Page-Turner - Criticism, contention, and conversation about books that matter.

February 26, 2010

How Bad Do We Want the iPad?

bookmachine.jpgAccording to a recent article in Fortune called “The Future of Reading,” by Josh Quittner, it’s unlikely you’ll spend more than two minutes on this site, so I’ll try to make it quick.

The publishing industry. For years now it has been under attack. Faced with the realities of declining advertising revenues, and the constant promises from critics that within three years, or fifteen months, or by next week, nobody will be reading anything, publishers have been scrambling to save themselves—and, perhaps to some degree, save the world from a future filled with vaguely literate citizens. The Internet was supposed to help, but it turns out that the majority of online reading is probably closer to scanning, says Quittner. This means that long-form journalism, the old standard for many newspapers and magazines, not to mention books, is not as likely to be consumed on the Web as, say, a blog, or something else free.

Enter the iPad. Superior, we are told, to the Kindle and the Nook and other e-readers, because it’s more versatile, more colorful, and carries the Steve Jobs Stamp of Magnificence, the iPad could do for publishing what the iPod did for music. But you knew that. The question, then, is how. How will the iPad get people to pay for written content? Quittner presents several reasons why the iPad will succeed. Most convincing, to me, is his simple admission, “I’m lazy. My time is valuable. And the price seems fair.” Apple proved with the iPod that consumers are willing to pay for media so long as it’s convenient, and wrapped in a sleek package. Will the same hold true for books and magazines?

Better question: do we want the iPad to revolutionize the publishing industry? And if so, to what extent? Monday night, walking across the marbled floor of Butler library, at Columbia, listening to my iPod, it’s possible I was considering this very question. I was looking for a book that, after reading it, seems designed for a readership of about six people (“The One Best System,” by David Tyack). But the library had it, and I got to interface with a human to help me find the thing. After three flights of stairs and some slight nausea caused by looking at all those titles on the spines, I came to the book, dusty and stippled with stains. It was a heavy book, the kind you don’t forget you’re carrying. The weight of inconvenience, I suppose, though I wasn’t at all bothered by it.

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