Duane Gundrum Movies,Television,Writing Why E-Readers Just Won’t Take Hold in America

Why E-Readers Just Won’t Take Hold in America

There’s been a lot of hype over the last couple of  months because of the emergence of the IPAD, which has been predicted to usher in a new age of reading. This has caused all of the other e-reader makers to ramp up their business models, each one of them vying for the ultimate control of this incoming market. But I have bad news for all of them. That market’s not coming. Sorry, but it’s not.

You see, there’s a funny thing happening on the way to the the emerging market. There’s been an interesting fantasy that’s been playing out in the American public that is somewhat identical to the reason why so many Americans are fat. Every now and then, we look in the mirror and realize we’re fat, so we tell ourselves (and everyone around us) we’re going to go on a diet. And for a few days, we feel good about ourselves. And then we order that hot fudge sundae for dessert, and well, the diet kind of goes away. Oh, we rationalize it with promises of future exercise, but we know deep down that we’re going to go back to our old ways. And we do. Then we continue to get fat, and then we suddenly wake up, look in the mirror and then announce we’re going on a diet. Rinse. Repeat.

That’s what’s happening with E-readers. For the longest time, the majority of Americans stopped reading. We started watching TV, playing video games and doing anything but anything intellectual. Our reading output in this country is abysmal, and we know it. But every now and then, we promise to start reading again, and we go to the bookstore and buy lots of interesting books that we put on a shelf and never read. Oh, we might start reading, but then something else comes along and we stop. Rinse. Repeat.

So, when the E-reader came along, we all jumped up with joy and said we’d start reading books now because they’d be easier to read. So people went out and bought IPADs. I’m guessing that after the new car smell disappeared from the devices, they stopped being the most important carry item for those planning to read. Or they started using them for other reasons.

In a few months, publishers are going to start wondering what happened to that emerging market of electronic books. Sure, some will sell, but nowhere near the amount that was promised when this new technology was going to usher in a new era of reading.

You see, on the surface and deep down, we’re kind of lazy. Some of us read a lot. Most of us don’t. But we won’t tell you that because everyone wants everyone else to think we’re all little Einsteins walking around with encyclopedias for brains.

Maybe I’m wrong, but I suspect I’m not. But one can hope for better results than the usual expectations. As a writer, it bothers me that more of my country folk don’t read. But what can I do? Our medium of communication is movies and television. And even in those areas we aren’t all that impressive as we tend to focus more on reality programming and sports programming than anything else.

But that’s why E-readers probably won’t take hold in America. We’re too busy pretending to diet while watching people getting voted off the island.

5 thoughts on “Why E-Readers Just Won’t Take Hold in America”

  1. Yeah, I pretty much agree with all that. Personally I'm a big reader, but I still can't be bothered with any kind of Kindle or whatever. Practically it doesn't make sense to me, it's not like an iPod where I'd want to switch songs and albums on the fly — if I'm reading a book then I'm reading THAT book, I don't need to have a repository of 10,000 books on hand at any time so I can ready one page out of one, then another page off of a different one. And it's not so inconvenient to walk into a bookstore and buy a book that the whole buy-through-wif​i thing is a big selling point for me. And then of course there's just the joy of settling down on my couch at the end of a long day with a book and a cup of tea, and NOT having another goddamned electronic device in my hands. I spend enough time on the internet every day as it is.

  2. I think your basic assumption is flawed. E-readers aren't going to turn non-readers into readers; that bird has flown. But for people who already read, they're cheap and convenient. I was able to pack one less bag than usual for the trip I took last weekend — usually I'd bring a wheeled backpack with three or four books and a couple of magazines in it, but instead, I just dropped my little Sony Pocket into my purse. So: e-readers aren't going to rescue publishing; they're just going to make it different. And confusing. But mostly different.

  3. Yeah, I pretty much agree with all that. Personally I'm a big reader, but I still can't be bothered with any kind of Kindle or whatever. Practically it doesn't make sense to me, it's not like an iPod where I'd want to switch songs and albums on the fly — if I'm reading a book then I'm reading THAT book, I don't need to have a repository of 10,000 books on hand at any time so I can ready one page out of one, then another page off of a different one. And it's not so inconvenient to walk into a bookstore and buy a book that the whole buy-through-wifi thing is a big selling point for me. And then of course there's just the joy of settling down on my couch at the end of a long day with a book and a cup of tea, and NOT having another goddamned electronic device in my hands. I spend enough time on the internet every day as it is.

  4. I am probably the prototypical consumer that the e-reader manufacturers advertise to but at least right now have absolutely zero interest in getting one. My problem with them is that they aren't cheap or convenient to me. I do think they look kind of cool but even the smallest ones aren't much smaller than my laptop which means they're not portable unless I bring a bag. If I don't bring a bag for it I then have to worry about leaving it somewhere or it getting stolen. Not to mention the fact that I have spilled a lot of liquids on a lot of books. Perhaps the biggest reason though is that given the choice I simply prefer to read something on paper as opposed to an electronic screen and I don't think that will ever change.

  5. My Sony Pocket is about the width and length of a mass-market paperback, and about 1/2" thick. I can literally fit it in my pocket (although I rarely do, unless it's just to move from one room to another or something like that).

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