...so says this guy:
tl;dr
I dunno. it depends on the subject I guess. I don't think it hurts the artform so much as it makes books less appealing. If I'm in a hurry, I don't want an investment in a 1000 page tome. I don't want to keep up with a 12 book series. Especially if it's gonna be $20 just to try it out.
I'd personally rather see a series of one-off short books for $2.50. That would be low enough to be atractive to young kids and adults with very little free time. Yeah, they should be long enough to cover the subject, but the idea that more pages = better is bunk. It's another barrier to reading -- the books cost more, they try to get you to buy a whole series (if you just read HP:DH, you'd be lost for the most part).
I'm kinda turned off by trilogies and series in general (LOTR and Dune excepted). The whole idea of that and the similar style of TV shows is to force you to buy or watch multiple stories in the same series -- otherwise you'll be lost. What better way to sell LOST or 24 DVDs than to make sure that anyone who hasn't seen every episode is completely lost? Same with book series -- they'd be better trimmed down to a single story, but then you couldn't force your audience to buy multiple books. It's a cheap trick.
>>6
Compact writing + a multimedia blending of pictures doesn't seem liek a bad idea. Imagine if the light novel format was treated more seriously, and not just something for otaku or college students.
What ever happened to pictures in books? Blake did it and it was awesome.
>>7
Pictures shouldn't be necessary for a well-written book. They just distract from the meat-and-potatoes.
I don't think pictures are necessary. I think that one thing turning people off of books is that they cost a lot for what you actually get. $14 to try a book that you might not like isn't a good thng. $2.50-$5.00 is more likely to be something you'd buy on impulse, and cheap enough that you don't have to worry about junior spending his allowance on a book.
If the book costs $15 plus tax, you could get a CD for the same. Heck you can get an old ps2 game for $6-7. Which would the average teen-20something rather have 4 xbox games or 1 book? I'm not sure how many people would really spend almost $20 on something that they can't try first.
There's the time crunch issue as well -- we have less time today than we did 20 years ago. A 300 page book can take upwards of a week to read through, and if you have to put the thing down for a week, you forget what was happening.
I'm a bit suspicious that it's quality holding down the book industry too. Most of them aren't all that great. Crimies are CSI: The Book, SciFis all want to either be Halo, Wars, Trek, or actually are fan fiction, Romances are dull, there just isn't much out there that makes me think "Ive never seen this before".
>>4
Turn to "pulp fiction" then ;)
No, seriously, there are some pretty neat series out there if you're into it for the entertainment value.
<3 Perry Rhodan
Bookstores...you can just sit there and read half the novel (or all of it) and then buy it if you want. So the investment issue is not applicable.
I mostly read literary journals instead of full novels. 4 dollars for a bunch of great stories, not a bad deal. And there's tons of options out there so you can get whatever you want, sci fi, literary, just plain weird shit. And subscriptions, and the fun of just collecting all the funny little bookies.
>>9
I read a lot of books from the library, so the cost is not an issue. That's one of the coolest things about it for me, reading books is free.
Playing games is free if you play someone else's game too.
>>14 Touche, but until somebody founds a Video Game library, books will have to suffice.
I eagerly anticipate the day when I can ask a Librarian, "Excuse me sir, could you tell me roughly where in the Dewey Decimal System I could find Super Mario Brothers?", however.
>>9
That's the perk of using a nice library. Borrow what you think you might like, and if you really enjoy something, you can go buy it.
Maybe you should take a break from novels to write a few short stories? They're fun to read as well as novels, but take significantly less time.
>>15
Actually I remember reading something about some library saying that they were going to carry games. I don't remember, google search it. Really it's about the only medium that isn't carried in most libraries (at least mine has movies and CDs alongside the standard books and magazines)
Anyway, I've always been a slow reader (not with comprehension speed so much as dedication). I think about the fastest read I've had in a while was Neuromancer at around a month. While it does get annoying to reach the renewal limit at the library, really all that a long book means for me is that I don't have to pick out another book for a while.