Decline of the Novel?

I wonder. Are books going to go the way of LP's and eventually cd's. I don't honestly think I will ever buy a kindle and I am gadget obsessed. There is just nothing like the feel of a book, by my bedside, on the beach, in the cafe. But generations will be brought up with a different thought process and that is a good thing not because books are not wonderful but ultimately they eat trees and habitats and are loved and cherished and not as often recycled as they should be. That will mean generations are denied the pleasure of the LP collection or standing back for a few minutes looking at 5 shelves of book spines and remembering where and with whom and touching the edge of a story which transported you.

By the way Daunt books are bucking the trend and are worth checking out.

All good points, lavadis. I begin to wonder how soon it will be before I'm considered either a Luddite or a fogey, or both, for reading a book! And my green credentials would take a knocking, too!

Re: e-readers and the internet in general... as someone observed in another thread, you can't uninvent these things. Why clutter up your book shelves with encyclopedias, dictionaries, atlases, etc. when everything you need is online (providing you're selective with your sources)? Why lug around heavy old books when a Kindle weighs a few ounces and takes up hardly any space?

I admit - I've got a good dictionary and thesaurus on my desk, but I invariably use Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com. And what atlas can match the experience of Google Earth - or even Google Maps for that matter?

A 20% drop in sales of printed novels in January corresponds with MindMush's recent survey, suggesting that only 4% of the human brain is being used while statistics from last January proved that 5% was available.
MindMush, a quango charity staffed entirely by the wives of shadow ministers, was set up to bolster the economy by encouraging staff to set up bogus accounts at John Lewis from which purchases are charged to an equally respectable quango charity, MinorMind, which is staffed by the children of shadow ministers, who are responsible for plundering online discount book stores.
MindMush are in no way accountable for any of their findings and will sue anyone who disagrees with them. Backed by the powerful quango charity, Lawyers 4 Us, no one, as yet, has had the shamefaced temerity to question the reliability of Mindmush's findings, although one particularly ignorant bohemain who professes to be 'a writer' has disappeared since lodging a complaint with the tireless complaint regulating quango charity, Watchit.
The 12% fall in printed books sales has nothing to do with the recession, MindMush announced.
'It's not a recession, darling,' said Justine Cemetery-Slater. 'It's a fuckin' depression and you know it is. Now are you paying my bloody taxi or not?'

I could almost believe this to be true, Richard - if I didn't know it was true, of course.

Apparently, Lawyers 4 Us has questionable charity status. It's believed to be partly funded by the Saudi government... which doesn't bode well for the fate of said writer.

I don't know the answer to the question but I've really enjoyed reading what you lot have had to say about it. You should publish your thoughts in a book, one with ink.

I vaguely remember other stats about the e-book and kindle sales doubling this christmas, or something similar, so the trend is undeniable.

I'm sure I'll end up with a kindle or whathaveyou, as they're too useful - save space, save a lot of packing for holidays and I recently bought the new Nick Harkaway book (recommended by the way) and notice he has a short story for sale only available in e-form (99p). This is a trend I very much expect to continue, I suspect the kindle will do a lot of good for the short story, so I'm happy with that.

I've noticed that too, Terrence. And I'm a short story lover. Prefer it to any other literary form, if I'm honest.

Hm...

99p to check out a new author, you can see how it could catch on.

It should mean that readers will try out more authors.

As the owner of a Kindle, I have to say it is so much better than lugging a book or two around (as I used to do). At the moment, I have 38 books on the Kindle, not including the built-in dictionary and thesaurus. Being able to scroll to an unknown word and see the definition straight away is just brilliant.

About the only books I wouldn't buy for the Kindle are graphic novels (even the Kindle Fire doesn't do these any real justice) and instuction or how-to manuals. But for fiction and poetry, the Kindle is perfect. Now, if only my library would hurry up and make their catalogue available for e-readers, I'd be a very happy camper.

One thing...

When I'm reading any of my own books - novels, factual books, study books, whatever - I like to use a pencil to highlight certain passages to come back to. It's an old study habit that's never left me. My bookmark is always a pencil!

Can you do that sort of thing with a Kindle? Highlight or otherwise isolate sections of text and save them? Copy quotes and paste them into a folder?

If so, that would be a serious selling point for me.

You can highlight, add notes and do other things as well. I haven't used a lot of the features yet but I intend to learn how. The only thing I'm not sure about is saving the quotes/highlights to another folder. But I'm sure there is probably some way to do this. The other thing I like, as someone who reads a number of books at a time, is that it always remembers which page you were reading. Hope this helps you decide.

In my own little way, I've contributed to the decline of the novel by not buying one for many years.

Although I read, on average, 3 books a week, I borrow them for free (apart from paying my council tax, of course) from the library.

There came a point when books became too expensive. They cost more than a music CD or film DVD, but where I'm inclined to listen to an album or watch a film many times, I only read a book once. So it's not a good investment.

But even in my local library, books are becoming ghetto-ised. Replaced by banks of computers and (ironically) racks of CDs and DVDs.

The reference section, in particular, is becoming a bit of a joke. And the library practices a short-term false economy by mostly stocking paperback editions of popular fiction.

There is some talk of them transferring their catalogue online, so I would have to borrow e-books in future. I can see the attraction of the idea from a financial point of view. Better than closing their library service completely.

But are the book companies going to persuade me to part with my cash? I haven't checked for a while, but it seems e-books are not significantly cheaper than their hardcopy versions.

I'm waiting for the technology to settle down before I commit. The e-format equivalent of VHS versus Betamax is still being fought. Do I buy a dedicated e-reader or a multi-function device running a Kindle app?

The green argument is a red herring. Although no trees are harmed, it's yet another gadget that eats electricity. Built by sweated labour in the far east. Using components that cause pollution in their manufacture.

Still, its OK for us here on ABCtales. We can write our own novels and store them in our heads.

Thanks for pointing out the red herring, John. I'd never thought of that.
Any new technology deployed to change the way I do anything in life is always treated with caution, and I'll probably be the last to buy one of these things.
Nothing can replace the feel of a book, even if I now wipe the library cover to eradicate snot and disease (the Howard Hughes in me, not that he'd dream of touching something already tampered with).
I hardly ever read nowadays and have always been a sporadic reader. I haven't had the money to buy a book for a while now and the last purchase I made was for Jennifer's e-book (£6). I also can't get round the idea that capitalistic publishing houses don't want the hassle and cost of actually publishing a book as a book. What's the cost of an e-book to them? 0.0005p perhaps,yet the prices for e-books are in line with books, and the authors' deals won't get any better.
Kindles are also divisive because of their cost. How many students can afford £90, let alone their parents, unless they're a dual-income family?
I thought books were for the masses to read, for anyone to borrow from libraries, and i wouldn't be surprised to find that publishers were partly responsible for library-closure. How sick would that be, that the people in charge of literature were actually thwarting the availability of books in an attempt to maximise sales, and at the same time dissolving 'the book' into digital programs for the few to enjoy?
Welcome to economic apartheid, again.

WilkyBarKid - well said, mate. The only place I'd part company with you is on the books/DVDs/CDs thing. Most of the books I've got at home are ones that mean a lot to me and that I want to keep. Many of them I've already read several times - and each new reading is a new experience in many ways. It's like catching up on things with an old friend. I'd never want to be without the various collections by Raymond Carver, Bukowski, Cheever, Steinbeck and Joseph Mitchell. I dip into them all the time.

I can't remember the last time I bought a CD. Years ago. Whenever I'm in the mood for a particular song or piece of music now, I go to YouTube, or I'll download. I don't use an iPod or MP3 player in 'normal' life. Never got on with 'em. When I'm out, I like to hear the sounds of the street - or eavesdrop on conversations!

As for films - I must watch around 350-400 a year - usually via an online streaming site I subscribe to. I'll buy special films, but I don't have the space to store DVDs otherwise. Think I've got about a dozen.

Yes, I will concede things have moved on since books priced themselves out of my range and I don't buy DVDs any more either. I'm prepared to wait for films to appear on TV (For free again, apart from cable fees. Cheapskate!) because that happens quicker than it used to.

I do still buy music to listen to on my mp3. It's amazing to have my entire record collection spanning 50 years on a small device that fits in my pocket and to walk around with my own personal soundtrack. But that's because music doesn't require the foreground attention of a book or film.

One thing I've always liked to do is browse. The experience is not the same online. Perhaps I've just got to educate myself and make a paradigm shift.

I know some people have favourite books. I don't. I'm just a text junkie and will read anything. For me, there are no literary heroes. Mostly, books are how I while away the daily commute.

there's something wonderful about real books.
maybe they're not often recycled as paper-mush, but they are handed round & round & round before they eventually fall apart, if they fall apart, unlike gadgets which seem almost disposable. i think the environmental cost & human suffering that goes into producing these gadgets outweighs the benefits.
i'm all for paper. the beautiful, renewable, wonderful-to-cosy-up-with, traditional printed novel wins, hands down.
that's not to say reading on-line is a no-go for me. i love it. i learn so much- discovering new titles, author interviews, being able to discuss books and recommend them- great. it has its place.
maybe the reports are exaggerated. a rallying cry to get us all spending? ALL of my friends who use Kindle etc still buy loads of real books too. that's how they landed up with a kindle, 'cause they're addicted to reading! they buy the e-books as well as, not instead of, & still have shelves stacked 2 & 3 deep, overflowing with novels.

Ju B you make a wonderful point. I leant my copy of The Magus to an ex girlfriend who took it to Spain for 10 years and then returned it. It's cover is barely hanging on but when I re read that wonderful book it will be that copy I read with the personal history that will seep from every page and add colour to the words. There was and is nothing better than buying a new Bukowski collection, to feel the weight of the cover, the colours and the print. My experiences of spoken books is that they are cold affairs so it is still the novel for me.

I have a kindle, which is especially useful when I want to read an old book that no longer has copyright restrictions on it, because those are free. But if there's something I want to read that's not available for Kindle, I still have to buy it. I have a habit of keeping two books going at once, so at the moment, I'm doing both.

I'm not so sure about the green credentials - I haven't read anything that suggest Kindle or any other device, for that matter, use these in advertising the product. But I do know that in the 6 or so months I've had my Kindle, I've only had to recharge it twice - the second time only last week. Can't complain about the battery life on it.