in a friend’s homes or on their book shelves. Again, some is just curiosity about books. Beyond that though, cover-snooping is a way I learn about what interests my friends and what interests we might have in common or even what books we’ve both read.

Of course, now we can do this electronically on Goodreads, which even has a heuristic that allows you to see what books both you and your friends have read. I suppose the creepiness of this is removed by the fact that when we sign up for these things and accept friends we invite people not only to cover-snoop our books but to read whatever thoughts we care to share about them.

My defense of cover-snooping is that all of us notice things about the people that are shaped by our age, gender, race, and a variety of other factors. Glancing around the library where I’m writing this post I notice the t-shirts people are wearing, the types of computers they are using, and even some of the books they are carrying. Creepy is staring or otherwise crossing social boundaries and assuming a familiarity we don’t have.

So I don’t lament e-readers. I can still always ask “what are you reading?” in the appropriate contexts. And if they are a bibliophile, they won’t mind talking about their books and learning about mine because chances are they will have cover-snooped me as well!

So, what do you think about cover-snooping? Do you cover-snoop? Or do you agree with my son and think it is creepy?

 

Is Your e-Reader Draining Your Bank Account?

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I came across this fact in a post on 101 Books, a blog dedicated to posting on the experience of reading through Time’s top 100 novels:

A recent study showed that, on average, e-reader users spent $433 more per year on online shopping than people who did not own an e-reader.

While doing my taxes last year, I tallied my eBook purchases and, while not this high, it represented a change in my spending habits that I thought I better curb. Here are some thoughts about how to avoid having your e-reader or tablet become a siphon drawing money out of your bank account:

1. Use a dedicated e-reader or one of the free reading apps you can install on a tablet or computer. Tablets provided by the vendors of e-books will not only connect you to other e-books but lots of other products. This happens on dedicated readers as well but the interface isn’t as friendly for ordering.

2. There are lots of free books available from your e-book vendor and various independent sites. Most are public domain and many represent great works of literature and non-fiction. At one time, I think I discovered that there are over 15,000 free works available on Amazon.

3. I’m tempted to book hoard. Yes, I do that with physical books as well, but the ease of buying that book I’ll read “someday” that appears to be a good bargain makes this especially tempting.

4. If the ads are tempting, an e-reader you pay a bit extra for without them might be worthwhile. And just delete without reading all those emails!

5. Many libraries now allow you to borrow e-books and you can get many current titles at no cost and these are often returned automatically on their due date, so no fines. Just check with your library about what formats they carry and compatibility with your e-reader.

6. Don’t buy something new on your e-reader until you finish the current book you are reading.

7. If all else fails, you can always just read physical books, which don’t send you ads for other products and don’t connect you to the net!

The Seven Percent Shift

/ rtrube54 / 3 Comments

I’m in Chicago at meetings the next few days so posts may be sporadic. On the flight up here today, I was reading more of Jason Merkoski’s Burning the Page and came across an interesting statistic.  He stated that there was a 7 percent shift from year to year in e-reader usage among the US adult population when the blockbuster Fifty Shades of Grey  was published. Now I am a bit skeptical of this statistic which seems to confuse correlation with causation.

But books have been responsible for contributing to significant social change. One thinks of Uncle Tom’s Cabin of which President Lincoln allegedly said to Harriet Beecher Stowe upon meeting her in 1862,  ‘So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war!’ I think of John F Kennedy’s Profiles of Courage and its influence on the generation of the 60s that thought it could change the world. Perhaps it is not so preposterous to think of Fifty Shades driving a change in the way we read…

What I wonder about though is what kinds of books do we read on e-readers? Stowe and Kennedy were not writing profound philosophy or great literary works but they were exploring elevated themes. I’ve not read Fifty Shades, but I gather it deals with an entirely different form of “elevation’! I can say I’ve read some fun things like Agatha Christie as well as serious works like Michelle Alexander’s New Jim Crow  on my Kindle.  But I’m probably not your typical reader.

I’m interested in what kinds of books people are reading on e-readers. Are they mostly used for popular works? If we read serious works on them, do we read them the same way?  For example, I notice e-readers are much less friendly to footnotes–well formatted ones hyperlink to them but many simply confine them to endnotes not easily accessed.

What kinds of books do you like to read on your e-reader, and what types don’t you read on e-readers?