Emma Silvers's reading device of choice Here we have yet another story on why print rules and e-books drool, by 26-year-old Emma Silvers who posits the thesis that she is somehow nobly fighting against the tide of her generation, rejecting conformity and marching to the beat of a different drummer and all that. It ends up coming across as smug and smacks more than a little of entitlement.

Silvers writes of encountering a woman reading a book on the Kindle and being annoyed because instead of seeing a book cover to give away what the person was reading, she saw the “smooth metallic back of the thing.”

As I stared at the woman, fully engaged, happily using this very practical and very expensive device that, for all I know, she saved her pennies for a year to buy, I felt something entirely out of proportion with the situation: I felt personally slighted.

At least she admits that her feelings were “ridiculous” and out of proportion, and then goes on to analyze why she feels what she feels. She actually goes all the way back to her childhood and discusses how she taught herself to read by annoying her older sister, read in the car on family vacations to the point of motion sickness, and has been known to walk into trees and lampposts while reading on the street (I’ll admit, I’ve been there).

She touches on Nicholas Carr’s article about what the Internet is doing to our attention span (which I covered here) and notes that all the social networking and Internet-related features of the Kindle are exactly the kind of distractions she doesn’t want to take her out of the immersive reading experience she treasures. She writes that the multitude of musical choice offered by her iPod means she rarely listens to albums all the way through anymore, and adds:

Out of every argument I’ve heard in favor of e-readers — no dead trees, portable research, "it’s the future," etc. — my least favorite might be the central point of the thing: the fact that it allows you to choose from thousands of books at any given time. I simply don’t want that kind of potential for distraction. Would I have ever made it through any book by Herman Hesse if I’d had the choice, with a press of a button, to lighten the mood with a little Tom Robbins? Will anyone ever finish "Infinite Jest" on a device that constantly presents other options?

She does admit in closing what seems obvious to the rest of us: her disdain for e-books is at least partly rooted in her nostalgia for the reading experiences she had growing up, and a sadness that kids of future generations aren’t going to have those same experiences.

There are so many things wrong with this article that it’s hard to figure out where to start. First of all, what God-given right does Ms. Silver have to know what everyone else around her is reading? (See also our coverage of Coverspy on a related issue.) The only reason she’s gotten to see it in the past is that book covers are endemic to the paper book format, but you could also very well consider them a violation of privacy. (A bit ironic that every potential privacy violation by Google, Facebook, or LiveJournal hits the news immediately, but here’s this woman railing against something technology does that increases privacy.)

What if that reader had equipped her paper book with a jacket made from brown paper? (I recall using those as protection for school textbooks, but they could just as easily be used for protecting your choice of reading matter from prying eyes.) Would she still feel annoyed if she knew keeping the title secret was an intentional act on the part of the reader rather than incidental? Or would she feel even more aggravated at the “intentional snub”?

Indeed, one of the reasons erotic romance e-books have been huge sellers ever since the Palm Pilot days is that there’s no need to feel embarrassed about being seen reading that kind of book anymore. (And lest we forget, J.K. Rowling’s UK publisher famously came out with “ugly cover” editions of all the Harry Potter books so adults could read them without embarrassment on the train.)

As for her argument about distractions, even leaving aside the fact that Carr’s stance on the distraction of multitasking is the subject of some debate, I guess Ms. Silver never reads anything in libraries? Or indeed, anywhere there is a stocked bookshelf?

It’s not as if printed books cuff themselves to your hand and put blinders on you until you finish reading them. You can always choose to close the book you’re reading (and optionally throw it at the wall, if the spirit moves you) and pick up another. Unless Ms. Silver does all her reading on the train, or is too lazy to get up and go to a bookshelf, she can quite often choose “to lighten the mood [of a Herman Hesse book] with a little Tom Robbins" or otherwise stop reading her current book in favor of another.

Why doesn’t she? It can’t be that going to a bookshelf is soooo much harder than pushing a button. It’s not like it would take very many more calories. The fact is, concentration is an act of will. If you want to read one book all the way through, nobody is stopping you but you. Even leaving aside the availability of other books, there are just as many distractions in the real world (“Pardon me, I couldn’t help noticing that you’re reading the latest Twilight book. How is it?”) as in the virtual one, and unlike those you don’t always have control over the real-world ones (unless you’re less afraid than most people to growl, “Leave me alone, I’m reading.”).

And if Ms. Silver is so concerned about the possibility of lacking the willpower to keep always-on Internetly things from distracting her, she could always choose one of the wi-fi only models, like the Wi-Fi Kindle or the iPod Touch, or even one of the e-readers (such as most models from Sony) that have no Internet connectivity at all. Then she could choose to put as few or as many books on it at a time as she wants.

Moving on, her sadness that other kids won’t have the same reading experiences as she did growing up seems a bit self-centered to me, as though she’s not admitting the validity of the childhood experiences of kids (or those few of them who still read at all, anyway) who can get fully-immersed into e-books without problems.

I’ve been reading e-books for something like 13 years now (longer if you count the Superguy stuff I read off a monitor) and can probably count the books I was unable to finish on the fingers of one hand. And if I was unable to finish them, it was not because they were e-books, but because I just didn’t like them.

There isn’t some kind of evil distracting radiation emanating from these devices; if you can focus on them, the reading experience can be every bit as ludic as any printed book. I have very little doubt that twenty years from now, someone as old as Emma Silvers is now will feel every bit as nostalgic for the Kindle, “back in the good ol’ days when it was still black and white” as she does for paper books.

And finally, the idea that e-book readers are predominantly an aspect of youth culture misses the boat considerably. There are a lot of older readers of e-books, given that e-books allow any title to be made into a “large print edition”. I’ve been reading e-books since I was younger than Silver is now, and don’t plan on stopping. Heck, TeleRead’s founder David Rothman is in his sixties.

Anyway, this is another example of someone presenting his own opinion as the right way to do things. (And to be fair, I suppose this response is, too.) But now that e-books are becoming popular enough to challenge print’s primacy, we’re just going to have to get used to reading and rebutting these posts when we find them.

19 COMMENTS

  1. Good post Chris. I’ve been thinking about and advocating for ebooks since the mid eighties. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. If you see my post over at Salon, you’ll see that a lot of my argument for ebooks, or etext or econtent is environmental.
    http://letters.salon.com/books/feature/2010/09/02/why_i_wont_buy_ereaders/view/index4.html

    But I firmly believe that tab based content whether it be text or other media will revolutionize education, entertainment and yes, reading.

    I also firmly believe that ebooks as dedicated machines will not exist for long as they will be superseded by multifunction machines like the iPad, but an iPad like device with eink levels of resolution and low energy requirements and better batteries.

    But it’s all good.

    Ive written more about this over at my blog…
    http://eyestir.blogspot.com/2008/06/ebooks-and-kindle.html

  2. Yes, all points well made. I think becoming angry that you can’t see someone else’s business says a lot more about Silver than it does ebooks. Seems to me like she is looking for ways not to like digital reading. Sort of like us in reverse, Chris.

  3. When I read what she said about the inability to concentrate on a book when using an e-reader, I laughed. If I could get through Little Dorrit on my Kindle, she should be able to get through anything. Actually, I don’t see a big difference between having a house full of books and a Kindle full of them. There is just as much chance of becoming distracted by the bookcase as there is from one’s Kindle content. But being able to have lots of them with you at all times is much more fun.

  4. @Bookbee
    She clearly has some issues, or she’s just being a contrarian! It sells.

    Her objection about not being able to read titles was just absurd. I took it to mean that she fears she will lack conversation openers. How about, “Is that the Kindle? Do you like it?”.

    Silly girl. By 26 she should be over this kind of stuff.

    I get annoyed with all the resistance because I see this technology having tremendous benefits for everyone, especially in the developing world. ebooks can push back the desert!

    When digital cameras came out, we had almost exactly the same arguments. Most of the objections just come down to habit, whatever you are used to. I am sure people missed listening to stories around the campfire when books came out. So it goes. I had a violent argument with a professional photographer in 1998. I asked him what he was going to sell his film cameras? Puzzled he asked me what I meant. I told him that in 10 years you won’t be able to buy a film camera, so be ready to sell them while they are still worth something. ‘Naturally’ he objected. Flew into a rage in fact, sputtering, “I will never give up my film cameras!”. 10 years later he had no film cameras.

    Naturally.

  5. I’m truly sorry that Ms Silvers is so distractible that she has to have her choices severely limited in order to get through a book. She’s probably missed out on one of the pleasures of print: choosing from a stack of books that she’s reading concurrently.

    I have to get back to my typewriter now. Computers are fine, but they do get in the way of creativity, don’t they?

  6. I have to say, the argument against ebooks that I hate the most is the “I can’t see what you’re reading!” one. I’m an introvert. I don’t read books for the purpose of providing you with conversation starters. Now, go away and be quiet – I’ve got a lot of books to flit among on my Kindle.

    I hope Ms. Silver doesn’t have a TV or a computer around to distract her from reading difficult books. How would she ever get through Hesse if she could lighten the mood with a little “Mad Men?”

  7. Every few years or so folks get upset about something causing short attention spans; when I was in grammar school it was Sesame Street moms were worries about, something about the fast-paced screens and color flashes (I don’t know, I wasn’t really paying attention); when texting took off on its sky-rocket many members of Acedemia began gasping and fainting over short-attention-span-itis once again rearing its ugly head.

    Truth be told, parents are the ones that instill in kids the ability to sit and concentrate on something, not the absence of ‘gadgets’. My parents made a habit of sitting quietly and reading; so do I and now so do my kids. The children also can read online and love Project Gutenberg (we’re halfway through the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes on audiobook). Getting upset at devices or the internet is not the solution to poor attention spans.

  8. Very good article.

    I’m one of those older e-readers, having started with an old Palm. I debated which of the new readers to go to until recently and I am so glad I moved away from the Palm. I have all my favorite books with me, to sample or sip from it need be, but frankly, in the 4 weeks I’ve owned it I’ve read “cover to cover” 5 books and I couldn’t be happier. I like my old books, but this is much better and easier.

    And if I wanted someone to know what I was reading I’d show them; that lady seems to be a very unhappy person. Maybe she needs to change her reading habits. XD

  9. It’s important to realize that ebooks and tablets are going bring entirely new forms of ‘books’. There will always be long novels, thousands of words of text, but I am very interested to see what new forms will evolve. Ebooks and tablets are a natural venue for stuff like Manga.

    “Have an iPad and a bit of time? Might want to check out the free preview of the Fallout: New Vegas All Roads graphic novel.

    Bethesda Softworks teamed up with Dark Horse Comics to create this graphic novel penned by Chris Avellone, the game’s senior designer. The freebie gives you 12 pages of the graphic novel.”

    http://gizmodo.com/5629904/free-fallout-new-vegas-graphic-novel-preview-hits-ipad

  10. She might be right. You might be right. Both of you go stand over there and be quiet. I’m reading.

    Seriously, ebooks may be more popular than pbooks someday. Or not. Or audiobooks might eventually be more popular. Video may swamp them all*, and no one will read or listen any more. Wandering bards may come back into fashion and declaim tales to an 8-toned scale.

    (sound of surgical drill)

    I’m betting on this convenient brain tap, myself. Just plug in, turn on, and drop out, in 3-D, full sensie, and with bonus S&H Green Points for every hour spent in Total Immersion**.

    Yawn,
    Jack Tingle

    * “One disc to rule them all…” Catchy.
    ** “One plug to rule them all…” Catchy. Wait? What?

  11. What a silly, immature woman. It’s not the device that’s important, it’s the words and the story. I can be immersed just as much in a Kindle book as a physical book. I’ve found myself reading far more with my Kindle because there are so many more choices, thanks to Amazon free books and indie authors, and I have them all with me all the time. I don’t have to decide before I leave the house which book I feel like reading. And it’s great not having book pile up all over the house, ask my husband.

    I’ve had far more people ask me about my Kindle than I ever had people asking what I was reading.

    The Kindle is no more distracting than a pile of books. I’ve always had more than one book going at a time, depending on my mood. The Kindle just makes that far easier, although I find myself usually completing a book before starting a new one more often than I did with physical books. It’s also harder to flip through and cheat by reading the end.

    As for age, someone said that the demographic for the Kindle is middle-age, just like me. Now that my 18-year-old daughter has seen me read my Kindle all the time, and seen how many free and low-cost books are available, she’s asked for a Kindle for her birthday. She has all of those books ready to go since she’s been reading them on her netbook with Kindle for PC.

    If Amazon could only enable the DRM ePub format, it would be a perfect world.

  12. “It ends up coming across as smug and smacks more than a little of entitlement.”

    Come on, now. She’s just expressing her opinion, and admitting that it may be overly defensive. So I guess … pot, meet kettle.

    Chris, I read all your posts and I know that you’ve been really good about avoiding the “e-books will KILL p-books, hahahahaha!” type of attitude. But it is disturbingly common in the pro e-book media. And when I read this article, it sounds like that’s what Emma is really arguing against. So if E-book lovers don’t want to be looked at as elitist, they could begin by not being dismissive of the reading preferences of others.

  13. Ah yes, the old argument that just because *you* don’t like something, nobody else should have it. That’s always gone well.

    As for the ‘children will not grow up with the experience I had’ issue, when I was the age of the students I teach, you could only make a phone call in three rooms of the house because the phone was physically attached to the wall. Should I cry for them that they won’t have this experience?

  14. Emma Silvers (“I couldn’t see what she was reading, and it bothered me.”) goes around wanting to see what people are reading? Talk about nosy!

    There is still a cult of vinyl record fanatics who cherish the “true” listening pleasure of analog sound over digital, or the beauty of the old album covers (indeed, some are collectors items). This cult is rather small now.

    The cult of print book fanatics will become like that.

  15. Two popular euphemisms, one used by advocates of print books and another used by advocates of screen books, declare but also disguise underlying differences.

    Print book advocates frequently mention their affection for the “smell and feel” of the print book. This remark reflects their deeper appreciation of haptic functionality and the ergonomic of comprehension engaged as the hands prompt the mind while using a mechanical and tactile device.

    As a counter move, screen book advocates frequently mention their affection for the “content” of the screen book and they disdain digital rights management that inhibits the flow of content to all devices. They focus on the intellectual experience of reading and see Google Print as a fungible exchange for print libraries.

    These perspectives can also be transposed.

    On the screen side there is affection for the device and their design and aesthetics are highly charged issues with screen advocates. There is also a pronounced allure toward the next device that may enhance design and aesthetic. And a whole manual skill of touch screen navigation is emerging. So there is a haptic appreciation at work here as well.

    The print advocate also has high interest in the intellectual experience of reading. But here the impediments of DRM and interface control of intellectual experience are strangely resolved; each experience of content has its own delivery device.

    This embodied nature of the content with the print device is a counterpoint to the dis-embodied nature of electronic delivery. So to restate the popular euphemisms; the print reader advocates the embodied book and the screen reader advocates the dis-embodied book, but both are accentuating features of a single transmission medium of the book.

  16. Perhaps Silvers might have been better off not starting out by admitting that she wants to see what we’re all reading!

    eBooks have made my life much easier – I’m an immobilier in France and used to have on my bookshelf most of the guides to my region for people to browse so that they could decide which one to buy down at the local bookstore – but it went beyond that – you’d be amazed (or perhaps you wouldn’t) at how many people ‘forgot’ to put them back on the shelf.

    So now with my e-reader they can browse and decide for themselves, and as many of them are similarly equipped they can download their choice almost immediately from the internet.

    The downloads are obviously sales lost and this is not good for my local bookstore, but I for one do still enjoy curling up with a real paper book during long, dark winter evenings.

    Computers equal work – books now equal recreation. In my mind at least!

  17. funny, FUNNY emma.

    ‘infinite jest’ was what caused me to adopt the kindle 2 the *instant* it became available. it was my summer 2008 commute read. i’d owned ij since it first came out — so it was on my bookshelf for 12 years. it weighs 3 lbs in paperback, and i finished it one week after dfw’s departure from this mortal coil. i, like most people, used the ‘two bookmark’ method.

    i’d have killed to have an electronic copy with linked footnotes. (i do hear that the footnotes of the footnotes [don’t ask, just read it] present some problems in the kindle edition.)

    had kindles and the kindle edition of ij existed from the first, i’d have read it *far sooner*.

    so sorry dfw is gone.

  18. lol@wandering bards… perhaps I should polish me lute and form a groups of troubadours. Learn some ballads, some epic pieces and perhaps throw in a saga or two.

    eReaders and books are two versions of the same thing: a method by which to deliver a story. At the risk of sounding redundant some folks will like the tangible paper pages, some will gravitate to the newest pop gadget with which to read their prose… and then there are commuters that would love to have an eReader but lack the time to use it; these road warriors choose audiobooks, segmented in commute-size chunks.

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