Ebooks and Age

[djulian]

Hmm...I'm definitely not over 45, and I'm definitely not a woman, and I read on my Kindle a ton.

I'm curious about the following:
- Is this unique to Kobo's user base?
- Is this true for reading in general (and not just e-reading)? (There are some notes on that in the article.)
- Is this true for MR forum participants?


http://www.theguardian.com/books/201...n-study-claims

ETA: Also, seriously, please forgive me if the poll options are unnecessarily restrictive or unfair in some manner. I started the thread as a poll and then I realized I didn't have nearly enough fields/options for the reality of life and identity.

[howyoudoin]

I like how they employ the euphemism 'Romance'.

It's m0mmy p0rn.. You're not fooling anyone, Tamblyn. I've browsed your bookstore and the Kobo book recommendations. I end rolling my eyes up every time.

[DiapDealer]

People who are exactly 45 can't vote.

I've no doubt that women over 45 could represent a huge portion of readers utilizing ebooks. No unnecessary genre judgements on why, either.

[Catlady]

How does Kobo know how old its users are?

Any self-reported demographic information is easily skewed. Perhaps it's just me, but I never ever give my age to a retailer or Web site of any sort--since there's usually a drop-down menu, I use the first year shown, which generally means I'm 100 years old at the time I first sign up. Or if I have to enter a year on my own, I enter 1900. I simply don't see a reason to provide my age to a store, so I don't.

[eschwartz]

I think it is very obvious that the reason why ebooks are predominantly bought by elderly women is because ebooks are predominantly meant for and suited to m0mmy p0rn.

Real book readers read on hand-illuminated vellum. And even the wannabes at least have the decency to use those cheap paper things rather than soulless electrons.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I think it is very obvious that the reason why ebooks are predominantly bought by elderly women is because ebooks are predominantly meant for and suited to m0mmy p0rn.

Real book readers read on hand-illuminated vellum. And even the wannabes at least have the decency to use those cheap paper things rather than soulless electrons.

elderly? 45 and older is elderly? You do like living dangerously, don't you.

[eschwartz]

[JSWolf]

I do think that asking if anyone is LGBTQ is just wrong. Those two answers need to go. Why does it matter sexual orientation?

[ekbell]

Give me a few more years and I'll be one of those women over 45.

Currently my purchases are less romance and more mystery, speculative fiction and non-fiction but that's partly because I picked up all the Heyer books some time back (and because most of my other books with love stories have been sold under other categories).

As for the general market for romance; I remember just how many romance novels my Grandmother had piled up in heaps in corner of her house, how many Romance novels could be found in any place selling used books, the library which had a bookcase where anyone could freely add and remove Romance novels (it was generally stuffed full with an always changing selection of books) ......

My assumption is that the tendency of avid romance readers to consume lots and lots of books meshes well with the ability to buy-on-demand without needing to clear out piles of old books, add to that the number of people who like writing romance (see any fanfic site for examples) and the ability for authors and buyers to find each other.... I'm fairly certain that the ability to avoid being judged for one's choice in reading material is a relatively minor issue.

BTW my taste in books did not magically change when I became a mother so why M0mmy P0rn?

[jbjb]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

People who are exactly 45 can't vote. .

Which is, of course, an empty set. (Unless time is quantized in which case it's still almost certainly an empty set, and even in the extremely unlikely circumstance of actually being exactly 45 you really wouldn't have to wait very long at all until you weren't!)

/JB

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by ekbell

BTW my taste in books did not magically change when I became a mother so why M0mmy P0rn?

Because there is in fact a meme that says mommies are sad middle-aged housewives who don't get to have sex, and therefore spend their alone time reading "m0mmy p0rn" thinly disguised as "romance" in order to imagine they are in A Better Place.

Why are some people convinced that is so? I don't know. It may have something to do with the highfalutin literary establishment though. The highfalutin literary establishment is quite fond of disparaging books that aren't literary enough. And they coincide with the establishment of irrational ebook haters.

[howyoudoin]

It might be because of all the m0mmy p0rn ebooks littering the Kobo bookstore.

Also the fact that Kobo keep pushing that genre with their recommendations and email newsletters.

[ekbell]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Because there is in fact a meme that says mommies are sad middle-aged housewives who don't get to have sex, and therefore spend their alone time reading "m0mmy p0rn" thinly disguised as "romance" in order to imagine they are in A Better Place.

Why are some people convinced that is so? I don't know. It may have something to do with the highfalutin literary establishment though. The highfalutin literary establishment is quite fond of disparaging books that aren't literary enough. And they coincide with the establishment of irrational ebook haters.

I see

It can't simply be called erotic, graphic, explicit or even just p0rn because otherwise people might believe women who are not mothers or even the occasional man 'gasp' might be reading these books and we can't have that!

[eschwartz]

Men are too manly to read romance. Obviously.

(And Twilight (!!!) was nevertheless disturbingly popular amongst a certain portion of my male-only high school. )

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Men are too manly to read romance. Obviously.

They're not too manly to write romance though--hiding behind a flowerly feminine pseudonym.