ABA Omnibus

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Monday Jun 08, 2009

Back from BEA edition

Groan. Shake head. Repeat:

"Also, if a woman is reading a book by an author who is considered a "guy's writer"--like Cormac McCarthy--that's likely to get her a lot more attention than if she were deep into Pride and Prejudice." (thanks - if that's the right word - to our friends at Inkwell)

A chain bookseller stands up for his role. (Keep reading for some insight into how customer types shape retail):

"Sure, it’s a low paid job in the service sector. It’s a 'customer service' job, and hence doesn't get the same respect as someone who works with numbers and reports all day, or who manages a 'team' or a division or a whole company. It produces nothing 'real' and at the end of the day when I go home I can't point to something I made, or something I did to change the world." (Also courtesy of Inkwell)

Secrets of the publishing mind:

"Let me just say, before we move on to the next stop on my tour, that I secretly LOVE working in an industry where every single office is required to have multiple bookshelves."

For those in a more philosophical frame of mind:

"Reading is both a public and private act. It's private in the sense that no amount of discourse can mirror or capture the intimate experience a reader has with a book and its author. But that discourse is precisely why it's public - the blog posts, the reviews, the conversations over coffee, all of that affects and informs your reading experience. When you give someone a book you love, you're inviting them to understand a private encounter you had with a text. It's the fusing of the public and the private, the social and the intimate."

Or if you want an academic perspective:

"'Reading used to be associated with mobility, but now reading—along with the rise of other sedentary enjoyments—has become a refuge for those trapped in enclosed spaces.”

'Reading for pleasure is done most often by women, children and the old—three segments of the population associated with the social loss of power. What does it mean that reading is associated with socially disempowered groups?'"

Stop reading now if you've had your fill of BEA stuff. But for everyone else, there are a few points still to be covered.

One point, really.

At our Day of Education keynote on Thursday, all four of the authors said a lot about the role of independent bookstores and other distribution channels - including e-books. And then Motoko Rich featured one snippet from the discussion in her New York Times summary of the show:

"Inevitably there was a backlash. At a panel of authors speaking mainly to independent booksellers, Sherman Alexie, the National Book Award-winning author of 'The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,' said he refused to allow his novels to be made available in digital form. He called the expensive reading devices 'elitist' and declared that when he saw a woman sitting on the plane with a Kindle on his flight to New York, 'I wanted to hit her.'"

And of course e-book enthusiasts fumed. And pounced.

But in at least one case, they followed up. Ed Champion contacted Alexie, asked a few more questions, and posted the interview on his blog. The entire interview is worth reading, but here's a taste:

"I consider the Kindle elitist because it's too expensive. I also consider it elitist because, right now, one company is making all the rules. I am also worried about Jeff Bezos' comments about wanting to change the way we read books. That’s rather imperial. Having grown up poor, I’m also highly aware that there's always a massive technology gap between rich and poor kids. I haven't yet heard what Amazon plans to do about this potential technology gap."

Karl Pohrt says something very similar in the post I linked to above:

"I ask him about people who don’t have laptops or access to Starbucks.

He tells me he doesn’t think this is a problem because computers have come down in price to around $400.

I think about inviting him to visit Flint, my hometown, where about a third of the population now lives in poverty. We could take a poll or do a visual census of computer use among folks in downtown Flint coffee shops. But I hold my tongue."

So what are we going to do about it?

Posted at 12:22PM Jun 08, 2009 by Sarah Rettger in General |

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