Last week I talked about my recent evening at a book signing
for Alastair Reynolds’ new Dr Who novel.
It has got my thinking about these events in general and the affect they
will experience due to the explosion in E-Readers and downloadable books.
Now I will be honest, it will be difficult to be subjective
on the whole notion of E-Readers, due to me loving books. I love flicking through them, I love the
feel, I love the smell of them and due to being a bit of a book snob, I love
showing them off on my book shelf to any visitors to my house.
From someone who loves his Ipod, this may be strange to
grasp; I have no issue with my music on a small sterile piece of electronics
and a lot of music fans have the same feelings on Ipods as I do with
E-Readers. However, I can buy both the
physical music and then transfer it onto my Ipod via my laptop – I can’t plug a
book into the laptop to do the same!
Maybe this could be a new marketing tool for Amazon to up their sales of
Kindles – purchase a book and you will also get a free “download” of it to the
Kindle, meaning people will get the best of both worlds - the ease and
convenience of the E-Reader, but also the actual physical book for their
shelves and to experience the book in all its glory.
Going back to my original point though, books will always
have a place as long as writers wish to hold events in book stores, showcasing
their latest literary work and interacting with their audience. It would be amusing if someone came to an
event like this with their E-Reader and asked for it to be signed due to the
writers’ latest work being on it!
As someone trying to become a published writer, I hope one
day to be in a position to have a book signing event at a local book store, so
hope the E-Reader doesn't force the book to go the way of the audio
cassette! But I doubt it as I am sure
there are enough people out there who still prefer the humble book.
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