The
Sony Reader - you've all heard of it, but have you ever considered buying it? When it comes to reading, there's a sort of romanticism that's associated with holding a book in my hands and (at the risk of being labeled '
one of those people') being able to take it out of my satchel as an identifier of what I'm
into, in a literary sense. But I can't ignore the practicalities of the Sony Reader and the newer
Amazon Kindle.
A recent headline at Publisher's Weekly announced that
Random House will be handing out Sony Readers to their sales reps. One of the perks of working for one of the big publishers. Hachette and St. Martin's Press also have plans for adopting the gadget in order to streamline their operations.
According to RH, the company has bought "several hundred" readers for
its sales management, reps, and home office sales support staff. The
sales department will use the device to read manuscripts and other
relevant material in digital form. The company's goal is to, as quickly
as possible, "eliminate altogether manuscript dispersal to our sales
group by migrating this reading experience of many thousands of paper
pages to the electronic reader," said spokesperson Stuart Applebaum. [full article]
"Several hundred"... that's got to be an easy hundred grand. Nevertheless, brilliant move, says I. Each of us here at TmesisMag has at some point had to work with dozens of bulky manuscripts at once, and it's a huge pain to be lugging around 30lbs of paper back and forth from the office. Reading multiple manuscripts from a reader also lessens the tedium of having to stare at pieces of recycled mulch all day. I'd venture as far as to say that it'd be like playing a video game. Possibly the
dreariest video game in the world in which the sole requisite for victory is being able to not fall asleep before finishing, but it's certainly a step up.
But for purposes of enjoyment, I don't think I'd ever pick an electronic reader over a nice solid book. There's just something a little too sterile about viewing stories from the thin metallic slab that is the mechanician's delight. The next time I feel the need to satiate my techie desires, I'll just buy a new cell phone, thanks very much.
-Ray
