Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Things We Do Just Because We Can

E-books are weird. That was my initial thought several years ago when the phenomenon first garnered some interest from the public. While portable dvd and mp3 players make practical sense (you can't take a band or a movie theater with you on a road trip), books and magazines are already portable. Why, then, is text on a hand-held screen better than an actual book-in-hand? Apparently it isn't. At least, the public hasn't bought the idea--literally or figuratively. Sales for e-books have yet to reach a fraction of the heights that those of music files have.

Sony seems to think that this is because the idea simply hasn't been properly realized. They are banking on the supposition that e-book sales will skyrocket when the files are available on Sony's new "Portable Reader System." The little piece of machinery looks something like a Blackberry. Most of its front area is taken up by screen that is supposed to provide "technology that rivals text on paper."

The fact that iPod users already load audio books into their players does not seem to discourage Sony executives. Not only that, their foray into the field of electronic books will not come cheap to consumers. Sony hopes to get $350.00 a pop out of their new system. It should be interesting to see how the battle of hand-held books plays out over the next year or so. Will it be paper or plastic?

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Mitch Albom: Mouthbreathing Poser?

I am not saying that there is anything particularly bad about Mitch Albom as a human being. In fact, there is evidence to suggest otherwise. He used sales from his first book to raise funds to pay for a former professor's medical bills, he sponsors fundraisers for the homeless, and he penned what many consider a moving, uplifting story about the afterlife and its treatment of those who do good--he's also very eager to tell you about it. Bully for him. He understands the marketing sense of helping others out while you make a great deal of money. To be fair, there's nothing inherently wrong with making money.

Partnering with Starbucks, however, was a move on Albom's part that churns my stomach. If writing books were a sideline to his career, I could see the partnership as an appropriate one. After all, Starbucks has compared its foray into bookselling to the third leg of a stool, another sideline to buttress already ridiculous sales of coffee, music, and dvds. A third leg serves as an unintentionally apt metaphor for what Starbucks' new venture represents. It is unwelcome to conscious consumers.

Albom has signed on to offer his new book, "For One More Day," for sale at Starbucks coffeehouses all over the country. His reasoning is that it will offer readers a "fine environment to absorb and discuss a good book." As opposed to the thousands of independent bookstores who will offer the book? Granted, independents will sell the book without the drastically deep discounts afforded only to very rich companies. But if you are concerned about two or three extra dollars in your wallet, why are you spending $3-$5 on a cup of coffee?
So fine, Mitch Albom is going on an eight-city author tour for Starbucks. Why am I so against the proposition? The answer is simple: Albom is in it for the cash, not for promoting literacy. Allow me to state my case.

First, nothing that Mitch Albom has produced up to this point qualifies as literature. It is watered-down, feel-good writing that is not even well-crafted. Reading his work is a waste of time precisely because it is soley worthwhile for its emotional content. When I hear about how "heart-rending" or "tear-jerking" his books are, it makes me want to lose my lunch. This sort of shallow reward is not unlike the fruitless benefit of reading bodice-rippers.
If I want to sit down and spend a few hours reading something that won't challenge me, I know that I can rely on a vast number of writers. If I want to read something that might change my life, make me contemplate human nature and how writing can elevate it, then I have fewer, but still plentiful options.

Second, I have to ask why Albom justifies promoting his book so aggressively through the Starbucks engine if he really cares about literacy. Yes, people read in Starbucks locations all over, but Starbucks did not invent this phenomenon. In fact, the practice of reading and discussing books in coffee shops as a popular public activity sprang from a far more independent vein. The Beat Generation gave it a mighty push forward--authentically. So maybe we should be asking why City Lights doesn't franchise itself out for the sake of the mighty buck. Think of what could be made off of pasting pictures of Kerouac, Ferlinghetti, and Ginsberg on coffee mugs all over the world. They haven't done it, and they never will because the idea is lame. Money isn't everything. Community means a helluva lot. That's why.

Starbucks may have started with a great idea, but they've compromised any status they might have had as a positive commercial force by infiltrating (there is no more equitous word to describe it) communities the nation over. They build cookie-cutter shops that out-complete better businesses simply because they have the money to do so. There are three Starbucks within a one-mile radius in my city, and in the town's only Arts District. Additionally, those coffeehouses are all sidled next to non-franchise, long-standing coffeeshops that have truly been part of the community. They may not have dapper, matching green aprons to parade around, but they have fantastic employees, wonderful atmospheres, customers who write as furiously as any under a Starbucks roof, and superior coffee.

Starbucks will contribute $1 per sale of Albom's book to a preschool literacy program. They should do that anyway. Crap on Bill Gates as much as you like, but he didn't have to sell condoms for a profit to fund HIV prevention programs in Africa.

What Mitch Albom represents to me, after his decision to sell out completely, is not only a writer who doesn't deserve the title (he was that when he first put pen to paper), but a poser who justifies his money lust by talking about how he likes to promote reading. How about working on your craft in a way that encourages the nobody with talent to succeed, as opposed to the somebody with money.

Today, Albom's new novel hits bookstands everywhere. I encourage conscientious readers who want to see independent bookstores succeed in their communities to boycott the book at Starbucks. Moreover, commit yourselves to buying a good book today instead of the sentimental drivel that Albom and his ilk turn out. "The Road," by Cormac McCarthy was released today, and I bet that it will change your life, or at the very least, remind you of why we read great literature in the first place.