Thursday News: book clubs, more on ebooks v. print, and Michael Bond dies
Publishing Newsbest of list / book clubs / children's fiction / Paddington Bear / reading research / recommendations15 Comments
Celebrity book clubs: Page turner or dust collector? – The most interesting element of this article may be the link to an April survey that claims people in the UK would like to be reading more, but are too busy, and among other things, have a difficult time picking a book. The first issue – time allocation – may help explain all sorts of current trends, from short fiction to other venues of storytelling, while the second issue seems to buoy the value of so-called celebrity book clubs that push certain books above the marketplace mire, focusing attention and, perhaps, a bit of FOMO toward those who would like to be reading more. Which is just another way of saying that marketing still matters.
A recent survey by The Reading Agency showed two thirds of people would like to read more but are too busy.
Yet, the agency’s chief executive supports [Guardian culture editor Claire] Armitstead’s “sorting hat” theory: “Most people also said they struggled to find a book they liked. Recommendations are the most likely thing to convince people to read more literature… however they are signposted to books, it can only be a good thing,” says Sue Wilkinson. – BBC and The Reading Agency
22 Ambassadors Recommend the One Book to Read Before Visiting Their Country – Speaking of book recommendations, Condé Nast Traveler features 22 books named by foreign ambassadors for prospective visitors. While some of the books are expected, even clichéd recommendations, others are not, and overall it’s an interesting list, whether or not you’re planning a trip anytime soon.
Preparing for a visit to a foreign country can often be overwhelming, with no shortage of things to learn before you go. Where should you eat? Where should you stay? What do you tip? More so than this service information, though, is a sense of cultural understanding that’s hard to put your finger on. With this in mind, language learning app Babbel asked foreign ambassadors to the U.S. to pick the book they believe first-time visitors to their country should read before they arrive. Their answers may surprise you. – Condé Nast Traveler (h/t The Digital Reader)
Book Wars: Reading Electronically Might Be Better for Your Kids – So this study, “Parent–Toddler Behavior and Language Differ When Reading Electronic and Print Picture Books,” was carried out by researchers at the University of Toronto and the University of South Dakota, and it involved 102 17-26 month-old toddlers, half of whom had an electronic book, and half of whom had a printed book. One odd thing is that the printed book appears to be a bound collection of screenshots, which could have affected the results. Also, I’m not sure how much this study even demonstrates, given the added effects for electronic books. One important aspect of the study, though, is that the children reading ebooks did not seem to need as much parental involvement in the reading process, which may have implications for how parents and children are interacting around reading.
Strouse and Ganea qualified their results, saying, “One important caveat to our findings is that increased engagement does not always translate into increased learning.”
The two researchers credit the additional features of e-books with increasing childrens’ engagement levels. Animations, background sounds, narration and additional activities provide toddlers with more activity, and also more chances to take part in the learning process.
With this information in mind, it’s possible these books may not differ in terms of actual learning, but rather just by how interested a toddler is to interact with them. – Paste Magazine
Michael Bond, The ‘Giant’ Behind Paddington Bear, Dies At 91 – I forgot to post this last week, but the article on children’s books reminded me. Michael Bond wrote more than 200 books during his long life, and was inspired to create the infamous Paddington character when he bought the stuffed animal equivalent of a Charlie Brown Christmas tree near Paddington Station. But there was even more behind the idea, and the depth of that inspiration may be in part what has driven the enduring popularity of the earnestly naive bear.
Looking back on that moment, Bond told The Guardian in 2014 that he was also likely inspired by another memory, at another train station: the evacuee children he would see come through Reading Station during World War II.
“They all had a label round their neck with their name and address on and a little case or package containing all their treasured possessions,” Bond told the paper. “So Paddington, in a sense, was a refugee, and I do think that there’s no sadder sight than refugees.”
As news of his death surfaced, readers took to social media to offer their tributes — as well as a pledge: We’ll look after your bear, Mr. Bond. – NPR
Not sure the ‘too busy to read’ theory really holds water. Surely, if that were the case, sales of audio books should be going through the roof? I understand that they’ve picked up a little, but nowhere near what I would expect if people were only able to find time when doing housework/driving/gardening/exercising.
@Jane Lovering: I’ll never adopt audiobooks because I’m not an auditory person. Noise is nonstop nowadays, and I, for one, have become an expert at turning off my hearing to escape it. I also have exceptionally poor retention for the spoken word. Throughout my life, I’ve required written notes. I don’t even have to refer to the actual notes; my memory of the material exists in printed words. In order to get anything remotely resembling a “book experience” from audio, I’d have to transcribe while listening, and I really don’t have time for that! I may be a far, far outlier on the neurological spectrum, but there’s a broad range of reasons for “not gonna happen” between me and “Yes, audiobooks are great!” other than “too busy for books.”
Also keep in mind most people aren’t readers, have never been readers, and have no real desire to become readers, but when confronted with a “Why don’t you read?” question, they’re not going to respond “I don’t want to” because they can sense the inherent judgment of the questioner, who most likely is a reader. Instead, they whip out the ubiquitous “too busy.” In truth, if they were given a month’s paid vacation with absolutely no demands on their time, they still wouldn’t choose to spend that time with books, paper, digital, audio, or otherwise.
Those of us who read for pleasure need to do a better job of understanding our favorite pastime isn’t a source of endless joy for everyone and let them live their bookless lives in peace.
The CNT list is pretty interesting. I’m going to look through it more carefully later. Just my quick glance thru the first 8 or so shows I’ve read 2 (long ago, in college), heard of a couple more, but didn’t know a thing about the others. I probably won’t end up reading any I haven’t already*, but am curious about the others.
*Because, you know, I’m too busy. :-)
@Ren Benton: I can understand why audio books might not work for you. I’m a very visual person, as well (tho, perhaps, not as far on the spectrum as you). When I first started listening, I could only listen to books I’d read first. It’s still interesting to me how different the experiences can be, and how I pick up on different things in the two media. I’ll often hear something I totally glossed over when reading, or think about it in a new way when I hear it aloud.
I think audiobooks haven’t really taken off over here quite as much as the US. Some of it is the working culture – commutes are generally shorter and often on public transport, and very few offices allow people to wear headphones. MP3 players have a relatively low max volumes due to EU regs compared with US players* which means you can’t hear them over loud traffic, which is fine for music (you just miss the odd lyric) but a pain for audiobooks. On the plus side, I’m much more conscious of what’s going on when I cross the road!
I think it’s also fair to say that “too busy” can include watching TV etc. I’ve got less reading done in the last few months because I’ve been too busy with American Gods, iZombie, Fargo, Handmaid’s Tale, and Orange is the New Black, and GoT is due to start again soon. I can knit and watch TV, but I can’t knit and read a book (and, importantly, I can knit and watch TV and hold a conversation, but I can’t knit and listen to an audiobook and hold a conversation). Just because it’s leisure pursuits rather than work and chores that have kept me from reading more doesn’t mean I haven’t been “too busy”, and also doesn’t mean that come autumn and there’s nothing good on TV I’ll be reading a lot more again.
*I know this because it’s common advice to use the US settings if you’re a big audiobook listener to circumvent the issue!
I enjoyed the Condé Nast Traveler article. Thanks so much for posting it, Janet.
Uh, if you do pick up Independent People as recommended by the Ambassador from Iceland, I strong recommended having a Moomins book close to hand to recover. Laxness won the Nobel Prize at least partly on the strength of the book, but it is not exactly cheery.
Also, Freedom at Midnight in 2017? Ugh, There are any number of great fiction and nonfiction books you can read about India that are better uses of your time. And written by Indians, no less!
I am a reader, but there are so many books and so many formats now. Recently (last October) I started listening to books on cd in my car on long trips. Now it’s to and from work. I listened to Flavia de Luce series to and from work, and now I’m listening to James Patterson’s Alex Cross series. Some are produced better than others, some are read better than others. I listened to Anita Shreve’s latest book as a break from the Cross series. I don’t care that I won’t remember every word in the book, I’m being entertained and I’m absorbing books that I won’t read otherwise. I couldn’t get into Patterson when he first published. A friend loaned me the first two Alex Cross books that I listened to and I discovered I liked them in that format.
@Sunita: LOL I was waiting for you to weigh in on that list!
@Jane Lovering: I have a number of readerly friends who just don’t want to listen to audiobooks. As people have commented here, there are a number of reasons people pass on the audio performance, and I’ve yet to convert anyone I know who have issued the “I don’t like audiobooks” challenge (okay, I might be the only one who considers that a challenge, lol).
@MinaKelly: Not to mention the fact that television offers an alternative venue of storytelling, which is definitely in competition with books, IMO.
@Robin: I love, love, love listening to books in the car. They make my commute much less horrible (I can’t say enjoyable).
@Sunita: Are there any you’d recommend?
@Janet: My sole audio book convert was my brother, despite much proselytizing on a larger scale. Heck, he was my only convert to ebooks, as well. :-(
I mostly listen to non-fiction audio books to be honest, and, like a previous poster, books I’ve already read. But I do use audio books as a ‘background’ noise sometimes when in the house alone, which means i often have to listen to books more than once to ‘get’ the story. But, if I’ve paid £16.99 for an Audible book, I damn well want to listen to it more than once!
Anyone else think the cost of audio might put people off?
@Janet: I could say more, but I don’t think anyone needs to hear me kvetch. :)
@Susan: Sure! In fiction, for me it is always and forever Midnight’s Children (Rushdie) and A Fine Balance (Mistry). The Mistry is shattering at the end, though, so be warned. Other Big Books include Vikram Chandra’s Sacred Games and of course Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy. Anything by Anita Desai, although my favorite is In Custody. Upmanyu Chatterjee’s English, August. Arvind Aradiga’s White Tiger was very well reviewed; I have his new book (on cricket players) in the TBR and it looks great. There is also an admired new novel by a South Indian writer, Vivek Shanbag, which I really want to read, called Ghachar Ghochar.
For classic Indian stories and novels, mostly late 19th early and mid 20thC: RK Narayan’s Malgudi books, Premchand’s stories and novels (Godan is his most famous novel, I think, and is translated into English, and the short story “Shatranj Ke Khiladi,” which is translated as “The Chess Players”, was made into a film by Satyajit Ray), Bankim Chandra Chatterji’s Anandamath, Tagore’s short stories and novels (Ghare Bhaire, which is The Home and the World in English, was made into another Ray film), and Mulk Raj Anand’s novels.
For nonfiction: I really like Ramachandra Guha’s India After Gandhi. It’s long, but he’s a very good writer and you can dip in and out. A shorter book that was recommended to me when it came out is Sunil Khilnani’s The Idea of India. For the violence and dislocation around independence and partition, the go-to in my era was Khushwant Singh’s Train to Pakistan. And for something different but wonderful, Guha’s A Corner of a Foreign Field on the embrace of cricket in India.
[Edited to fix a misattributed Ray film (and add the right one) and to add italics to make the titles easier to read.]
@Jane Lovering:
I think it’s very possible.
Like you, I usually listen to either nonfiction or to fiction I’ve read in the past. With most new fiction, I prefer to read it in print (well, digitally) because I like to imagine what the words sound like in my head the first time through. I think of it as silently listening to the musicality of language.
@Sunita: Wow. Thank you for that amazing list. I’ve at least heard of most of the books in the first paragraph, but everything after that is new to me. I’m thinking this has the makings of a standalone post. :-)
@ Jane Lovering. I know what you mean about the cost of audiobooks. I rely mostly on what I can borrow from my library via Hoopla or Overdrive apps on my phone (I’m in the US, don’t know what options are available in other countries). My main problem is limited selections as my small library system often doesn’t have what I want – and it’s not like you can use interlibrary loan like with a physical book or cd. I also haunt the daily deal for Audible, have picked up several titles that way for only a few dollars.
I got into audiobooks via celebrity memoirs like Tina Fey and am currently listening to Al Franken’s Giant of the Senate. I really enjoy when they are read by the author and would not otherwise have read these books.
I think the cost of Audiobooks is a real turn off. I’m always tempted to get the Audible download for cheap if I buy an eBook on Amazon if the option is there but haven’t to date.