It reminds me of an interactive narrative website that could be considered a "digital book" of some sort, published in 2017. It presents itself as a normal online sports article and the morphs into a series of transmissions and artifacts from the year 17776 and includes text, illustrations, and videos all embedded right in the story. At the time it was published I thought it was ahead of its time, and it's still fairly unique. A great piece of fiction to boot.
So many ebooks are published by people like me, without the resources to add multimedia. I do read books — I just read Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang and am now reading All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. These books need no bells or whistles. I am thinking of canceling my Netflix and Prime and just reading instead. It’s more enjoyable.
Funny bout your introduction, because I downloaded a Beethoven biography written by a classical musician Jan Swafford to my eReader. It's sooo well done, I've not yet read it in full. And as I read it I think "this is not a kindle read" meaning it's too rich for that. And the physical book ships with a CD (perhaps with MP3 download codes?) of the sonatas and symphonic movements the biographer talks about in different sections. (I re-purchased a CD/cassette player just before the pandemic, because time is no longer linear.)
I am an Internet addict, and when my scrolling gets really bad, I throw up my hands and read a chapter or two of a book. This converted me: "Do Scientists Read Enough Fiction?" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33393210/ Sadly it's $10 paywalled, because it's by a scientists who has ADHD and a packed schedule. The paper alone, which convinced me to put more effort into book-reading is itself a great read.
Did anyone mention Carly Simon's memoir, "Boys in the Trees"? I listened to this audio book after my first cochlear implant to practice hearing and I remember she interspersed songs with chapters. Not my favorite book but it was good practice, both for the language and for the music (and my first audio book ever!)
How much of this conversation do you think is driven by active vs passive consumption of media / art?
It's not really surprising to think of books becoming a minor form (hadn't thought about it like that before). So much of the leisure of scrolling, not to mention tv / film / music, comes from it requiring as much or as little active participation as one feels like exerting. While books, on the other hand, ask for that continual engagement. Seems like that's what turns most people off, right?
Will QR codes or links or songs / videos change that, or will they just be the "break" Bargatze is asking for, a distraction from the engagement?
I haven't dug into much of BookTok, but I keep thinking about how to adapt a book to suit that medium. Maybe a lofi video of an author reading excerpts, or the whole damn thing? Who knows how this would translate to sales, but if people would rather spend their bedtime scrolling than reading, seems like books need to be made passive enough to consume--at least until they hook someone enough to jump into some active participation.
1. Malcolm Gladwell's The Bomber Mafia was designed as an audiobook. IIRC, the big differences between it and a print book were that his producers dropped in the actual audio of interviews and added a bit of sound design. It was like a very long, polished radio/podcast piece. I liked its content but wouldn't call its form revolutionary.
2. My impression is that Scott Simon's new audiobook, Swingtime for Hitler, includes some clips of the Nazi jazz propaganda he discusses. That strikes me as closer to what you're talking about. But I haven't listened to it yet.
3. You're right, licensing is the big issue here. An academic I know who writes about c20 music has spent a ton of time getting permissions to post short transcriptions of songs. Often, the artists themselves correctly recognize that an obscure journal article is not a money-making opportunity for them and happily grant permission if you can reach them. Big music publishers can be much more difficult and would surely not be more easy-going if they sniffed a bestseller in the making. It's too bad, though; I'd love to listen to the kind of audiobooks you're imagining.
May I add that there is another form--at least to share poetry? Video is a kind of ebook, I think. Here is an example. I don't know if the link will work, / or search Thomas Jardine in the Youtube search bar.
You do make some very excellent points on all the missed opportunities with ebooks and audiobooks! I have recently become an audio book fan! It’s like listening to a movie. I love how the narrators usually do slightly different voices to denote the different characters. And I even love non-fiction audiobooks, especially when read by the author. It feels like such a more personal experience. I’m not hugely into ebooks-- I find reading that much text on my phone, not enjoyable, but if they changed up the format and inserted pictures and links and videos and sounds, that certainly could be intriguing. And I think would get many more people on board with “reading”. Writers will continue to write-- how their words get out there can certainly change, and does not need to be limited to the traditional book form. But there certainly is potential for a much larger market of “readers” however they may read.
Artists who are bringing new life to written word formats do exist. Sadly, they are under the radar. For example, the New Directions print edition of László Krasznahorkai’s Chasing Homer features wonderful artwork by Max Neumann, and accompanying music by percussionist Szilveszter Miklós can be accessed via QR code placed at the beginning of each chapter. This is part of the creative renaissance in the publishing industry taking place right now. But of course, books are part and parcel of the subversive element that authoritarian rulers (hence mainstream media) seek to destroy, so who knows if the renaissance will be aborted. Or it may remain underground, which suits me fine.
QR codes in print books are interesting, but they still require 2 devices. I’m asking why not e -or audiobooks that contain the music. I think the print book is as good as it will ever be as a self-contained form
Very thought provoking post and lots of overlap with my latest post on Reading-List-Bankruptcy and the psychological burden of accumulating unread content.
This is why I loved Brandi Carlile’s memoir as an audiobook -- she sings the songs she’s referencing throughout! Made me, likewise, wish more books could be like that.
Before I forget, Candace Rose Rardon is experimenting with the printed words and if you have not yet subscribed to her newsletter, Dandelion Seeds, it’s so much worth it... words, but then not more words, but then words... a sort of graphic novel but there’s prose.. hard to explain. https://open.substack.com/pub/dandelionseeds?r=uw76&utm_medium=ios
Love those paragraph transitions! 😀😀😀😀😀 every editor is at once horrified and admiring you ***
I think it’s mostly copyright laws that limit music use. Too expensive. Someone here wrote something about the diminishing value of a music catalog and the Bandcamp debacle ... I read it yesterday so if my ADHD brain remembers and I go looking for it, I’ll pop back in and leave a link. And Libby! I have a NYS residence as well and pay property taxes, so I can get a NYPL card and linking up that library is a whole huge world beyond what my local Ohio county library has... Welcome to New York (yes I’m playing TS 1989 rn .. why do you ask? 😳😀)
I’m wrestling with pitching a ghostwritten book on a NY singer.. she’s in her 50s and a super engaging story... your newsletter gave me renewed “guts” to ask her if I can tell her story. 😬 I think the market is there...
The UK seems so vital by comparison. I see people reading everywhere in parks, alone on a bench or on a blanket. Literary events sell out. I wonder if this is more American?
This is so interesting because I'm also in the UK and I was going to comment that it doesn't at all seem like people are reading less to me! I have exactly one friend who admits to not reading at all, and we laugh with her about it because it seems so backwards. Even my hairdresser is always telling me about the latest business book she has read
I'm not saying fewer people are reading overall. I'm saying some people who used to read for a living struggle to do so now, and some people feel bad that they aren't reading. And that there are some easy things we could do to potentially expand the book buying population.
Millions of Americans read books everyday!. It's a billion dollar industry.
There’s definitely an excitement about books here. I did an event this evening and went to promote it this weekend and the store was like “oh sorry it’s been sold out for two weeks.”
Nate Bergatze is right, not reading books means he's kinda dumb. Which is fine, because you're right, for most of history, most people didn't read books. But it's not a "meh" thing; it's a historical watershed. The end of books means the end of the progressive idea that everyone could be smart if only there were enough books given to them. Most people, it appears, only want to read well enough to scroll, and I admit I do my own share of it. The problem is that the internet allows relatively unintelligent people access to an infinite number of small bits of easily absorbed information. This is a kind of fake intelligence - Call it Bio-AI. Web trawling. This loose information is transformed by a never-ending game of Chinese Whispers into the modern equivalent of religious superstition. Ergo, "Believe the !Science!" and Q.
Very insightful and thought provoking.
It reminds me of an interactive narrative website that could be considered a "digital book" of some sort, published in 2017. It presents itself as a normal online sports article and the morphs into a series of transmissions and artifacts from the year 17776 and includes text, illustrations, and videos all embedded right in the story. At the time it was published I thought it was ahead of its time, and it's still fairly unique. A great piece of fiction to boot.
Have you read 17776?
https://www.sbnation.com/a/17776-football
So many ebooks are published by people like me, without the resources to add multimedia. I do read books — I just read Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang and am now reading All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. These books need no bells or whistles. I am thinking of canceling my Netflix and Prime and just reading instead. It’s more enjoyable.
Funny bout your introduction, because I downloaded a Beethoven biography written by a classical musician Jan Swafford to my eReader. It's sooo well done, I've not yet read it in full. And as I read it I think "this is not a kindle read" meaning it's too rich for that. And the physical book ships with a CD (perhaps with MP3 download codes?) of the sonatas and symphonic movements the biographer talks about in different sections. (I re-purchased a CD/cassette player just before the pandemic, because time is no longer linear.)
I am an Internet addict, and when my scrolling gets really bad, I throw up my hands and read a chapter or two of a book. This converted me: "Do Scientists Read Enough Fiction?" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33393210/ Sadly it's $10 paywalled, because it's by a scientists who has ADHD and a packed schedule. The paper alone, which convinced me to put more effort into book-reading is itself a great read.
Did anyone mention Carly Simon's memoir, "Boys in the Trees"? I listened to this audio book after my first cochlear implant to practice hearing and I remember she interspersed songs with chapters. Not my favorite book but it was good practice, both for the language and for the music (and my first audio book ever!)
How much of this conversation do you think is driven by active vs passive consumption of media / art?
It's not really surprising to think of books becoming a minor form (hadn't thought about it like that before). So much of the leisure of scrolling, not to mention tv / film / music, comes from it requiring as much or as little active participation as one feels like exerting. While books, on the other hand, ask for that continual engagement. Seems like that's what turns most people off, right?
Will QR codes or links or songs / videos change that, or will they just be the "break" Bargatze is asking for, a distraction from the engagement?
I haven't dug into much of BookTok, but I keep thinking about how to adapt a book to suit that medium. Maybe a lofi video of an author reading excerpts, or the whole damn thing? Who knows how this would translate to sales, but if people would rather spend their bedtime scrolling than reading, seems like books need to be made passive enough to consume--at least until they hook someone enough to jump into some active participation.
Great piece, Anne. Thanks for it.
On missed opportunities in audiobooks:
1. Malcolm Gladwell's The Bomber Mafia was designed as an audiobook. IIRC, the big differences between it and a print book were that his producers dropped in the actual audio of interviews and added a bit of sound design. It was like a very long, polished radio/podcast piece. I liked its content but wouldn't call its form revolutionary.
2. My impression is that Scott Simon's new audiobook, Swingtime for Hitler, includes some clips of the Nazi jazz propaganda he discusses. That strikes me as closer to what you're talking about. But I haven't listened to it yet.
3. You're right, licensing is the big issue here. An academic I know who writes about c20 music has spent a ton of time getting permissions to post short transcriptions of songs. Often, the artists themselves correctly recognize that an obscure journal article is not a money-making opportunity for them and happily grant permission if you can reach them. Big music publishers can be much more difficult and would surely not be more easy-going if they sniffed a bestseller in the making. It's too bad, though; I'd love to listen to the kind of audiobooks you're imagining.
May I add that there is another form--at least to share poetry? Video is a kind of ebook, I think. Here is an example. I don't know if the link will work, / or search Thomas Jardine in the Youtube search bar.
https://youtu.be/wTgQsnnm0KQ
You do make some very excellent points on all the missed opportunities with ebooks and audiobooks! I have recently become an audio book fan! It’s like listening to a movie. I love how the narrators usually do slightly different voices to denote the different characters. And I even love non-fiction audiobooks, especially when read by the author. It feels like such a more personal experience. I’m not hugely into ebooks-- I find reading that much text on my phone, not enjoyable, but if they changed up the format and inserted pictures and links and videos and sounds, that certainly could be intriguing. And I think would get many more people on board with “reading”. Writers will continue to write-- how their words get out there can certainly change, and does not need to be limited to the traditional book form. But there certainly is potential for a much larger market of “readers” however they may read.
Artists who are bringing new life to written word formats do exist. Sadly, they are under the radar. For example, the New Directions print edition of László Krasznahorkai’s Chasing Homer features wonderful artwork by Max Neumann, and accompanying music by percussionist Szilveszter Miklós can be accessed via QR code placed at the beginning of each chapter. This is part of the creative renaissance in the publishing industry taking place right now. But of course, books are part and parcel of the subversive element that authoritarian rulers (hence mainstream media) seek to destroy, so who knows if the renaissance will be aborted. Or it may remain underground, which suits me fine.
QR codes in print books are interesting, but they still require 2 devices. I’m asking why not e -or audiobooks that contain the music. I think the print book is as good as it will ever be as a self-contained form
Very thought provoking post and lots of overlap with my latest post on Reading-List-Bankruptcy and the psychological burden of accumulating unread content.
https://atomless.substack.com/p/reading-list-bankruptcy
This is why I loved Brandi Carlile’s memoir as an audiobook -- she sings the songs she’s referencing throughout! Made me, likewise, wish more books could be like that.
You gave me so much to think about, Anne! Thank you!
Before I forget, Candace Rose Rardon is experimenting with the printed words and if you have not yet subscribed to her newsletter, Dandelion Seeds, it’s so much worth it... words, but then not more words, but then words... a sort of graphic novel but there’s prose.. hard to explain. https://open.substack.com/pub/dandelionseeds?r=uw76&utm_medium=ios
Love those paragraph transitions! 😀😀😀😀😀 every editor is at once horrified and admiring you ***
I think it’s mostly copyright laws that limit music use. Too expensive. Someone here wrote something about the diminishing value of a music catalog and the Bandcamp debacle ... I read it yesterday so if my ADHD brain remembers and I go looking for it, I’ll pop back in and leave a link. And Libby! I have a NYS residence as well and pay property taxes, so I can get a NYPL card and linking up that library is a whole huge world beyond what my local Ohio county library has... Welcome to New York (yes I’m playing TS 1989 rn .. why do you ask? 😳😀)
I’m wrestling with pitching a ghostwritten book on a NY singer.. she’s in her 50s and a super engaging story... your newsletter gave me renewed “guts” to ask her if I can tell her story. 😬 I think the market is there...
Here’s that link on the value of recordings. https://open.substack.com/pub/tedgioia/p/12-predictions-on-the-future-of-song?r=uw76&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
The UK seems so vital by comparison. I see people reading everywhere in parks, alone on a bench or on a blanket. Literary events sell out. I wonder if this is more American?
This is so interesting because I'm also in the UK and I was going to comment that it doesn't at all seem like people are reading less to me! I have exactly one friend who admits to not reading at all, and we laugh with her about it because it seems so backwards. Even my hairdresser is always telling me about the latest business book she has read
I'm not saying fewer people are reading overall. I'm saying some people who used to read for a living struggle to do so now, and some people feel bad that they aren't reading. And that there are some easy things we could do to potentially expand the book buying population.
Millions of Americans read books everyday!. It's a billion dollar industry.
There’s definitely an excitement about books here. I did an event this evening and went to promote it this weekend and the store was like “oh sorry it’s been sold out for two weeks.”
It would be interesting to see if stats bear this out.
Are they reading print books out and about? I wonder if ebooks sell better there? (It's so weird how few people buy ebooks in the US at least)
(I hate saying kind of thing but It also might be...quality? I read so many more UK authors than Americans these days....)
I see people reading paperbacks every time I'm on a tube or train in London!
Nate Bergatze is right, not reading books means he's kinda dumb. Which is fine, because you're right, for most of history, most people didn't read books. But it's not a "meh" thing; it's a historical watershed. The end of books means the end of the progressive idea that everyone could be smart if only there were enough books given to them. Most people, it appears, only want to read well enough to scroll, and I admit I do my own share of it. The problem is that the internet allows relatively unintelligent people access to an infinite number of small bits of easily absorbed information. This is a kind of fake intelligence - Call it Bio-AI. Web trawling. This loose information is transformed by a never-ending game of Chinese Whispers into the modern equivalent of religious superstition. Ergo, "Believe the !Science!" and Q.
I do not think books will end. Nor do I think we will have less knowledge or art.