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In protest of e-readers, CoverSpy tweets what New Yorkers read on the train
February 9, 2010 | 4:50 pm
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By Chris Meadows
In an effort to show what is lost by when people read e-books instead of plain books, Slice (a Brooklyn-based non-profit magazine) has created the “CoverSpy” Twitter account. This Twitter posts the titles of books people are seen reading in public in New York City, as well as a few details about the person reading them.
Brother, I’m Dying, Edwidge Danticat (F, 40s, seated, blue knit hat, Q train)http://bit.ly/dtBfqf #coverspy
Slice seems to see this as a sort of protest against e-book devices.
"We were lamenting the prevalence of e-readers spotted on our train rides and what a bleak commute it would be if all of the book covers were replaced with blank e-reader covers," [Slice art director Amy Sly] said of the project’s beginnings last October. "For one thing, it’s always been fun to see what everyone’s reading around you–and it’s especially interesting how they’re not always the books that are making headlines at the moment. And also because we each had a story about a time a conversation started with someone we didn’t know because of the books we were holding in our hands."
On the other hand, there are some who would see this anonymity as an advantage. After all, we don’t always want other people to see what we’re reading. For example, British Harry Potter publisher Bloomsbury famously prints an “adult” edition of each Harry Potter book with a nondescript cover so adults do not have to worry about being seen reading an obvious “children’s book” on the train.
And the romance and erotica genres were one of e-bookdom’s first great success stories (and are still some of its hottest sellers) as people realized that they could read whatever they wanted to on their PDAs without the possibility of someone seeing the cover in their hands.
Personally, when I’m deep in reading a book, the last thing I want is to have a conversation with someone else about it anyway.
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A “come-back” to that would be – think of all the really good conversations that get started when someone IS reading an e-book. I’m sure down the road we’ll all have a story of how people met because one of them asked “Hey, is that one of those new book reading things? An e-book reader?”
Goodness! If sparks fly between the couple there’s even the added time of showing how it works.
Rita
The idea that anyone is obliged, when out in public, to provide strangers with entertainment really irks me.
Whatever I’m reading is nobody’s business, and as far as I’m concerned the rest of the world can stuff off and leave me in peace when my mind is immersed in a book, whether p- or e-.
I’ve certainly had more people interrupt my reading to ask about my Kindle than I’ve ever had ask or comment on the book I’m reading. That’s fine, I love my Kindle and am happy to show it to them, and I’m sure it will wear off when ereaders become more prevalent. But really, I’m an introvert. I don’t want to have conversations with strangers. I guess all the extroverts are running out of people to talk to since all the non-readers had earbuds in their ears.
Well, there was that one time when I discovered the very handsome young man at the bus stop and I were both reading “Anna Karenina”. . .
But that only happened ONCE during a lifetime of reading in public. My Sony, on the whole, is much more of a conversation starter (although sometimes I wish it weren’t, either)
Well the ebook covers should have a transparent pocket and you could print out a postcard sized rendition of the cover of your current book for display…
Thanks. I shared your article in the Sony Reader Forum located here: http://sonyreader.proboards.com/index.cgi in the Ebook General Board.
It does rather reduce the utility of the book as a prop for flirtation, doesn’t it?
On of the things I find disappointing about living in Japan is that book covers are ubiquitous; it’s very rare to see anybody reading on a train and be able to see the cover of their book.
But perhaps we’ll just have to come up with yet more technology to overcome this problem, and even improve things. Perhaps readers could be equipped with Bluetooth, and broadcast the entire list of books on the reader, even along with the owner’s reviews.
back when i was reading print only, i had one of those zipper book covers. for two reasons. a. it was nobody’s business what i was reading, and (much more importantly) b. that neato zipper thingy also had a handle, so i could hang it on the hook in the restroom stall. no more juggling that book that was too big to fit in my bag while in the airport restroom…
so i’d already been ‘no fun’ for years before i got my kindle.