Been Said (here and there) Before . . . In Fact Just Last Week

It was funny to see this article in the WSJ just a day after having seen this one. It seems like I just discussed the e-reader phenomenon and the resulting withdrawals. What's the point of reading Don't Burn Your Books—Print Is Here to Stay by Nicholas Carr.

There were a couple of reasons. I have pasted two passages below. The first relates to the fact that e-book sells are slowing and declining a bit. I say this is good news. Hopefully, like I wrote in last week's post, this will encourage more aggressive pricing. Hopefully, we'll see a swing back down in the prices for mainstream novels on Amazon.

Half a decade into the e-book revolution, though, the prognosis for traditional books is suddenly looking brighter. Hardcover books are displaying surprising resiliency. The growth in e-book sales is slowing markedly. And purchases of e-readers are actually shrinking, as consumers opt instead for multipurpose tablets. It may be that e-books, rather than replacing printed books, will ultimately serve a role more like that of audio books—a complement to traditional reading, not a substitute.

This second passage is interesting for different reasons. I've seen this in practice and in my daily life. I'll run around to people constantly talking about how much I love my Kindle. I was an early adopter. I didn't mean to be, but thanks to the wife, I was. I loved traditional books. LOVED EM! I never wanted an e-reader. Then I gave it a try and I can't look back. It's not that I don't want to look back. I can't. I've tried. I love that e-reader too much to go back.

The initial e-book explosion is starting to look like an aberration. The technology's early adopters, a small but enthusiastic bunch, made the move to e-books quickly and in a concentrated period. Further converts will be harder to come by. A 2012 survey by Bowker Market Research revealed that just 16% of Americans have actually purchased an e-book and that a whopping 59% say they have "no interest" in buying one.

Personally I doubt we've reached the pinnacle of demand for e-reader. They'll continue to evolve and find new markets (see the graphic that I found at http://dvice.com/archives/2010/01/skiff-takes-e-r.php). But unlike the media maven quoted in the article, I am not going to predict the death of the traditional book by 2015. That's just silliness.

Just Finished David Copperfield

Last year I made it a point to read more “commitment” book. Two years ago I made a commitment to read more Charles Dickens’ works. David Copperfield I think fulfills these requirements.

I’ve read David Copperfield before, but I read it in high school when you gloss over much of it and read the Cliff’s Notes to help get through the quizzes. It’s a different animal when it’s read for fun. That being said, I watched David Copperfield on Masterpiece Theater where they had Daniel Radicliff as the young Trot, and Maggie Smith as Aunt Betsy.

First Line Right Now

Just coming off a "commitment book" so naturally I'll want to follow that with a trash book. The selection? Explosive Eighteen by Janet Evanovich.

NEW JERSEY WAS 40,000 FEET below me, obscured by cloud cover. Heaven was above me, beyond the thin skin of the plane. And hell was sitting four rows back. Okay, maybe hell was too strong. Maybe it was just purgatory.

Evanovich, Janet - Explosive Eighteen

Perhaps it's not fair to call it trash, but when bracketed by Charles Dickens, I'm not sure what to call it.

Last Line Last Read

This is the last line that I last read. It comes from Charles Dickens' David Copperfield, the latest of my "commitment books."

And now, as I close my task, subduing my desire to linger yet, these faces fade away. But one face, shining on me like a Heavenly light by which I see all other objects, is above them and beyond them all. And that remains. 

I turn my head, and see it, in its beautiful serenity, beside me. 

My lamp burns low, and I have written far into the night; but the dear presence, without which I were nothing, bears me company. 

O Agnes, O my soul, so may thy face be by me when I close my life indeed; so may I, when realities are melting from me, like the shadows which I now dismiss, still find thee near me, pointing upward!

Dickens, Charles- David Copperfield

Great last line. Love the fact that Agnes replaced Dora by the end. A bit of a soap opera? Sure. But we all need that sometimes.

Niche E-Readers

There is an interesting article today in the WSJ entitled The E-Reader Revolution: Over Just as It Has Begun? by Greg Bensinger that struck a chord with me.

Just last night as I finished reading a novel that I enjoyed, I was casting about for the next book. I ran to my computer to browse the choices, eventually settled on one and when I went to bed Pop! there was the book all ready to go on my Kindle.

Now, as an owner of both a Kindle and an iPad, I can attest that the Kindle has severe limitations. It is just for reading, but still, I like that sucker. It's light, easy, no frills, durable and the battery life is second to none. That being said I've made ample use of the iPad as both an e-reader and a tablet computer and have been quite thankful for having that capability, particularly when travelling.

Will e-readers become a niche product? The question is moot. They already are and have been for several years.

The non-mooted question I have is this: will the prices of books on e-readers come back down or settle more or are we seeing the prices we are stuck with. The prices for e-readers are phenomenally low. 

The prices for books on my kindle have never been so high. I went to buy a new book by a well known author and found that it was going to cost almost 25 dollars for the e-book. I’ve railed about this before, specifically in these posts and these posts, and I don’t begrudge publishers and authors for using the free market to their advantage, but I’d like to see someone come along and discount their older works more. Why should I pay the same price for books of differing ages? How bout a scale that bottoms out at 3.99 for all books over ten years old. I know I know the price is what the market will bare, but I sure think I’d be more apt to purchase some of those older works if they were more aggressively priced. 

Thinking Outside the Box

I read with growing disappointment, as none of my favorite authors were mentioned, this article entitled  As Trash Goes, Authors' Clutter in the Right Hands Is Very Bankable in the WSJ by Barry Newman. It's a fun article to read, more fun I'm sure if your favorite authors are Faulkner, Philip Roth or Ronlyn Domingue. It discusses how the flotsam and jetsam of an authors life are treated and sold after they die.

The passage that caught my eye I have pasted below. It's not that I particularly like Rushdie, but the fact that he let Emory sort his own mess was particularly ingenious, especially in that he later used it for his own ends.

Emory University, 65 miles away in Atlanta, can. In 2006, for an undisclosed amount, Salman Rushdie sold it 200 "falling apart, crappy cardboard boxes," as he said at the collection's opening in 2010. After Emory's archivists put his "mess" in order, Mr. Rushdie capitalized on their tidiness to research his own 2012 memoir.

Thankfully, worrying about my own detritus and how it will be treated once I pass is not a concern I carry around with me day to day.

Holy Cow Moments

There are times when I stop and say “Holy Cow!” when I read. Today was one such time.

I knew when I got about a quarter of the way through David Copperfield that I was highlighting so many passages that I would have to break this book up into several reviews and posts, so I’m not surprised that this post it coming out today. I just didn’t know till last night . . . the Holy Cow incident . . . that I knew that this passage(s) would speak so soundly to me and I would want to post them.

First though, I should mention that I find the most infuriating aspect of this book to be the relationship between Trot and his wife Dora. Even worse is this than Uriah Heep’s mechanization  or Steerforth’s making off with Little Emily underneath the nose of Ham, so this is probably why this passage affected me. I just don’t like this woman! I find it hard reading the chapters that include Dora. Just irritating.

The old unhappy feeling pervaded my life. It was deepened, if it were changed at all; but it was as undefined as ever, and addressed me like a strain of sorrowful music faintly heard in the night. I loved my wife dearly, and I was happy; but the happiness I had vaguely anticipated, once, was not the happiness I enjoyed, and there was always something wanting.

Then later he writes:



'There can be no disparity in marriage, like unsuitability of mind and purpose.' Those words I remembered too. I had endeavoured to adapt Dora to myself, and found it impracticable. It remained for me to adapt myself to Dora; to share with her what I could, and be happy; to bear on my own shoulders what I must, and be happy still. This was the discipline to which I tried to bring my heart, when I began to think. It made my second year much happier than my first; and, what was better still, made Dora's life all sunshine.

Dickens, Charles- David Copperfield

Now, anyone reading this cold will probably wonder "Why do I care?" or "Why am I reading this silly person's silly post on his silly blog" and had I not been in the midst of reading the novel I'd agree. However, in toto, this sucker is stark and pseudo-life changing not just for Trot but for the reader as well.

How Much I Liked Jackdaws

Even though I disparaged the final lines of the book I loved Jackdaws by Ken Follett. It was just as good as all of his other thrillers and better than a few. Interesting side note but the most viewed page of this blog comes from Ken Follett, it is the review of Eye of the Needle. More visitors to this site click on that review than any other post. I wonder, since Jackdaws was marginally better than Eye of the Needle if this post will outstrip that post.

I made several notes and marks while reading this book, this first one is a description of the main characters husband. Can you guess why I liked it?

He was still the sexiest man she had ever met. He was tall, and he dressed with careless elegance in rumpled suits and faded blue shirts. His hair was always a little too long. He had a come-to-bed voice and an intense blue-eyed gaze that made a girl feel she was the only woman in the world.

I love that line, “He had a come-to-bed voice.” As someone who has “come-to-bed” characteristics, I can appreciate that descriptor.

I also loved this little snippet:

The vast, sooty bulk of the cathedral loomed over the center of Reims like a divine reproach.

My brother I think would agree with the sentiment expressed in this passage:

“I’m an existentialist. War enables people to be what they really are: the sadists become torturers, the psychopaths make brave front-line troops, the bullies and the victims alike have scope to play their roles to the hilt, and the whores are always busy.”

It was this passage, that I read several times, which I really liked. What a wonderful way to introduce a character, even a minor one.

As a small boy in Sunday school, Paul had been vexed by a theological problem. He had noticed that in Arlington, Virginia, where he was living with his parents, most of the children of his age went to bed at the same time, seven-thirty. That meant they were saying their prayers simultaneously. With all those voices rising to heaven, how could God hear what he, Paul, was saying? He was not satisfied with the answer of the pastor, who just said that God could do anything. Little Paul knew that was an evasion. The question troubled him for years. 

If he could have seen Grendon Underwood, he would have understood. 

Like God, the Special Operations Executive had to listen to innumerable messages, and it often happened that scores of them came in at the same time. Secret agents in their hideaways were all tapping their Morse keys simultaneously, like the nine-year-olds of Arlington kneeling at their bedsides at half past seven. SOE heard them all.

There are lots of scenes of torture, not as ghastly though as most, but I liked the way he described the torturers mental preparations.

Now he imagined himself closing doors in his soul, shutting his emotions away in cupboards. He thought of the two women as pieces of machinery that would disgorge information as soon as he figured out how to switch them on. He felt a familiar coldness settle over him like a blanket of snow, and he knew he was ready.

All in all I loved this book. Ken Follett has established himself firmly in my mind as a solid go to writer. When I need a good thriller, here’s the place to turn. 

Straight to the Point

Maybe not the best representative of this string of posts on how authors love to describe the morning, but this one found it's way into Jackdaws by Ken Follett.

Dawn broke as the fast car sped through the Hertfordshire villages of Stevenage and Knebworth.

Follett, Ken - Jackdaws


See, pretty thin description of the morning. But, even thin, quick or short it's representative of how the author ties it into the story.

Rarely but Sometimes

It's rare, but there are times when I re-post from other blogs, today is one of those days.

I dig this list from The Kill Zone by P.J. Parrish, particularly the one that gives me permission to write badly. Didn't need permission, . . . already doing it.

My favorites other than that:

#6. A week off.
#10. The clarity to recognize the seed of inspiration in the smallest things.

The whole list is worth reading for any other writers so I've linked it here.