Book talk
Bubby packin' books -- a gift he LOVED from my friend Debbie.I love books. My girls love books. Bubby loves books. I know LOTS of people who love books.
But the book industry is flailing. And that worries me. Mostly because I love books, my girls love books, and Bubby loves books.
(Full disclosure: It also worries me because I've got one of my books submitted to a few agents and the industry can't -- simply CAN'T -- wither down to nothing before I get one or two or ten published!)
The impetus for today's worry is information I received in a newsletter I'm subscribed to from a site called Shelf Awareness that focuses on the book industry. Here's the scary news I got yesterday (quoted directly from Shelf Awareness):
Net book sales in 2009 in the U.S. fell 1.8%, to $23.95 billion, according to estimates by the Association of American Publishers based on sales data from 86 publishers as well as on data from the Bureau of the Census. In the last seven years, the book business has had a compound annual growth rate of 1.1%.
| Category | Sales | Percent Change |
| E-books | $313 million | 176.6% |
| Higher ed | $4.3 billion | 12.9% |
| Adult hardcover | $2.6 billion | 6.9% |
| Children's/YA paperback | $1.5 billion | 2.2% |
| Book clubs/mail-order | $588 million | −2% |
| Mass market paperback | $1 billion | −4% |
| Children's/YA hardcover | $1.7 billion | −5% |
| Adult paperback | $2.2 billion | −5.2% |
| Religious books | $659 million | −9% |
| Audiobooks | $192 million | −12.9% |
| El-hi books | $5.2 million | −13.8% |
Sure, there are still millions and billions of books still being sold, but the number is decreasing. And at the rate at which it's decreasing, will Bubby have books readily available when he's an adult? Will he be able to pass them down to his grandchildren? Will the ones I've given him -- and will continue to give him -- become relics of days gone by?
That el-hi number? Those are textbooks, the books kids use in school. To think schoolbooks are decreasing at such a crazy rate is absolutely frightening.
And that number for Children's/YA hardcover? Aack! Picture books are my forte; picture books are Bubby's best friend. What's up with that?
People are still reading, obviously. The adult hardcover and higher ed numbers are encouraging. And readers are obviously snagging up those e-books like there's no tomorrow. Now I'm a fan of technology and all, but I'm a bigger fan of books -- real, live, turn the page by hand, fall asleep with it on your lap and worry about scrunching the pages books.
;)
I'm sure books will never completely disappear. There are too many people who believe as I do that books not only fill out one's time and mind marvelously, they also fill out one's room quite nicely. You can't line the walls of the study with Kindles and Nooks.
Well, you could, but how ugly -- and expensive -- would that be?
You might as well just buy books.
Today's question:
If you were to buy any book today, what would it be?
My answer: I'd buy "The Quiet Book" by Deborah Underwood for Bubby and "Divisadero" by Michael Ondaatje for myself.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Reader Comments (6)
I love books too! I enjoy ebooks too, especially when I'm doing something, but nothing beats holding a book in your hands and turning pages.
Off the top of my head I can't think of a book I'd buy right now. My mind is so far away from spending money. I'm sure if I went book shopping I'd find a bunch I want though.
I'm one of those whose buying e-books like there's no tomorrow. I find the e-reader to be so easy on the eyes. I read a paper back last week and the strain of it gave me a sty. I couldn't believe the difference. And I fall asleep with my leather encased kindle open on my stomach. I do find the e-reader very convienant. I love books and love reading them to my grand kids. I hope we'll never see a day when real books aren't available. Pictures on an e-reader just don't make the mark,
I'm with you....I want the real thing. I have friends who love their Kindles but I'm not going there. Not for now anyway!!
I have a stack of books I've bought the last few months and haven't read, so I probably wouldn't buy one. The next one to read from my stack is Jane Austen's, Emma.
I'd buy Ken Follett's sequel to "Pillars of the Earth", "World Without End", even if I didn't have the money for it; I'd put it on my one and only credit card hat I've not chopped up and pay interest on it. One can't be a REAL person (in MY opinion) until you've read "Pillars of the Earth" and, only after years and years of his readership demanding it, did he write the sequel.
The thought of the world without "real" books is a scary thought to me. They're like old friends, you know? It's very hard for me to part with them after they've been read. I read a few years ago that there was a school district in Arizona that was doing away with books and giving kids laptops with the textbooks loaded onto them. I truly couldn't imagine growing up and not learning out of an actual book.
As for your question, I don't need to buy any books right now. I have at least 4 sitting on my nightstand that need to be read before I will allow myself to buy any more.
I've resisted e-books but I love listening to audio books while driving and doing housework or anything else that I really hate doing. It makes it all more palatable.
Loading textbooks on computers is not a bad idea. As a teacher, it was such a hassle to be sure that every kid had a book at home for homework and one at school to learn from. The kids hurt their backs carrying those huge heavy books back and forth. And of course it was a lot of work for me to check them all out, replace the lost ones, and get them turned in at the end of the year. My last year of teaching, the kids all had laptops, but not all of their books were yet available in electronic form, so they still had to carry about textbooks. I couldn't wait for the day when they could have all of their textbooks on their computers.
Still, there will always be a place for REAL books, and I have too many favorites, but I will close my eyes and take the plunge: For kids, I would buy Why Is Blue Dog Blue? For me, I'd pick something new from Nick Hornby or Richard Russo or John Irving. But if I were restricted to having only one book, it would be the timeless Anna Karenina.