Reasons to switch to "E"

Ever since I was a little girl I have loved books. My bedrooms were always full of them. I studied them. I treasured them. They were behind my choice of university course, my choice of career. I have worked in books for ten years and married a man who shares my passion, so our house is now full of books. Stories, cookery books, history, nature, music, film, poetry, plays - you name it, it’s here. The book is the highest form of art. Something sacred and beautiful.

So when my husband sheepishly suggested that he might get an e-reader two years ago, my response was “Over my dead body”. So, it is strange to find myself sitting here on a rainy Sunday afternoon with a red leather-clad Kindle sat next to me. Stranger still when I admit that I am hooked. I have fallen in love with reading all over again. I dream about hours spent with my e-reader as I struggle through the week at work. It has opened up new worlds of literature for me. It has reinvigorated my devotion to the book. 

Object of desire

This is why e-reading has me hooked:

1: They are incredibly easy to read from. Okay. “So is a book” I hear you cry, but honestly, there is a difference. The e-reader is lighter, you can hold it easily with one hand and more importantly you can turn the page with one hand. This is brilliant for a seasoned London commuter like myself. No more waiting for the next tube station to roll up so you can loosen your iron grip from the pole and turn the page. Reading in bed also becomes a new joy. No more pinning pages back or holding a huge tome aloft over your weary head. That thousand page paperback that made your wrists ache fits snugly on your e-reader and in your hand.

2: E-books open up new reading experiences. As the publishing world comes to grips with this brave new world, pioneering companies are using e-books as an opportunity to present new and exciting projects, often for free or for very little to readers. Often you will find bargains, free chapters and sometimes even free books from publishers keen to introduce a new writer. Smart publishers have realised that e-reader owners tend to be vociferous readers by nature. They read a lot, they talk about books, they blog and tweet about what they are reading. In a world where word of mouth can create publishing phenomenons like One Day by David Nicholls this is a massive marketing tool. Also digital editions don’t have the production and cost restrictions that paper editions do. Giving away    a few hundred copies of a paperback may be more than a publisher’s marketing budget can bear but digitally, it’s possible if it means that those freebies generate into real sales. As a result I have found myself more open to experimentation than I have been in a long time. I’m more willing to give authors a try and that can only be a good thing. 

3: Any book is available to you whenever you want* Saturday morning with a cup of tea and the Guardian review section. See a book that you think looks good? Want to read it. You can. Straight away. In fact, if you’re lucky you’ll find that the publisher is doing a cut price e-book edition to launch the book and you don’t have to wait an age for a paperback edition to come out. Who really reads hardbacks nowadays?

*Okay not any book. There have been a couple of instances where I have been disappointed to find a book unavailable in the format I want, The Blood Books by Tanya Huff being one, but I think this is changing fast as publishers realise that there is a market for this. Build the e-book and they will come. 

4: Space! For my husband and I, books have always been a big part of our expenditure but nevertheless I would limit the number of times I visited my local bookshop for the simple reason that I knew I would come home with at least three new paperbacks. There is only so much room in our little pink terraced house. And holidays had become a battle of wills between me and our Samsonite as I attempted to shove eight books (including my standard 900 page Stephen King holiday read) in with our sun cream. This year we took our Kindles. We didn’t have to spend the weeks leading up to our break agonising over what to take. We took everything. In my handbag. On the plane. After a horrific fifteen minute period where Mr G’s screen froze (soon remedied by rebooting) we both agreed that technology was a wonderful thing. We read Caitlin Moran’s How to Be A Woman at the same time on our sunbeds. Brilliant. 

5: Free stuff. There is an entire chart on Amazon devoted to free Kindle books. I’m not suggesting you fill your boots entirely from this list. It needs some serious sifting but with close attention you can pick up some good things. Classics for a starter are all free. Dickens, Bronte, Austen, Shakespeare, Hardy, Wilde and the rest of the great and the good are all free on your e-reader. 

Some other stuff about e-readers:

Anyone can be an author. A good thing and a bad thing. Amazon is currently overrun with self-published authors. Some good. Some bad. Very bad. And you can’t rely on the reviews to make judgements on this, so be warned. But on the other hand, what is the harm? You’ve made a mistake and you find yourself on chapter one of some guy’s attempt to recreate the Da Vinci Code with strippers. No worries. Click out. Delete. Move on. 

But occasionally you stumble upon something great. A voice that speaks to you and makes you wonder why this was sent home from the publisher’s slush pile with a “thanks but not for us” note. Some of these authors have already made names for themselves like Amanda Hocking. Without the projection her voice was given by Kindle publishing would her books have made it into the great wide world? Maybe. But maybe not. 

What are you reading? In January 2011 Kindle readers started to pop up in numbers on the London underground. Amazon’s big push of the device for Christmas 2010 meant that where I had seen one or two of these curious creatures before the holidays, by new year there were literally hundreds. I am not ashamed to say that it was peering over a neighbour’s shoulder on the Northern Line at the screen that convinced me to give up my paper principles and join the digital set. But what was missing from this wave of e-readers was the sure fire sign of a bestseller. The sight of a line of identical covers propped up against a row of faces at 8.30 on a Thursday morning. The last time I recall a book infesting the Underground so successfully was Dan Brown. Sure, there have been others and there will be more but what paper did was make it patently obvious that everyone, and I mean everyone was reading this book. And therefore you should be too.

With the e-reader revolution the book cover is a secret. You can’t see what the person next to you is reading unless you hover worryingly over their shoulder. This in all certainty is the reason behind the booming business in erotica and Mills and Boon in digital format. Whilst I miss the rows of covers in train carriages the lack of covers on show has lead to another surprising development in my reading life. As I trot into my office, head bowed to my Kindle screen, my colleagues are asking me more and more “ What are you reading?” It’s lead to more conversations, more discussion, more recommendations. 

It doesn’t mean the book is dead. The book is not dead, or dying or even feeling slightly weak in the stomach. The book is not the paper it is written on. E-readers are not stopping readers from picking up paperbacks. I still value and treasure my book collection and I still add to it. Books are becoming more beautiful with the rise of the digital age. They are items you want to touch, experience and own. Just walk around your local bookshop to see the stunning editions coming out of our publishing houses. Books are objects of desire. 

So, I’m a convert. I’m excited about what is happening in the world of publishing right now. So excited that I’m off to curl up with my Kindle and a glass of wine and lose myself in a book.

Me and my Kindle, sitting in a tree...