Turning the Tide on Turning the Page

I have a confession to make: I have been seeing other readers.

So far, with only one or two exceptions, everything I've published has been a bound and gathered book. There may be ebook versions of some of my work, but for the most part my rent still gets paid with paperbacks.  I debated getting a Kindle for India, but in the long run opted to bring my 1,000-page copy of Infinite Jest (which I am still reading).  It's not that I think e-readers are going to ruin publishing. Anything with the word "reader" in it can only be good for publishing; it's the authors and publishers that will dictate whether a viable business model can be made.

My standpoint on the Kindle is this: it's not worth my money. The device itself is expensive (though becoming less so), and for every new book you pay a fixed price.  Meanwhile, I personally get books for free at the Boston Public Library, and when I'm done with them they take up exactly the same amount of space on my bookshelf as the digital version: zero.  On the other hand, when I read a book worth keeping, I want it in a format that will last, and which lets me loan it to friends, and which I can display spine-out to impress other intellectuals.  In short, I want my durable books in paper, I want my disposable books cheap.  Neither of which is made possible by the Kindle.

The Kindle and the Nook's e-ink screen, meanwhile, severely limits the publisher's capabilities.  The pages are static, and take precious nanoseconds to "turn", and don't lend themselves to graphics or eye-catching design.  Maybe they'll come up with something better soon, but at the moment Kindles don't seem like a fun way to read my latest edition of Outside.

This is where the confession part comes in: I think I love the iPad.  Specifically, iBooks.  Maybe I wouldn't read War and Peace on the thing, but I'd love a flashy digital Economist.  Best of all, I prefer iBooks because of what they'll do for my books.

Textbooks aren't exactly the kind of thing you care to pay huge money for.  Trust me, I sell them, so I know this. They are also generally not fun to read.  Trust me, I read them, so I know this, too.  As publishers, we throw in all sorts of pedagogical features that involve complicated graphics and icons; we flow text through every page to keep eyes moving and help important information get absorbed; we also waste tons of paper printing indices and glossaries to make information easier to access.  The graphics work on the iPad. The movement works on iPad.  The search functions work on iPad.  When I first downloaded iBooks onto my own iPod Touch, my first reaction was, "I would want my students to use this."

If priced correctly, a digital textbook is more affordable than a printed one, and doesn't compete with the used-book market which haunts me to this day.  It's also creates less waste than a paperback or 3-hole drill textbook ("consumable", in publisher-speak), which is designed to be thrown away at the end of every semester (fie upon you, used books!).  Plus, which is easier to carry: an iPad, or a 1,000-page version of Single-Variable Calculus: Early Transcendentals?  Do I even need to ask?

You will also, I must say, look cooler riding the T with your iPad than with your Single-Variable Calculus: Early Transcendentals .  Trust me, I commute with Harvard students, so I definitely know this.

If only the iPad didn't cost more than my monthly rent.  If only the tiny iPod Touch's screen were more iBooks-friendly.  I'm not quite to the point where I can make the investment, but I'm seeing a change in my attitude towards digital media.  Ebooks aren't the bad word they used to be.  Ebooks may in fact be a better way to read.  Trust me, I'm an editor, I know this most of all.