e-ink

I missed this when Esquire published it in the fall... E-ink. It's the same technology that goes into the kindle, but somehow, seeing the words change on a "static" piece of paper is mind-boggling. More evidence that words are going digital fast.

Bad for books or just BN?

Back when I was a barista, and before that was a common word, a customer once offered an explanation for the crowds in the coffee shop. "In bad times, people are more willing to pay for small luxuries." 

Barnes & Noble thinks it's going to be a less than merry Christmas season. But maybe books are exactly what people want when everything else is on hold?

The O in Obama

In the last ten years, no one has done more for book sales than Oprah. I believe a direct connection could be made between her book club and the proliferation of book clubs around the country - including my own (very male) book club, which otherwise has no discernible similarities to anything that can be seen on daytime TV, unless you stray into cable. 

But American Presidents have a way of stimulating book demand, too. An obscure techno-thriller writer named Tom Clancy got a rocket boost when President Ronald Reagan described The Hunt for Red October as "unputdown-able."  I remember when the first President Bush mentioned The Guns of August as a book he thought long and hard about before the first Gulf War - though I doubt there was a surge of readers towards Barbara Tuchman's deserving history. President Clinton was a reader but for the life of me I can't remember any particular books he recommended - though I do remember an unsettling anecdote in which he was purported to have quoted a page from Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury by memory. President George W. Bush once mentioned he'd been reading Camus' The Stranger - another scary moment. 

So maybe my theory is buncombe and there's no relationship between presidential reading material and book sales, except for Reagan. But there has certainly been a wave of interest in certain books because of Obama. I've heard so many mentions of Doris Kearns Goodwin's book about Lincoln, currently #12 in Amazon sales rankings, that "team of rivals" seems to have become the phrase of the year - or right up there with "credit crisis." Now there's this article wondering which book about FDR Obama meant and what that will do its sales. 

Of course, Obama is a best-selling author of his own - and he faced off against another best-selling author in Senator McCain. But I'll be waiting to see what leadership book, literary novel, or thriller he gets caught with next. It will likely be a sign of the times. Who knows? Maybe he'll be the first president to boost science fiction sales.  

Has the time come for e-books?

What could possibly make books sexy again? I buy a lot more music digitally than I ever bought on CD. The reason is simple. It's incredibly easy to buy on-line. I can browse efficiently and download in seconds, and services like emusic help direct me toward interesting choices, some of which I NEVER would have been exposed to otherwise.

People who talk with nostalgia about independent book stores say the same thing. It's the special shelf of new offerings that they like, or the salespeople who have real knowledge. 

I like browsing for books in stores. But blogs, digital reviews, and Amazon have largely taken over and enhanced my book buying decisions. 

How many more books would people buy if they could download them more easily? I have so much music on my ipod I can't even listen to it all. That doesn't stop me from downloading more. 

Until recently, we've been waiting for a good digital reader. I'm dying to see a Kindle in real life, but have heard great things about its quality and ease of use. Just today I came across Stanza  which is a software platform that works right off your iPhone. According to a press release, 40,000 books are downloaded daily.

That sounds like the beginning of a new era in e-books to me. Now, if I only had an iPhone...

How Saturn Vue's Book Clubs

Men are from Mars, women are from Venus, but apparently book clubs are from Saturn.

At Unbound Books, we're pro-book club. We think they're great ways for people with a common interest in books to read something on a schedule and reward themselves for the accomplishment with good discussion, good company, and some social fun. Not everyone likes or even reads every book. But that's okay. You get to share ideas and opinions and learn something new. 

I don't know what to make of this. On the surface, it's a series of webisodes about a group of four professional women who sneak out of their obnoxiously boring and pretentious book club for a series of exciting road trips in a hybrid Saturn Vue. Is it anti-book club? Is it anti-book? Is it just anti-pretension? I can't really figure it out. The women may not like their book club but they do read books. We see them flipping pages as they drive. Their road trips are tangentially related - the first episode features a surfing outing with a half-naked stud instructor because that's how you connect with the spiritualism of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. (Of course, you have to swim in your own clothes or underwear because you're so spontaneous you didn't pack a bathing suit.) 

To add to the confusion, the website promotes book clubs "in your area" and has opinions and reading lists for the characters. And it all somehow ties in to the experience of driving a Saturn. 

The most bewildering and even offensive aspect of the whole production, however, is the banality. It's professionally acted and shot but the script seems stilted and contrived. The tone is not quite sincere but not quite sarcastic, kind of Desperate Housewives lite. It inspires you to wonder what the market research department discovered. Someone must have said: networks are the way to reach people; book clubs are a kind of network that our customers use often; books promise exotic destinations and lifestyles but discussing them at someone's living room is kind of boring compared to driving a Saturn... Let's hit the road!

I'm completely hooked. I promise to keep watching and let you know where this great rolling book club adventure ends up. 

Road Reading

What kind of books do you like to read while traveling? I have friends who carry a number of books representing different genres - something light, something business or economic, something classic. Others like the (guilty) pleasure of a fast-paced mystery or thriller. Then there are those who read largely for personal inspiration or to get a handle on the challenges at work. 

An author from one of those categories, Michael Crichton, passed away today. Many of his books dealt with business themes, including Disclosure (sexual discrimination in the office reversed), Rising Sun (the menace of world-wide Japanese economic dominance - remember that!?), State of Fear (questioning the threat of global warming). But basically, his formula was a little bit of science or knowledge, and an ample sprinkling of suspense when things go wrong. RIP. 

Meanwhile, the king of guilty pleasures, Stephen King, has released his latest collection of short fiction, some of those stories (inspired by his mixed feelings for exercise machines) actually written in hotel rooms while traveling. Think of that the next time you zone out on CNN. 

Election emotions

Many books will be written about the significance of the election. But this clip of Jesse Jackson  speak volumes.