More Illumination on eBooks and the Real Reader: Part 2 [25.07.2011]

There’s a lot of talk in publishing circles about eBooks – most of it from publishers and writers – but I want to know what readers think about eBooks. Are people reading eBooks? Have eBooks changed their reading habits? Whether they are already reading digital editions or not, what do they think their impact will be? I wanted to capture voices of people who are not writers, not publishers, not in any way involved in the creation or distribution of books or magazines. These are readers, pure and simple.

Let’s continue with Reader S-

S- is a consultant who specialises in project management. She and her husband have two young children aged three and five.

Miriam Zolin: I want to find out about your reading habits and how they’ve changed since you’ve had a Kindle. You mentioned the other day about downloading a thousand free books!

S-: Even though we like books, they take up too much space and we didn’t like throwing out books. I was throwing out about three garbage bags of books a year. And then when you have children there are books for them as well. So since buying the Kindle, I hope to reduce the number of books to throw out.

MZ: You’ve got one each?

S-: Yes and I’ve bought five for family members. As gifts.

MZ: Do you download books onto them before you give them?

S-: Yes, so we share one account around a few Kindles. I’m giving books to people who wouldn’t shop online. They don’t even know how to use wi fi.

MZ: Was it hard for you to learn?

S-: No. If you use eBay or do any type of online shopping, it takes about ten minutes to learn how to shop on Amazon. You just register your Kindle and start buying. But the problem with buying from Amazon is that they can’t supply you with a lot of newer books if you are registered as an Australian account holder.

MZ: So you can see the book online but it won’t let you download it onto your Kindle? That must be frustrating. How do you deal with that?

S-: Yes, it’s really frustrating. And the problem is … well my habits had already changed in that I already downloaded movies for free so as soon as Amazon couldn’t supply me with the books I wanted, I’ve suddenly remembered that … and you just [hesitates] you just Google for the books you want. The other day I found a site which had 650 books and then I found another site which had another 400. I’m going on holidays, and I’ve loaded up all seven Kindles with about a thousand books and we won’t take any other books with us

So, how have our habits changed? We’ve stopped buying print books. We’ve now become suppliers of eBooks to all our family and everyone is reading a lot more.

MZ: They’re reading more?

S-: Much more

MZ: Is it the convenience?

S-: Yes, because they are there in the Kindle. I normally wouldn’t read so much, just because I’d finish a book and then couldn’t find time to get to a bookstore … and because the books in our Kindles are essentially free or very cheap there’s no risk attached to buying a wrong book and not liking it.

Before I had kids I used to know a lot about books. People would tell me about books and I would read about them in the paper. And I’d research. But now I have no time to know what are the good books and I never have time to go into a good bookstore. With the Kindle loaded up, I have a thousand books that I read most nights. And they can sit in my handbag …

MZ: Are you attached to any of your print books? Perhaps some of them that have some sort of significance?

S-: No, I don’t have any attraction for furniture or possessions or books. My husband does though. He has a bookshelf of books that he won’t part with.

MZ: With the eBooks, how do you get recommendations from trusted sources, or do research?

S-: I expect to be able to Google … I’ve been Googling things like ‘top 10 girls books’ and nothing’s coming up yet. What I want is like a list of 20 eBooks I can buy. Maybe it’s bloggers who will do it… bloggers who will say ‘these are my top 10 or top 20 eBooks.’

But you need to be able to find them, by Googling with those key words.

MZ: So it’s convenient but it’s not helpful.

S-: Yes, and for example, last night I typed ‘10 top family movies’ into Google because I’m going on a holiday with kids of all ages and up popped eight websites with people saying ‘buy this or that …’ they were genuine people making recommendations, telling me things like ‘there’s no sex, they’re interesting, kids love them’. I tried to do that with kids' eBooks and nothing came up.

I need a site that will tell me ‘here are 20 recommendations, here are the links and it’s fifty bucks. Pay and download now’. More and more I think people will want packaged eBook convenience that’s targeted at their buying … but not subject to Amazon buying power.

Read other instalments in this series

Instalment 3

Instalment 1

Miriam Zolin is the publisher at extempore and the convener and coordinator at the National Jazz Writing Competition, now accepting entries! She reads and writes fiction, blogs, reviews and essays.

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