I spent some time on the 24th of December picking up some last minute Christmas gifts…books. I love to wander through a good book store, sipping coffee and picking over books that I have never heard of from authors I have never read. It amazes me how many books I have found on clearance tables that have turned out to be personal favorites and it is likely that none of these would have been found by me on Amazon or any other online book seller.
Is it possible to find the same “hidden gems” in the “people who bought this book also bought” reminders?
I had not really considered it before but at one time, one of the promises of the on demand world was a greater exposure for the independent author…with a greater ability to self publish. I don’t think that’s our current reality.
Last night I read an article in Fast Company online (although I did also buy the magazine).
The author suggests that the end of the book as we know it is inevitable. I suppose it’s true to a point – with the new tablet readers the technology will become an easy alternative. However, I find it difficult to imagine a world where books are dusty relics of a past generation as the author suggests.
The article outlines a great future in the electronic word replacing books of pure learning, textbooks, manuals, biographies etc. The possibilities are tremendous but to think that the same reasoning is true for works of fiction – that’s where I get lost. The real pleasure in reading fiction is the personal visualization of the described word…imagination. Suggesting that the author would be able to add visuals to a work of fiction would eliminate personal interpretation. How many books have you read that have been made into disappointing movies? Movies, by their nature present the interpretation of some director or screenwriter. Characters look different, stories are altered and scenery is not as imagined. Movies are a completely different experience. even with books I don't want the author to tell me too much – which is likely the reason I could never get through a Michener novel.
Crossing over media can be a great thing if the application is right. I suspect that using the same ideas with works of fiction would mean that all novels would end up like a Ken Burns styled movie. As great as his work is, I certainly would not want that to become the standard for fiction?
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