I think this has a lot do with the brain being actively engaged in the reading, therefore being “burned” into your memory bank forever. Television, on the other hand, is a passive activity where the use of your own imagination is severely limited.

Music is also a lot like reading. I associate different phases of my life with the music I listened to at the time. For example, my college years are painted with the gritty music of the Grateful Dead.

With music, I can bring up vivid memories just by thinking of a particular song. Depending on the memory, this can be either good or bad.

My guess is that music also actively engages the brain in the same way reading does. However, this doesn’t account for “passive listening” during which music is just playing in the background. But when we actively listen to a song, our brain becomes instantly tuned in and the imagination clicks into high gear.

Can we engage in music and reading at the same time? Personally, I cannot. I need a quiet atmosphere to read. But even when used as separate activities, music and reading can create new memories that will last a lifetime.

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All those reasons are very superficial.

Ebooks, just like printed books, are only the medium that the content reaches us. The story and characters do not change if you read a novel in ebook format as opposed to print. The only difference is that you’re reading on a screen rather than paper.

I’ll admit, I love the printed book as much as everyone else. I have a large collection of books that I just can’t seem to get rid of – including a small collection of autographed copies. I still buy print books and I still read them, I’m just not going to reject ebooks simply because they are not in printed format.

When I bought my Sony Reader back in 2007, it took some getting used to. There is a certain novelty to reading ebooks that can be distracting. That novelty quickly wears off though. Before I even finished reading my first book on my Sony Reader, I had forgotten I was reading an ebook because I was so absorbed in the novel.

I think that these superficial reason people use to resist ebooks will start to fade, especially as the technology improves and the prices of e-readers goes down. As the popular Star Trek quote goes: Resistance is futile.

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Well, I’m wrong. It appears that ebook readers are a little older, at least according to one article.

Risa Becker, vice president of research operations for GfK MRI, reports on a survey released in May: “We’re not finding the more-mature trend, and only a very slight tendency for men to own e-readers more than women.” Yet for certain readers, such as the Kindle, early users are more frequently female. Smythe said, “We’re seeing a greater percentage of women than men; a lot of women are taking to this.”

Becker said, “Women were 11 percent more likely than men to say they read an e-book, and men were 20 percent more likely to have read a magazine and 19 percent more likely to have read a newspaper.”

E-book users, Becker said, tend to earn more than $100,000 a year, be college-educated, and be very Web and social-media savvy: “These people do everything on the Web. They spend more than 20 hours a week on it.”

The article also says that up to 66% (depending on which study you look at) of ebook readers are over the age of 40. My first guess as to way ebook readers are a little older is because the younger crowd (those in their 20s and early 30s) simply don’t read all that much. But I could be missing the mark on this one as well.

Are you surprised by the above numbers? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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When I sat down to write this post, I wrote it specifically with the novel in mind. Short stories are an entirely different breed and require a slightly different way of analyzing them.

The Ending

Nothing can ruin an entire novel like a bad ending. Many times I have read a novel that I was completely absorbed in, couldn’t put it down, only to discover it had a really crummy ending. This makes me feel cheated and used.

Bad endings are usually ambiguous and leave me saying “That’s it?”. Or, God help the author who dares to end a novel where the entire story turns out to be a dream. A lot of bad endings seem forced and contrived, as if the author couldn’t think of anything better so he just tacked something on the end to get it over with.

When a novel has a good ending, however, it will stick with me and I’ll keep thinking about the characters and how they made it (or didn’t make it) through whatever predicament the author threw them into. It’s a very satisfying feeling to read a novel with a good ending. Also, after reading a novel with a good ending, I want more. I begin to hope the author will write a sequel to keep the story going.

Characters

A good, well-rounded, unique character will float around in your head for years after you put the novel down. I still vividly remember a character from a Kim Stanley Robinson novel I read back in 2007.

Characters are the backbone of any story. I love it when I can follow a character through his/her daily routine and still get a sense of the plot moving along. This takes real skill on the author’s part. In general, I want to know what a character is like in all facets of his/her life.

A bad character can ruin even the most exciting and engrossing plot. I remember trying to read The Cell (not deserving of an Amazon affiliate link) by Stephen King and didn’t make it through the first chapter because the main character was completely unbelievable. It was something he said that seemed forced and made the character appear fake. That’s when I closed the book and picked up another book. You can read a specific post I wrote about The Cell at I’m Giving Up On a Novel Today.

Author Style

This one is a little more subjective than the others. For example, I love the style of F. Scott Fitzgerald, but I can’t stand Ernest Hemingway. I love the style of the late mystery writer Robert B. Parker, but I don’t like most other mystery authors. And bestselling author James Patterson? Forget about it.

Style is something a author develops over years and years of writing. Style is also the product of being a voracious reader. Style cannot be taught (it is sort of learned, however, through the years of writing) and each writer has a very unique style – almost like a fingerprint.

It’s hard to say a lot about style because so much of it is hard to pinpoint. Style is one of those elements of fiction that you subconsciously notice for better or worse.

What about all that other stuff?

You’re probably wondering why a novel’s opening page or two isn’t on the list. After all, isn’t it important for a reader to get sucked into a story right away? Yes and no. I’ve learned that with a novel a slow beginning usually has no bearing on how the rest of the book will play out. I’ve learned to be patient and hope the novel picks up the pace (they usually do). It also takes a while to get to know the characters and get into the plot a little.

Setting is important, but it usually doesn’t make or break a novel – especially in literary fiction where the setting takes a backseat to strong characters. Plot is also important. I didn’t include it because even the best plot can be ruined with bad characters, a bad ending and so forth.

In the end, there are a lot of ways to judge fiction by. I gave my own qualities that I look for.

What makes good fiction for you? Leave a comment below and share you answer.

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One of those books I really enjoyed (and read multiple times) was Hatchet (aff link) by Gary Paulsen. In the novel, a young boy named Brian Robeson finds himself having to survive on his own in the Canadian wilderness after the pilot of the single-engine plane he’s flying suffers a fatal heart attack.

I reread Hatchet recently and still found the same joy and excitement that I did when I first read it so many years ago. I have long since stopped reading juvenile literature, but Hatchet didn’t feel very juvenile.

The book is very well written and Brian is a sympathetic character. Throughout the novel, he struggles with his parents divorce (the purpose of his trip to Canada was to visit his dad) while trying to survive each day he is stranded.

After the initial shock of the plane crash wears off, Brian slowly learns how to survive. He’s forced to drink water from the lake the plane crashed in and he finds bushes loaded with berries (which make him horribly sick after eating too many).

When he is able to make a fire by striking his hatchet against a rock, I found myself cheering him on. Brian has to learn to live again, without the modern conveniences of every day life.

I’m not going to give away too much for those of you who have not read Hatchet yet. It’s a book I highly recommend no matter what your age.

What books have you reread from your childhood? Leave a comment below with your answer!

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Now they’re saying that ebooks will be the death of bookstores altogether. After all, who needs to actually go to a physical store when you can just buy an ebook with the click of your mouse?

If Jason Rovito has his way, the indie bookstore could make a comeback not just as a bookstore, but as a collective of booksellers, writers, publishers and writing and reading groups. When indie bookstores were closing down all around, Jason did the unthinkable, he opened up his own store, called Of Swallows, Their Deeds and The Winter Below.

In the article from thestar.com Independent bookstores make a comeback, Jason explains why he remains optimistic of his unusual business model, even in the face of a growing ebook market:

“But what gets lost in the process, is everything that surrounds the book materially. I think it’s an opportunity for us to think of a book as not a thing in and of itself, but as part of a larger process.”

He continues:

“The act of actually browsing in a bookshop is just as valuable, or bumping into somebody and having a conversation about the books, or seeing two books together that you wouldn’t necessarily think of, and that creates a different relationship in your mind.”

In other words, Jason is saying that books are much more than a physical object. There’s an entire process and community surrounding books that ebooks just cannot replicate. While I tend to think that the importance placed on the physical book is a little overdone (it’s the content that counts, I say). But I don’t dispute Jason’s point about the community surrounding books.

Perhaps the most interesting part of Jason’s indie bookstore venture is the idea of the collective:

Tenants, such as the Toronto New School of Writing or Public, a local arts journal, rent spaces on the shop’s third floor, drawing in like-minded readers, customers and much-needed rental income. In turn, the place becomes a kind of literary community centre where people don’t just buy books, but talk about, write and share them.

Bookstores have always been a place for book lovers to congregate. The idea behind this particular bookstore takes that idea to a whole new level by fostering people in different parts of the literary community to come together in one spot.

The Change Face of Bookstores

Just as the publishing industry as whole needs to rethink their business model and keep up with the times, bookstores need to do the same. Instead of just selling books, stores need to find ways to foster the literary community. Maybe make ebooks a more integral part of that experience.

One idea is to make more use of mini POD printers where customers can print an entire book (cover included) from an online library of millions of titles. Housing literary magazine publishers and indie book publishers (like Jason’s store does) is a great way to involve readers into the entire book “process.”

The collective also solves another problem: Paying the bills. It’s very tough for an indie bookstore to stay financially viable because their profit margins are fairly low. Spreading this risk around reduces the chances of these indie stores going out of business, and differentiates them from the larger chain stores.

How do you think indie bookstores should evolve to compete with the large chains and integrate digital publishing into their business model?

Thanks to the Teleread blog, where I first saw this story.

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A good example of how reading relaxes the mind is that when I’m up late at night, I often listen to music while I work. The music gets me going and helps me stay awake. In other words, the music acts as a stimulant. Then, when I got to bed and read, I become more calm. I’m ready for sleep. No matter what I’m reading; action/adventure, literary fiction, mystery, science fiction – the effect is still the same.

I think reading has this calming effect because it’s only in the mind. By that I mean that when we read, we have the visual act of reading, but processing the story and imagining the story all takes place in the mind. Reading is more contemplative. A good story is something you can carry around in your mind and think about throughout the day and night.

I find it interesting that when I look back on my childhood, I have vivid memories of the books I read. I can’t say the same thing about the TV shows I watched. Like I said before, reading is mostly your own imagination. The way you visualize the characters, setting, plot and so forth is yours.

When do you find is the best time to read? Do you read before bed? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts.

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A large chunk of the firmware update appears to revolve around social media. According to this Ars Technica post, Kindle users will be able to share favorite passages with friends on Twitter and Facebook:

This is the “fun” aspect of the update, but we don’t think it’s just Amazon hopping on the social networking bandwagon. Through your Settings (accessible by pressing the Menu button from the home screen), you can link up your Facebook or Twitter accounts to your Kindle so that you can share highlighted passages and notes with your friends.

I’m probably not as excited about this feature as the blogger over at Ars Technica is, as I have never been one to share passages of books I read with friends. I suppose this could come in handy for school reading assignments and book clubs. But beyond that, I see little use for linking my ebook reading to social networking sites.

The next big update for Kindle 2.5 is much more useful in my opinion – the ability to create folders to organize your ebooks.

Finally, Kindle users can create groups or folders (however you want to think of them) for books, giving users a way to organize the chaos that is otherwise a giant list of books on the home screen. Perhaps some of them are samples that you’re making your way through, while others are new books that you haven’t started. Or maybe you like to organize books by fiction and nonfiction, or by topic.

This type of organizing helps avoid the chaos to what Ars says, can be “A giant list of book on the home screen”. You’d think this would be a standard feature from day one, though I guess Amazon thinks differently than I do.

Other Features Kindle 2.5 Offers

The social networking and organization with folders are probably the two biggest features of 2.5. But there are other less surprises with the new firmware update that most users will be pleasantly surprised by.

Password Protection: Now you can protect your Kindle from prying eyes by requiring a password be entered upon starting up the Kindle. This will add a layer of security if, heaven forbid, your Kindle is stolen. Password protection will also prevent the embarrassment and a lifetime of teasing from a family member or a friend discovering your vast collection of erotica ebooks that you call a guilty pleasure.

PDF Zooming: This feature allows users to zoom in and out of PDF documents, rather than the one-size-fits-all approach Amazon currently uses. Zooming will make reading PDFs much easier. As the Ars post points out, this will be a big improvement for viewing graphics and tables.

Larger Font Sizes: I’d consider this a fairly good improvement, as ebooks are becoming more and more popular with people who suffer from vision problems. Ebook fonts can easily be re-sized. This lets those who need larger text to enjoy buying regular ebooks without having to find a large print edition.

Popular highlights: This feature is somewhat controversial, as Amazon is already promoting this on their website. The 2.5 update takes this one step further by allowing you to see these popular highlights as your reading your ebook. Yes, this feature can be turned off. But I really question why Amazon needs to track this sort of thing. I won’t say much more, as I have already written a lengthy post Amazon now tracking highlighted passages from Kindle users.

Overall I think the 2.5 update offers some nice features to a popular device. Of course, not everyone will be happy with every feature, but that comes with the territory.

My hope for the future is that Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Sony continue to concentrate on the core of what ebook reading devices are all about – reading ebooks. This can be accomplished through better displays with more contrast between the text and background. Also, smoother and faster page turns always seem to come up when talking about ebook readers. Social networking, games, internet browsing seem to just be a distraction.

Please note that the 2.5 update is only for the Kindle 2 and DX, if you own the original Kindle 1, you won’t be getting anything.

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I first saw this story on Mediabistro, which gave a rather simplistic, non critical post of this new Amazon practice. I did a quick Google search and found another, more critical article from Bnet Amazon risks Kindle sales by tracking, reporting what readers highlight. This fact that Amazon is now tracking your ebook highlights begs other questions: What else are they tracking? What about annotated comments?

The Bnet article brings up a very valid point, one that I think anyone concerned about privacy in this digital age should fear:

I don’t have a dark past and, knock on wood, don’t have a dark future ahead, but any information I deem important in my book library can now be used as ammunition against me.

The article continues:

The most disturbing issue here isn’t Amazon’s data gathering and the public listing, or even the potential for the information to be passed to authorities deemed worthy by the company. No, the problem here is context — as in, there is none.

Another good point is also highlighted in this article. If one were to purchase a book like The Anarchists Cookbook is nothing to get excited about. No doubt it’s an interesting read (I have never read it myself). But what about when someone starts highlighting specific passages that can steer towards the area of intent? Will Amazon use this information and turn it over to authorities?

Amazon may claim they don’t collect any personal information along with users highlighted passages. But let’s be real. They can easily collect such information and despite what their defense of this practice might be, I’m sure they do collect this type of information. Scary!

Some might say I’m just once again bashing Amazon and the Kindle. This might be especially ironic considering I am an Amazon affiliate and frequently advertise the Kindle here on Brad’s Reader. That may be so, but I do think the Kindle is a good ereader and everyone I have spoken to who owns a Kindle absolutely loves the device. Also, by unleashing the Kindle upon the world, Amazon really threw ebooks into the forefront of literary culture and made ebooks a viable alternative to traditional print media.

Privacy is the real issue here. Kindle users should expect a reasonable amount of privacy when using Amazon’s product. Whatever the reasons are for readers to highlight a particular passage, it’s only their business, not Amazon’s. The fallout from this could be like when Amazon decided to remotely pull the novel 1984 from users who had bought the ebook.

What do you think of this new practice by Amazon? Should Kindle users even care, or is this an invasion of privacy? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment below.

UPDATE: I contacted Amazon to try and get more information about this new practice. Will follow-up after hearing back.

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I’ll confess, I’m a literary autograph hound myself. I have a small collection of autographed books (a collection I hope to expand). There is something about having an author sign his/her own work that makes owning that book like a trophy – as hokey as that sounds.

But with ebooks rapidly growing in popularity, what’s going to happen to author signings? After all, I wouldn’t want an author to sign my Sony Pocket Edition. As popular as ebooks have become, and as their popularity will continue to rise, I still think there will be a spot for print books in the literary marketplace.

What’s the solution? Bundling ebooks and print editions together, of course.

When I get a book signed, I’m reluctant to read it. I want the book to stay in mint condition for future posterity. Bundling an ebook with the print version solves that problem. You can get your print edition signed and shelved away with the rest of your collection and still have your ebook edition to read and enjoy.

At least one bookstore in the US is considering doing just that (although not specifically for author signings). I wrote about this in my previous post Barnes & Noble considers bundling print books and ebooks. Although B&N doesn’t plan on a true “bundle” where you buy one you get the other for free, rather, you buy the print version, you get the ebook for a reduced price.

For author signing events, publishers should use true bundling. You purchase the hardcover edition for the signing and then you get access to the free ebook version. Perhaps the ebook version will come enhanced with extra material like interviews, alternate beginnings/endings and the like. After all, if an author is going to “personalize” your hardcover with his/her signature, why not add something extra to the ebook as well?

Bundling ebooks and print editions is nothing new and/or revolutionary. It’s an idea that I love to promote because it gives people more bang for their buck. Bundling can give authors who do book signings a new promotional tool and the ability to reach out to ebook lovers and traditional print book lovers at the same time.

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