In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a bit of an e-book groupie: I read about 100 books a year. I keep up with the news and the message boards. I watch the daily specials and coupon codes, and I like to think I know my stuff.
But it’s easy for readers (and news reporters!) like me to forget that not everyone reads like I do. Not every reader’s needs are met with 100 books and a dozen RSS feeds in Google Reader.
If you’re a publisher and you’re trying to target Joe Average reader, what is he or she like? If you’re trying to reach a romance reader, or a classics reader, what are their habits? What is the book world like for someone who only reads a handful of books per year?
With these questions in mind, TeleRead is excited to launch the TeleReader Profile, a new occasional feature wherein we’ll explore the lives and gadgets and books of readers just like you.
Whether you read for hours a day or just a few minutes; whether you read a hundred books each year or a dozen; whether you have twenty gadgets or just the one; we’d like to hear your story. We’d like to get to know better the many people who visit and read our site each day. (For details about participating in future installments of the TeleReader Profile series, scroll to the bottom of this post.)
For our inaugural profile, I’m very pleased to introduce you to one of several loved ones I converted to the joys of e-reading myself … Dave!
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(Editor’s note: That’s Dave in the photo above, rendered as a Lego miniature. According to Joanna, this is the actual photo Dave uses on his I.D. badge at work!)
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Name: Dave L.
Age: 36
Reading device: Kobo Touch
Q: Can you explain why and how you choose the Kobo?
A: My soul-mate suggested it on our first date, and I realized it had [already] been around [for] two years since [I’d] finished my Master’s degree and my self-imposed reading embargo. It was a great first date—we had a fabulous dinner at a Thai restaurant that’s since become a favourite of ours; we were hitting it off really well. We didn’t want the date to end! So we were walking, and we came to the local Indigo and started to browse. Then she saw the e-book readers and started talking about them, so we spent the latter part of the date playing with them in the store and getting me outfitted.
Q: What do you like, and what do you dislike, about e-book reading?
A: I like that one device can hold so many books! If you finish one, you can start reading another one, and you don’t even have to get out of bed! I also like that little progress meter they have on the Kobo that tells you how far you are in the book. When you start reading and it’s at 9 percent, and then you turn it off and it’s at 12 percent, it’s very satisfying to see how much progress you made.
Q: Can you briefly describe your reading habits and routines?
A: I read when I’m out and about sometimes: waiting at the doctor’s office, the car dealer and so on. I’m also looking forward to taking [the Kobo] on vacation, and having so many books to choose from. But my main reading time is in the evening. I have a little nightly routine with my sweetie where we tuck in together when it’s getting late, and watch something on Netflix or read together. She has a Kindle and I have my Kobo. If we go a few days in a row of watching on Netflix, I even start to get cranky and miss my reading!
Q: What stores or free sites do you use to get new books?
A: I don’t know. When I want a book, I ask my girl and she gets it for me. (Author’s note: The answer is, ‘”The Kobo store, when we have a coupon code.”)
Q: And finally, what’s the best book you’ve read this year?
A: Not Taco Bell Material by Adam Carolla
Q: Thanks Dave!
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¶ How to participate in the TeleReader Profile series: Interested in being profiled by a member of the TeleRead team? If so, send a brief email to both senior writer Joanna Cabot <ficbot at yahoo dot com> and editor Dan Eldridge <deldridge at napco dot com>. Include a few sentences about your e-reading habits, or for that matter, anything else you think we might find interesting!
