01-01-2023, 06:16 PM | #16 | |
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I experienced deja vu listening to it but was confused by the recent news tidbits until I found this: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts...nt?tab=summary One thing nice about On the Media is that transcripts are usually available a few days after broadcast. |
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01-01-2023, 07:19 PM | #17 | |
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01-01-2023, 08:22 PM | #18 |
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01-01-2023, 09:12 PM | #19 |
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01-02-2023, 09:51 AM | #20 |
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By those snobs definition, Serious readers are sworn acolytes of the Big 5 publishers, they ONLY read books recommended by them. Which means they only read the recommended best seller books and pay serious money for them thereby keeping the Big 5 in business.
They STILL don't consider self-publishing to be relevant. The hypocrisy though is if someone self publishes and becomes a hit, they will fall all over themselves to get them signed under their label so that they can make the money and not Amazon! |
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01-02-2023, 10:37 AM | #21 |
o saeclum infacetum
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I’m not at all comfortable describing people as “snobs” based on their reading preferences, either. I think both sides need to dial way back on the judgy rhetoric.
It also seems to me that the Big Five publishes a lot of junk*, anyway, so using that as your litmus test says nothing at all. OUP or Yale? That would be different. *Yeah, I know I just got the hackles up again. |
01-02-2023, 11:31 AM | #22 |
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Aside from junk or not, the Big Five are poorer at picking winners than experts on horses at the races, if you go by percentage of books making advance in royalties (though those can make a profit). Also why only text books as POD? Surely nothing should be out of print now?
Profitable Junk: Hyped on media giving great sales, but vast qty in local charity shops that look pristine. Unprofitable: Gets pulped, maybe without reviews. Might be a great book but they don't bother even with an ebook, so we will never know. Snob literature: Very famous and highly regarded but only a small percentage of readers complete the book. Traditionally a book snob bought a library of books and didn't read any of them. Maybe there is a better term. Then there are people that invest / collect books, but don't read, like some so called fine Art collectors (I can hear my daughter shouting buy from living artists). Buying anything purely as a speculative investment isn't appreciation. It's knowing the price and not the value. Last edited by Quoth; 01-02-2023 at 11:37 AM. |
01-02-2023, 11:45 AM | #23 |
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Depends on who is talking. In some context, it is folks who read literary fiction and think deeply about it, preferably while in a Parisian cafe.
For me, a 'serious reader' would be someone who reads regularly for pleasure. |
01-02-2023, 11:46 AM | #24 |
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01-03-2023, 09:57 AM | #25 |
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Precisely! I have no patience for that kind of attitude. Read what you like, or just display so that people think you read a lot, I couldn't care less. But don't scorn those who read genre fiction or romance novels, or even comic books. Reading is reading no matter what material you are reading, it makes you no better or worse than someone else.
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01-03-2023, 10:32 AM | #26 |
o saeclum infacetum
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I haven’t listened to the podcast.
Did the snob in question say that only or mostly genre readers read ebooks (which I’d say is false) or that most ebooks are genre fiction (which I’d say is true and Ezra Klein at the NYT agrees). In part because a book does not equal a book, necessarily; someone can read 10, 20 romance novels to one academic history. This is one of my issues with libraries in general, that they buy a lot more romance and chicklit than other fiction and serious nonfiction. It’s because of circulation, of course, but it’s not really fair on the person who likes doorstops and only reads one or two a month. My other issue is the quibble between judgmental comments about the quality of books read and judgmental comments about readers based on what they read. I don’t think it’s as often the latter (although I’d not say never) as people claim. To what extent are people really being judged on what they read? And yet, I think there’s justice in a qualitative assessment of books. Some books are “better” in the sense that they’re more informative, lead to greater engagement, exercise the critical facilities, etc. than others. That doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with lighter reading and I think perfect taste is suspect anyway. Essentially I think distinctions are being fudged and positions misstated and a lot of fighting words applied injudiciously. |
01-03-2023, 12:03 PM | #27 | |||
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But honestly, I don't care too much about what you think of who is using the word 'snob' anyway. More interesting to me is this: Quote:
The main thrust of the story was that with the arrival of the Kindle in 2007 people assumed that ebooks would take over the way digital music supplanted physical media, and that has not happened. Instead, ebooks sales soared at first, leveled out and then dropped. And while ebooks didn't completely replace paper books, I think that reports of their sales figures are way off. They don't take in sales from small/indie publishers or Amazon's own imprints. If the most popular paper book segments are now the most popular ebook segments, then ebooks are doing just fine. Quote:
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01-03-2023, 01:19 PM | #28 | |
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The transcript isn't up yet, but you can read or skim the one for September 16th (original broadcast) at
https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts...dia-fine-print Quote:
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01-03-2023, 01:24 PM | #29 | |
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01-03-2023, 03:05 PM | #30 | |||||
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