Between the Covers

Study: Kids like the idea of e-readers

There's no doubt the next generation will define the future of reading, and a New York Times story suggests maybe the future could be every bit as e-tastic as we think.

According to a study by Scholastic, the U.S. publisher of the Harry Potter and Hunger Games series, kids like reading books in digital form and say they might read more for fun if they had more access. But good news for Luddites: Two-thirds of those polled said they wouldn't want to give up their print books, either.

The study surveyed 2,000 kids aged 6-17 and their parents, who - not surprisingly - worried about their kids spending too much time with technology in the form of videogames and cellphones. The Times reports that one mother responded: "My daughter can’t stop texting long enough to concentrate on a book,”

Tech time

Wow. It's been a week, and I haven't even mentioned e-readers or technology or the way the digital police are going to show up at our homes and demand our hardbacks. Did you know they're going to be selling Kindles at Best Buy soon?

Fortunately, others have kept up the good work:

The School Library Journal writes about a New York panel debating the effects of e-books on kids.

Book-loving Jonah Lehrer of Wired confesses he's nervous about the rise of the e-reader and admits to a radical wish: that the devices be designed so as to make it harder, not easier, for us to read.

And novelist Jennifer Egan, author of A Visit from The Goon Squad - one of my favorite books of 2010 - reveals her reluctance to throw away her exceedingly beat-up day planner and adapt to the BlackBerry way of life in Salon.

PW offers a look at upgraded Sony e-readers

Seems like the Kindle and the Nook get most of the attention on this blog, so here's a look at the Publisher's Weekly breakdown on the new Sony gadgets. One of them comes in pink, so Sony, you've already got my attention.

From the story:

"Sony is indeed releasing a redesigned and upgraded suite of its three digital readers—the 5”screen Pocket Edition; 6” screen Touch Edition and 7”screen Daily Edition—offering full optical touch screen functionality, nonglare black & white e-ink display along with reduced size and weight. The new devices are not only stylish—they come in silver, black and pink aluminum skins—but also offer stepped up power, crisp page-turning and increased storage capacity."

The bad news? Sony hasn't dropped prices.The Pocket Edition, with USB cable file transfer, is $179; the Touch Edition, also with USB cable file transfer and expandable storage, is $229; and the Daily Edition is for $299.

Authors take different approaches to new technology

It's funny, the disparate views of authors toward the new technology. Some have adapted quickly to the changes while others resist - or at least remain clueless.

For example: Susan Orlean, staff writer at the New Yorker and author of The Orchid Thief, Tweets and blogs and confesses to reading books on her iPhone before she got her hands on an iPad. She waxes rhapsodic about her iPad over at MacWorld: "I was really happy with it. And I was so happy not carrying a heavy laptop. It’s not that iPads are so light. But I can keep it in my handbag. I think for women, they’re great. Because I always have a handbag."

Click here to read the entire interview with Orlean.

And then we have novelist Pat Conroy. In a recent Associated Press story, he admits his ignorance with technology.

From the story by Hillel Italie:

"Pat Conroy says he knows so little about e-books that he didn't realize his work could be downloaded until a fan showed him during a recent promotional tour.

'I was at a signing in Georgia, and a guy came up to me with a Kindle and he pressed a button and there it was, my book (South of Broad'),' Conroy said uring a recent telephone interview. "I'm a complete ignoramus when it comes to everything about the Internet. I kept noticing people in planes and shops were reading these things. I couldn't understand these instruments. I didn't know what they were.''

Conroy's not resistant to change, though - a lot of his work is already available in digital form, and starting this week several older books - including The Great Santini and The Prince of Tides - will be available for download. In the meantime, Conroy isn't too worried about the future,

 "I imagine there will be paper books, at least until people like me die out,'' he told AP. "But I don't think there's any reason to worry about it. I remember talking to my grandparents when I was a little kid and they both told me about the first time they had seen an airplane and the first time they had seen an automobile and they both would say, 'This'll never work.' But that's how progress works. That's how the future happens.''

Barnes & Noble steps it up a notch for the Nook

Can Barnes & Noble keep up with the Joneses (and the Amazons and the Apples)?

The company is going to give it a try, the New York Times reports. Starting this fall, B&N will build 1,000-square-foot boutiques in its stores exclusively devoted to selling its e-reader.

The boutiques will have sample Nooks, demonstrations and customer service people there to help potential buyers try out the devices before they buy them (the one advantage B&N has over Amazon, of course, are its physical stores.)

Read the full story here.

Amazon unveils Kindle 3

Another day, another new e-reader. The latest is Amazon's Kindle 3, which is 21% smaller in size and lighter (only 8.7 ounces). Amazon also reports its contrast is 50 percent better than any other e-reader, and a single battery charge lasts a month.

The updated 3G wireless version will still cost $189, but the Wi-Fi only unit will sell for $139. Which makes you wonder: How long before we see a $99 e-reader? Both of the new Kindles will be available Aug. 27, though you can pre-order if you want. 

Meanwhile, don't hold your breath for the Kindle with a color anytime soon. Amazon's senior vice president, Worldwide Digital Media Steve Kessel told Pocket-lint that the company was still mulling the idea of a color screen.

"We won't add colour if it compromises the reading experience," he said. "And today colour doesn't exist in electronic ink displays."

"Jane Austen's Fight Club" - a video

Good work by the people who put this together!!

Mashable readers like real books; they really, really like them

In an utterly meaningless but nonetheless interesting poll, Mashable reports that 41.9 percent of its readers prefer "real" books over e-books. Book fans, take heart! Granted, it's a small sample size - very small! - but there seem to be few victories these days.

The rest of the poll numbers may show something more interesting: 23.24% chose e-books, and 34.96% said both types of books have merits. That may be the most interesting figure of 'em all.

Random House fires back at Amazon deal

The e-book wars rage on!

Responding to Amazon's announcement that it had secured e-book rights to some classic literature via The Wylie Agency, Random House - the leading trade publisher in the United States - severed English-language business ties with Wylie, angry over the deal to release works by John Updike, Salman Rushdie and other Random authors through Amazon.

From the Associated Press:

' "The Wylie Agency's decision to sell e-books exclusively to Amazon for titles which are subject to active Random House agreements undermines our longstanding commitments to and investments in our authors, and it establishes this Agency as our direct competitor,'' Random House spokesman Stuart Applebaum said in a statement. "Therefore, regrettably, Random House on a worldwide basis will not be entering into any new English-language business agreements with the Wylie Agency until this situation is resolved."

The development is the most dramatic result yet of the gap between what agents and authors want to receive and what publishers are willing to pay for e-books. Updike's four Rabbit novels and Rushdie's Midnight's Children are among the 20 famous works coming out for the first time in electronic form, not through a traditional publisher, but through Odyssey Editions, founded by the literary agency of Andrew Wylie, whose clients include the estates of Updike and Saul Bellow and such living authors as Rushdie and Philip Roth.

The books will be sold exclusively through Amazon.com, the leading e-book seller."

Stieg Larsson sells a million e-books

Move over, James Patterson: There's a new guy in your "I sold a million e-books club." Not surprisingly, it's Stieg Larsson.

The late Swedish author's thrillers have sold more than a million electronic copies, according to publisher Knopf. The first in his Millennium series, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, has sold 500,000 e-books, while sales for the trilogy in all editions top 30 million worldwide. Didn't understand that legal battle between Larsson's former partner and his family? Now you do.

Spokesman Paul Bogaards also told the Associated Press that Kindle sales for the latest Larsson book, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, have topped sales in hardcover.

Dragon Tattoo, by the way, doesn't top Sony's list of bestselling e-books; it's second to Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol. Does this tell us something troubling about Sony owners? Hmmm.