Related: Chris Meadows on the written word vs. the competition in the era of the iPad and other multimedia machines.. – D.R.
Tell the truth. How many print books did you read in the last week? How many e-books? In the last month? The last year? Are you reading more or less than in the past? Share the numbers in the comment area if you’d like. Here are my answers.
Print books: Two books in the last week, six in the last month, and 50 in the last twelve months.
E-books: One in the last week, two in the last month and eight in the last twelve months.
My totals of books read are higher now than they have been in the past few years because I realized recently that I was reading fewer and fewer books; as with so many people I meet, my work and much of my play seems to have migrated to the Web.
To help me read more and concentrate more on what I am reading, I recently started a Web site where I conduct long form interviews with writers. This has meant committing myself to reading books and thinking about them before talking to the authors. And that has certainly enabled me to read more books—I have thus recommitted myself to the joys that deep engagement that long form writing and committed reading enable.
Most likely, TeleRead community members read more in general and especially read more books than most Americans. It’s also a pretty safe guess that if you are being honest, the number of books you read today is much lower than it was five, ten, fifteen years ago whatever your background or book reading history.
In fact, you may have purchased just as many books as you did in the past, maybe more. You have more money than in your youth, and books are still relatively inexpensive cultural investments. If you’re like most heavy readers, you buy books based on the notion that you will read these books, or that you should read these books, a sort of self-imposed cultural belief system. Books are indicators of our intellectual life, after all. After all, having books in your house defines you as a certain kind of person.
But as long as we are being truthful, let’s admit that we have bought (and own) more books, by far, than we will ever read in our lifetimes. And we are likely reading fewer books than in the past.
Are we reading less? Probably not. In fact, the evidence is that we are reading more than ever. But it’s very possible that there is a shift in the way we read (and therefore the way we think). Print books require time and attention— both of which are in short supply for most readers. What does it mean for the future of our culture if books are no longer the primary carriers of our values and ideals?
Americans are consuming vast amounts of written information online. Actual reading is clearly at very high levels. But reading long form, immersive texts is very different from reading—and thinking about—short snippets of information, blog posts and micro-stories. It’s intriguing to think about how the rise of e-readers may change the way we read books too—carrying around a pocketable reader or an iPhone and reading while standing in line, or at the dentist may change our consumption rates of long form narrative yet again.
This whole discussion is loaded, of course—is it really such a bad thing if fewer books are being read? I don’t know. In fact my interest in raising this question here is to celebrate change. Many of my friends and colleagues in the book business got into publishing for the obvious reason that we loved books and writing. For this particular interest group, of people who love books, hang out with other book lovers, and talk about books all the time, it will be difficult to accept the concept that the definition of a book can and will change. But change is the defining characteristic of our time.
It’s not the book publishers but the behavior of readers that will define the future of reading and of culture. What will it look like? E-reading and new digital communication forms and formats will take over, and faster than anyone imagines. Books are artifacts of modern technology no more or less than digital creations. People adapt to new technologies in ways that suit their needs and interests, and equally new technologies are created around the perceived needs of people.
The electronic reading future is already our present.
Since you asked, I decided to try to figure out how much I really do read. You are correct that I buy many more books than I will ever read and I keep buying more (just bought 2 hardcovers last night at my local B&N). But I consider it a challenge to get them all read.
In the past week I have read 2 hardcover books and 4 ebooks. The hardcovers are almost all nonfiction whereas the ebooks are all fiction. (I’m not counting the pbooks I read because I am editing them.)
In the past month, I read 3 hardcovers and 12 ebooks. In the past year, I read 69 hardcovers and 108 ebooks (however, I bought more than 100 hardcovers and more than 125 ebooks, excluding freebies; if I include the pbooks that I bought for my wife, I actually bought close to 150 pbooks last year).
As for the future of ebooks, although I agree that is where we are heading, I think it will be at least a decade, possibly two, before ebooks reign in all book categories. Right now ebooks seem to be better suited for fiction than nonfiction and it will be a while before that is sorted out.
Got my Kindle last Feb., and it paid for itself w/in six months. Did all of my class reading on it; and when I’d finish the week’s assigned articles by the end of my commute on Thursday morning, I’d switch to a book. For the first time *ever* I read non-class stuff during the semester. ‘The Moonstone’. ‘Neverwhere’. ‘The Man Who Was Thursday’. And the first of the Charlie Chan novels. When my class ended, my reading just picked up from there.
So now I have two categories of reading matter. Print for what I need to ‘have’ (as in: hardcopy & right of first sale; or legible graphics and illustrations); e is for what I’m truly going to *read*. If I find an e-edition important enough, I might buy print, although I’ve not done this yet. There’s an awful lot of stuff I want to/plan to read that I just don’t want to have taking up room on my physical bookshelves. The ‘Wheel of Time’ series, for example.
e-books read in the <6 months I've had my reader: 14 (3 in progress)
p-books read in the 6 months prior to that: 1-2
I read a LOT more when I can do it more easily on-the-go.
This month I’ve read three ebooks and six paper books. Last year I read 82 books total and 25 of them were e-books. And, yes, I buy way more books than I can handle reading. If I go into a bookstore I’m going to come out with something. Usually it’s about six or seven new books in a month.
I have to say that I definitely read more with my Sony Reader.
It’s such a boon to my reading because it’s so much more convenient to use and carry than any paper book. I always hated the hand-strain I got from having to pry open paperbacks, especially at the front and back. Ereaders just lie flat. It’s also smaller (at least thinner) than a paperback, so I can carry it in my bag easily. Consequently, I have the ereader with me more often.
And, perhaps the main positive with any ebook is that my collection is easily moved when I move. I currently live abroad in Japan, and one day I will return to the US. Every time I made a p-book purchase, I heavily considered if it was worth buying because I’d have to either take it back with me (expensive to ship a box of books) or leave it here for my successor (who might just throw it away). I don’t have that problem with ebooks.
Furthermore, reading while traveling on vacation was always annoying to me before. I’d often finish a book mid-trip, which left me carrying around a useless pile of paper the rest of the trip and with nothing to read (unless I carried around yet more paper).
Long live the ebook!
My Kindle 2 arrived Nov 20 2009. Since then, I’ve read about two e-books a week — 16 to 18 in 8 or 9 weeks. I may have read two books in the entire 2009 up to that point.
I read tons of stuff — but in recent years it’s been on the web. I can’t remember the last time I bought a magazine — and I used to be a voracious magazine reader.
One of the by-products of the Kindle is a re-acquaintance with “long form content”. It’s a happy marriage of classic content and location convenience. No kidding: now I am reading Raymond Chandler … and I can do it in bed, in the bath, on the beach. And, it’s now PD in Canada! Joy!
I don’t buy books to just have them sit on my bookshelf (as it is, I’ve had to rent extra storage to hold all the books I have that I’ve read over the last 30 years – I’ve switched to reading e-books now, in part because my wife gave me an ultimatum – either I stopped buying printed books, or she’d give away or sell my collection of books!)
As far as what I’ve read recently, in the last week I’ve read 6 e-books (finishing a 7th), and no printed books (I did purchase 2 paperbacks online, but only because even though the first book in the series was available as an ebook, the latter two were not, so as soon as I finish the current ebook, I’ll read the next two books the old fashioned way)
Well, I got a nook for Christmas (Dec2010) and since then (today being 27 Jan 2011) I’ve read 12 e-books and am on # 13. Under normal reading circumstances I’d read about 1-3 books a month. Having so many downloads available as soon as I’m finished with an e-book at any time of the day or night itching to finish the series or just cannot sleep is so convenient and addicting.
Print books: Zero books in the last week, Zero in the last month, and Eight in the last twelve months (all non-fiction).
E-books: Six in the last week, 27 in the last month and 302 in the last twelve months.
I agree with Rich that at this time ebooks lend themselves much better to fiction books, a lot of nonfiction stuff I like doesn’t lend itself to ebook formats well (unless you count PDF), a 10″ tablet with good PDF software might be the best answer for some of those.
According to this, I posted the note above tomorrow … ?!?
But I’ll post this note today …
I did not read books much for 20+ years. I read tons as a teenager and then drifted into music and films. So, being honest, I definitely read more books today than 5, 10 and 15 years ago. In fact, I’ve probably read about 100 ebooks in the past 14 months and approximately 0 pbooks. In the previous decade, I read about 40 pbooks — mostly pulp fiction picked up from ebay. I see no reason to think I won’t read another 500+ ebooks in the coming decade.
Being honest, the ereader — Kindle 2, Kindle 3 and Kobo — have reignited my interested in reading. I’d be happy to turn the existing pbooks in my house to keeping it warm, if I had a fireplace. Electrons are so much easier to dust.