eReaders: A View from Somewhere in the Middle of the Road

by Melissa Corliss DeLorenzo

I love the page. The visceral and sensual qualities. The smell of the paper. The feel of a book in the hand – its substantiality, presence and poise. My adoration of books goes way back. The best days of my grade school years were the bi-weekly visits of the Bookmobile. In my home, I love the stacks of books around the house, the shelves for the kids, more books scattered on the floor than toys. I think of books as a form of collection, of not only the books themselves but of some history of the reader herself. And, of course, the simple joy of book browsing cannot be forgotten (a much more romantic experience than scrolling through the search results on an eReader).

But – here comes the confession – my eReader has become my guilty pleasure.

Once I became aware of the idea of eReaders, I vacillated between really, really wanting one and being completely repelled by the idea of abandoning my book habit. Of, in essence, abandoning books. Those well-loved, careworn, soft pages. The smooth pretty covers, the weight of several in my bag at all times. Trade warm books for a cold e-reader? The leap seemed massive. But then I received one as a gift, and, as my sister pointed out, “Yeah! You don’t have to make the decision now!” Apparently, my eReader-versus-traditional-book angst had not gone unnoticed.

For voracious devourers of books, eReaders provide some lovely features, all of which have been expounded upon ad infinitum. Typical pros and cons aside, I have discovered some innovative features of my eReader. Such as, on my cold cold New England nights one hand only need be peeking out from under the covers to hold the lightweight equipment and turn a page. Also, since it is a portable library, those of us obsessively inclined to carry around numerous books at all times (just in case) will maintain better spinal alignment with an eReader in tow rather than seven books. Lastly, (and, admittedly, this may be exclusive to my eReader experience) a stroller fitted with a good old-fashioned clothespin to attach an eReader to the visor makes for effortless reading on long walks with napping children. No blowing pages or crippling hand cramps from trying to hold a book while steering an ungainly double-stroller. (What? You mean you don’t read while strolling your kids through naps? I guess it’s just me. But try it if applicable – it’s a beautiful thing.)

Readers can hate them or love them, refuse them or embrace them, but for a writer, they can’t be ignored and a set of complicated questions arises. Where are eReaders taking us? What do we stand to lose? How will the tool impact the publishing industry, the writing itself?

Maybe we’re on the cusp of a transformative era for not only the form of books, but the content itself. eReaders homogenize the text: the font is the same from eBook to eBook, the formatting is not by numbered pages, but by “locations” due to the ability of the device to provide different sizing of the text based on reader preference, rendering intentional text placement irrelevant. While these elements do not support experimentation of form, could they possibly enhance content? Stripped down, are the words then allowed to shine more purely? Without all the packaging, not only could the content be foremost, but readers might be able to fully focus on the words. Of course this might be a temporary condition as the technology is bound to improve. Which leads to another thought: as the devices evolve, writers will be required to be flexible and innovative. Creativity through new channels will be essential. Meaning will need to leap fully and expansively and succinctly from the arrangement of words, maybe more than ever. Oh! how I love to swoon over the sheer power of content. The ways in which we can arrange words and set tones.

Another thought: will we need to begin to write with searchability and search engine indexing in mind? How will concern with page rank affect the content? How will titles and tags and metadata transform the way we think about arranging content? About writing it in the first place? The very words. (And will this be any different from pandering to any other trend publishing has thrown the way of writers?) This could be an opportunity for wider creativity.

And it may be heavy-handed to say this could be an opportunity for writers to reclaim the power, but eBooks do provide writers with an extremely easy means of getting the work out there: no printers, distributors, publishers or brick-and-mortar stores. The concept of too-small print runs, gone. Out-of-print books can make a return without the usual overhead costs typically involved. It seems to pose more potential problems for the publishing industry as it exists for the sake of traditional print than it does for writers. Will it offer more freedom and opportunity for writers? It could certainly offer more control and more profit for the writer. The artist in me adores the idea of artists doin’ it for themselves. It’s a very romantic notion and, in light of these emerging technologies, pretty feasible. Independence for writers? Freedom to make and distribute art? It brings out the idealistic hippie in me.

I suspect that paper books are not going anywhere any time soon. I think eBooks and traditional books can coexist peacefully for a long time, the eBook simply another form of the work. The task for writers may be to think differently about content, the words and their arrangements. It may pose some interesting challenges for creativity – for the words to exist meaningfully in the context of the demands of the new technology. While the novel has existed in its basic form for hundreds of years, one thing we can be sure of, technology does not maintain stasis for nearly that long. A thing in constant flux requires a level creativity that may prove to greatly enhance the way we think about and execute writing. Could it churn out some mediocre work? Sure, but that’s already floating around anyhow. In the meantime, as a writer, I will continue to focus on meaning in my content and as a reader, my traditional book habit will carry on even as my eReader habit evolves. And I will try not let my books know that sometimes I cheat on them.

Melissa Corliss DeLorenzo is a writer, reader, yogini (when she can squeeze it in), mom, part-time Office Manager, a homemaker and the Coordinator and Writer for The Writer’s Life blog. She loves to cook and take long walks with her kids and is a woman who wants to meaningfully exchange and intersect with other women writers. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the University of Massachusetts and a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. Currently she works at a web development company (because part-time Office Manager buys more groceries than Struggling Writer). She is at work on a novel and a short story collection. Melissa lives in North Central Massachusetts with her family.