I had always imagined a book-lined office with a large oak desk. There would be a coat-rack for my Harris Tweed (elbow patches, naturally) and a decanter holding some Courvoisier cognac. By a fireplace, there'd be a chair with a good light for reading, a dog lying faithfully.
I used to like books. Not just reading them, but the physical book itself. I remember, as a university student, just sitting in the stacks in the library looking at the rows upon rows of books. Or, I'd walk into bookstore - especially used ones - and troll the piles for some exceptional book. I greedily held onto every book I owned.
Years later, I realized that I was likely never to re-read those books taking up room on my shelves, so I set all my books out at a garage sale and gave them away.
I still love reading. It's just that the book itself has lost its mystique. Now when I buy a book, I read it and pass it on. I don't want it cluttering my house. I let it go.
Books are changing. More and more people have Kobos and iPads.
There is some evidence that people are reading more these days. A National Endowment for the Arts study found that between 2002 and 2008 there was a 21 per cent increase in reading among young people. Another study found that people with e-readers read, on average, 24 books last year, while readers of "traditional" books read only 15.
And yet, the publishing industry has its head firmly stuck up its appendix.
Between DRM (digital rights management) and other restrictions on how people share electronic books, the publishing industry seems hell-bent on trying to keep its world firmly planted in the 20th century.
Here's a head-scratcher: Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake cannot be purchased legally as an e-book in Canada. Why? Who knows? But, I can tell you how to download it illegally.
My daughter has an e-reader that she uses for university. When she made her first series of purchases, she made an error and was unable to transfer the books from her computer to her e-reader. The tech people at the university told her that they couldn't help her because removing the DRM was illegal. It took me 15 minutes and two Google searches to figure it out. Now, if she wants, she can freely share the electronic copies of those books.
Problem solved - for my daughter, but hardly for the publishing industry. Apparently, they learned nothing from the music industry. Do they really think that they can control the technology?
