There has never been a better time to be a reader. More novels and short stories are available today than ever before. Many are classics and can be gotten for free. For many others, the copyright has expired and they can be gotten for free, as well.
What were once rare gems, can also be had for free or perhaps a buck. And all with one press of the download button. The Internet, the Kindle, and the iPad make it that easy.
Sure, I love the feel and smell of a physical book. Nothing beats the experience of holding a book in your hands. It is, as one wit put it, the original hand held device.
But I actually find I read more books on my iPad. And I think that comes down to convenience more than anything else. Although cost does factor into it, as well.
Even a casual reader of this blog knows I’m averse to paying big bucks for a book. Unless it is an actual collectors item. Long before the e-book revolution, I was a big fan of used books. The main reason being the outrageous price tag corporate publishers were putting on their new books.
Granted buying used sometimes means one must practice delayed gratification. And that’s alright. Not every itch must be scratched immediately. Good things come to those who wait.
And now I see a similar trend amongst indie authors. When I first started getting into reading indie authored books, the prices were low. A free or 99¢ initial book, and then the rest of the series was usually $2.99 per book.
Now, those free or 99¢ first books are rare. And the price tag has inched up to wear many indie authors want $4.99 or more for their books. I think this is due in part to the gold rush mentality amongst many indie authors. For others, they see a higher price (mimicking the big corporate guys) as a sign of legitimacy.
For myself, I’m just not going to pay those prices. And sad to say, I’ve already started cutting back. After all, I’m not rich. Heck, I’m not even flush with cash. My wallet forces me to be frugal. One of the drawbacks to being retired.
I still live by the motto: wear the old coat and buy the new book. It’s just that I’m feeling the retirement income pinch and the intervals are getting longer and longer between new book purchases.
However, I don’t want to harp on the cost of entertainment. Everyone must make his or her own decisions based on what’s in his or her wallet.
What I do want to emphasize is that in all human history there’s never been a better time to be a reader. We readers are drowning in choices. The number of books we have to choose from is practically obscene. I’ve discovered so many writers, both old and new, that I never knew existed. I’ve been on fabulous adventures to places that only exist in the mind. And some that are real, but not really. Fiction is fiction, after all.
Expand your mind. Pick up a book, whether physical or digital, and go on an adventure. And if reading isn’t quite your thing, try audiobooks. I have friends who read very little. But they love listening to audiobooks. They could be your cup of tea.
Recently, I read two super books. Mark Carnelley’s The Omega Chronicles, a post-apocalyptic tale that realistically explores survival and the meaning of life.
And RH Hale’s Church Mouse: Memoir of a vampire’s servant, a vampire novel that brings back all the romance and all the terror that properly belongs to the quintessential creature of the night.
Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!
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I suppose it depends on what the publisher does with them. There are beautiful editions of classics out there (think the Penguing Clothbound or the Folio Society) and I would be willing to pay the money to have such an edition of a classic I love.
Being a reader isn’t about just the story, in my opinion 😉
I think you’re on to something here. Many readers are also bibliophiles. They love books. Sounds like you and I are in that later category. There are folks, though, who just like to read and don’t collect books. I saw them when I worked in the library. They didn’t have many books at home, but were regulars in the library. Me? I’d rather own the book. 🙂
Well, I disagree. There has never been a harder time for being a reader, in my opinion. True, prices are very low, compared to years ago (let’s admit it, $ 4,99 is what a second hand book used to cost before the digital age), and it’s true that the offer is vast… but that’s part of the difficulty. In such a oceon of titles, findign the good ones becomes very difficult. Bestselling lists are fake. A great many reviews are fake (especailly on online bookstores). There are people who con us into buying fake books because they know how to game the bookstore’s algorithm, and in that case we end up with a book which is really crap because it’s not intended to anything better. Not to mention that many inde books (and let’s admit it, a higher percentage than the trad books) is less then readable.
As readers, we have to weed this stuff down even before we start reading the first page of a book.
Then it’s true, lots of stuff is free now, because of the ending of the copyright, classics we know we can trust, and this is really a new, beautiful possibility. But it has very little to do with the difital age, in my opinion 😉
Oh, I agree that the vast number of choices is staggering beyond belief. And that makes our job of finding a good book more difficult, but such a vast amount of choice is also good. Editors and publishers aren’t the gatekeepers anymore, artificially reducing our choice.
I’ve recently read at least a dozen good books that wouldn’t have been purchased by the Big 5 publishers – and at least one was rejected by them. All were good books. Worth my money and time. I guess I’m willing to live with the difficulty of choice. 🙂
As for the classics, they are part of our digital choice – because many of them are only available digitally. And for others, the digital version is free. Why pay a publisher $10 or $15 for a book where the author is dead? And being out of copyright means any heirs don’t get the money either – it all goes to the publisher. That isn’t right in my book.
I enjoyed your article and I’ve also seen a lot about Church Mouse lately, so its next on my list.
Thanks, Debbie! Church Mouse is a fab, fab, fabulous novel. I loved it. And I hope you do too!