eReaders: A Bourgeois Answer to the iPod

To crown our summer internships, and before moving on as Her Circle Ezine staff members, Laura Cude and I were asked to each compose a piece about our thoughts on eReaders, a subject that had popped up during our weekly meetings throughout the summer. Laura and I began this journey together as interns. We “met” in weekly Skype phone sessions and our blog work brushed up against each other on the Google calendar. We share a passion for women’s creative work and strive to enrich Her Circle Ezine with our voices and those of the women whose work inspires us. The eReader pieces initiate what will be an ongoing series in The Writer’s Life on the potential impact of emerging technology and tools for writers on writing – be sure to read my response to the topic tomorrow and to look for posts on the subject in the near future.

Enjoy! And please share your eReader thoughts or experiences with us!
Melissa Corliss DeLorenzo, Blog Coordinator, The Writer’s Life

Guest Blogger, Laura Cude

As a member of the iPod generation, it seemed like only a matter of time before a book equivalent appeared. I wasn’t too familiar with the whole eReader phenomenon until recently. This may be because I don’t know anyone who owns one. In fact, I don’t know anyone who wants to own one.

Despite possessing an iPod since they first hit the shelves, I never download mp3s. Instead my 80 GB music library is full of tracks, which I have ripped directly from my CDs. One of my greatest pleasures is the ritual of the CD purchase: taking it home, reading the liner notes as the CD plays and finding a place for it amongst the hundreds of others. I display them like a badge of taste, similar to the display of my DVD and book collections. They form a library, symbols if you like, of the catharsis and enjoyment I have received from my choices.

My first encounter with an eBook was with a Sony eReader during a visit to a Waterstone‘s store recently. After massaging my frugal mind around the price, and feeling patronised by its availability in pink “for the girls,” I got to grips with it. Maybe I’m easily irked, but the page turning button turned me off immediately. I’d feel like I’d have to constantly sit there with my index finger at the ready for going between the tiny pages. There being about fifteen sentences to a “page,” and it not being double sided like a book, it gives the cliché of describing a novel as a “real page turner” a whole new element of meaning. I also have a problem with staring at screens for prolonged periods of time. I tend to blink less, and read slower than what I do when reading from good old-fashioned paper. I seem to take in the information differently, maybe even less effectively. I guess this is a by-product from years of internet browsing: you read, you scroll and you click somewhere else.

The portability of an eReader is a major advantage, even when you’re intending on only taking one book out on the go. Lugging around all 800 pages of The Second Sex felt like I had adopted a pet rock to accompany me on my public transport journeys. And plenty of times when I’ve left the house I’ve squeezed my Oyster card, phone, keys, cash and iPod into a clutch bag, only having to employ a bigger one in order to jam my latest read in for the bus ride. An eReader however would slip neatly into the clutch bag jungle. But is this rather facetious predicament really one that warrants a solution? Do I need to have another rectangular, expensive item to worry about being the subject of pick-pocketing when I’m out in Leicester Square? And is it really that inconvenient to turn a page instead of pushing a button? It just seems to be simplification for the sake of it.

I could cut the eReader some slack if, like in the war between mp3s and CDs, eBooks were actually cheaper than their paperback counterparts. After having a quick look online at some eBook stores however, there is virtually no difference in price, and in some cases, the eBook actually costs more, which is hard to believe when the virtual alternative entails no printing, publishing or shipping costs.

The greatest potential I see for eReaders is the benefits it could provide to writers who want to self-publish. If burgeoning writers without a publishing deal or agent could make their book accessible via the eBook, that would be a revolutionary way to release their work into the world. And with the current book blog tours and book trailers sweeping across virtual land at the moment, they could promote their product for as little expense as they could afford to invest.

I don’t think an eReader will be replacing my hard copy books anytime soon. Though books are not always conveniently portable, they are always accessible without the jargon of computer compatibilities, battery charging and warranties. The biggest technical difficulty you will face with the trusty book is how to avoid bending the spine.

Laura Cude is twenty one years old and from a dead beat town called Leatherhead which is located in Old Blighty. She left Kingston College last year with three A grade A levels, and three university acceptances. She turned them all down in favour of practical work experience, which is what bought her to Her Circle originally as a blog coordinator for The Writer’s Life, and now as the writer of inContext. She is a music enthusiast and keen writer, using song composition and screenplays as her weapons of choice. Combining her interests in feminism, existentialism and pop culture, she aims to make inContext a revealing and energetic exploration of the politics in feminist literature and the 21st century.