Reading List 2010

First two books I read this year were zombie books. That seems foreboding, doesn't it?

World War Z, an Oral History of the Zombie War, Max Brooks
This book showed some serious research and a Renaissance man's knowledge. Also, I admired the fact that he wrote so many oral histories--different ages, genders, nationalities and was able to make them sound distinct. A trait not many writers possess in their toolbox.

Boneshaker, Cherie Priest
This book made me think about some anti-ebook commentary I've read. I'm of the generation that had computers pretty early on but we didn't grow up with them as a matter of everyday existence the way the current generation has. I love physical books, but I also have no issues with reading a book on a Kindle (or other device) screen.

My strategy with physical versus ebooks is this. There is absolutely no reason to buy a mass market paperback. As objects, they are not beautiful. They fall apart and they take up space on your book shelf. For me, that translates into a book I will read on my Kindle or check out from the library.

With trade paperbacks and hard covers, I think about a few factors. Is the book itself beautiful? Is it something I will read over and over again? If so I will probably buy the physical book. If it's just your standard trade paper or hard cover, I will compare prices between the ebook and physical book but chances are I will buy the ebook. My shelves are already full so you need to be very good or beautiful to make it up there now.

I bought Boneshaker as a physical book because it looked different (different font color, for one thing) and I liked the way it was produced. And it makes me think books are going to have to do things differently to continue to thrive as physical objects. I have no doubt people will continue to read (we can argue if short attention spans may change what they read, but that's a discussion for a different time), but how they read will change.

Younger people have been trained through Netflix and other services to expect instant gratification. If they hear about a book, a movie, a TV show, they want to be able to experience it instantly. They don't feel like waiting, planning a trip to the bookstore, maybe finding out it's not in stock (with those short attention spans if your product isn't available they'll probably move onto the next thing that catches their eye).

I don't think I'm saying anything new or different from what others have said, but I hear people my own age and older talking about not wanting to read on a screen. I think it's an inevitable change, whatever form it ends up taking. We're in the beta/VHS wars of ebook readers but I have no doubt in the future we'll be in the Netflix/DVR version of books and it's going to happen a lot faster with books than it did with movies because other industries have paved the way.

I'm excited. If there was a way they could figure out a good way to showcase magazines or newspapers on these devices I would subscribe to more.

Anybody out there have any thoughts on the matter?