Your Favourite Media

An interview with myself in which I ask myself about my reading habits. So meta!

Hello. What is your favourite kind of media?

Books! Hands down, it’s books. I mean, you can’t live without music, and I love blogs, but books are my number one.

Where do you get your books from, the library? Or do you buy them?

I get most of my books from the library. I sometimes buy books but usually after I’ve test-driven a library copy first.

So you re-read books?

Sometimes. I mostly read nonfiction, so if I buy a book I’ve already read it’s for future dipping-in, rather than for reading it again from cover to cover. I like to have books around.

What do you mostly read?

Mostly nonfiction. My favourite books are ones about interior decorating, but anything might take my fancy: architecture, art, photography, craft, biography, history, science, social issues, fashion, whatever.

Do you ever not finish reading a book?

Yes, all the time. There are too many excellent books in the world to waste time on lame ones.

How many books do you usually have on your library card at a time?

You can only get out 35 books at a time, so I’m usually in the 30s. It’s probably a good thing that there’s a limit to how much you can borrow at one time. And thank goodness for due dates! Deadlines are great for getting books read.

I hear that! What do you think of e-books?

I think e-books are great for books that don’t have pictures. I like being able to touch a word and get the definition, and I like the iPad for reading at night. If it’s just text, like a novel or a biography, then e-books are excellent for that.

So you read e-books yourself?

Sometimes, but only for books with no pictures. Don’t laugh.

I’m not laughing?

Anyway, I don’t think that, for example, coffee table books could really work on e-readers. Like, if there are a lot of photos or pictures I’d rather look at them in a big glossy tree-book. But I love e-audiobooks, especially about science or history or something, if it’s told in an interesting way. And podcasts! Yeah!

Where do you get ideas for what to read next?

I read the Auckland Libraries New Book Lists every month and have a bit of a reserving frenzy. I also get ideas from magazine reviews, and stuff I see in bookshops or read about on blogs. Or word of mouth. Just anywhere, really. I have a bit of FOMO about books and a bit of anxiety if I’m behind on my reserving.

Anxiety?

Yeah totally. Being at the bottom of a long line of holds is…challenging! I like to have a lot of books at home, all the time, and lots of books coming in. A big fear of mine is being stuck somewhere with nothing to read. And don’t even get me started on magazines. American Vogue, British Vogue, Australian Vogue, there’s a new issue every month! Vogue anxiety, I has it.

What is your favourite book?

That’s like asking someone who their favourite child* is! I’ve thought about this before, and while I can’t seriously pick just one book, I’ll say ‘Pineapple: King of Fruits’ by Fran Beauman.

Is that a book about pineapples?

Well, yes. But it’s also about history, trade, colonialism and horticulture. It was one of the first nonfiction books I read that just sparked something in me, where I just thought “Yeah! Nonfiction is for me!”

You’re a total nerd.

What’s your point?

Do you keep track of all the books you read?

Yes I do. I have Library Thing account where I record nonfiction books I’ve read that I really like. But I’m way behind on updating it, so I also have lots of lists. Like, a lot of lists. I have list anxiety.

Would you like to tell me anything else about your reading habits?

Once I brought a wheelie suitcase to the library with me to pick up all my holds. It was one of my cleverest ideas ever!

Thanks for sharing your favourite media here at PopculturAL. Readers, stay tuned for the next exciting instalment of Your Favourite Media, where I will interview someone who is not me. Honest.

*I do not have a favourite child, but I concede that it might be whichever one is asleep.

Death of the paperback: The great ebook vs treebook debate

The growing presence of e-readers has prompted many bookworms to replace their traditional paperback editions with electronically downloaded equivalents.

New and popular reads have become more accessible than ever before, simply with one click of a button. Subsequently, booksellers and librarians are expected to adapt their services to suit this expanding technology, amid growing speculation that print formatting may be on its way out.

From Jane Eyre to Harry Potter, the paperback has been a consistent literary staple for decades. However, with some deciding to bid farewell to its tradition without even a backward glance, some people are now heralding ‘the death of the paperback’.

But even with e-readers’ phenomenal success, do people truly believe the decline of the paperback could eventually turn it obsolete? Do people really foster a genuine preference for reading on either paper or an e-reader device?

Results taken from an Impact PR survey definitely give an affirmative answer to these questions, with the majority of participants expecting to progressively phase out hardbacks and look online for their literary fix. Despite this shift, 92 per cent of those surveyed also believed that there is still a place for libraries in the future.

Yet the writing appears clear on the wall here. Over the last few years, e-books have quickly subsumed print as the preferred vehicle to store literary favourites, especially among young people.

For all the great things that e-books can accomplish – convenience, portability and selection – there are still some fundamental assets that, in my opinion, e-readers will never possess.

There are a few qualities about paperback that I can’t seem to give up: the anticipation before ripping into a brand new book, the physical act of holding that book in your hands and turning the pages that, for me at least, can hardly compare to pixels on a screen.

Therefore I suggest that e-books are not simply a better format replacing an inferior one, but rather a medium that offers an entirely separate experience.

So here I play devil’s advocate and lay both arguments on the table:

Firstly, you could debate that there’s nothing like the comforting smell or weight of a well-read book in your hands. Paperbacks are a classic tradition, unrestricted by the problems faced by those dependent on digital sources. They possess a collectible quality, passed down through generations, and permit a sense of nostalgia and provenance. However, by glancing at this list of print benefits, you could contend that an affinity toward paperback comes from not so much the practicality of the object, as it does the emotional and sentimental value of the hard-copy itself.

Alternatively, online books are credited to cost less than a third of their hard copy counterparts, making them affordable and accessible for people on smaller budgets. When you purchase or download an e-book, your reward is instantaneous; meaning there is no need to trudge through the pouring rain to your nearest library anymore. Perfect for the travelling gypsies, e-books will allow you to bring a whole library with you wherever you go, saving a ton of space and also maintaining the “green” mentality. Lastly, they eliminate the dangers of straining your eyes to read the paperback’s text, where with an e-book you are able to change the font size and brightness to your specifications.

Have I sold you on a preference yet? Are you setting your quality fiction novel on the table next to your conveniently placed iPad? Well, how about this suggestion: Paperbacks do not necessarily need to disappear for e-books to flourish and e-books do not have to be the only choice. While I may take my e-reader with me on long train rides into work or on holiday, I can’t kick the habit of reading a physical hard-copy, and I shouldn’t have to.

There’s plenty of room in my life for both.

- our thanks to Sophie Buchan for the guest post!