Bibliophile or Bibliomaniac?
Bibliophilia is the love of books; a bibliophile is a lover of books. Note that bibliophile is not a reference to the Bible.The classic bibliophile is one who loves to read, admire and collect books, often nurturing a large and specialized collection. Bibliophiles do not necessarily want to possess the books they love; an alternative would be to admire them in old libraries. However, the bibliophile is usually an avid book collector, sometimes putting form above content with an emphasis on old, rare, and expensive books, first editions, books with special or unusual bindings, autographed copies, etc.
The term bibliophile can also be applied to one who has an obsessive fondness for books, perhaps amounting to a biblioholic or bibliomania. One of several psychological disorders associated with books, bibliomania is characterized by the collecting of books which have no use to the collector nor any great intrinsic value to a genuine book collector. The purchase of multiple copies of the same book and edition and the accumulation of books beyond possible capacity of use or enjoyment are frequent symptoms of bibliomania. Mel Gibson's character in the movie Conspiracy Theory suffers from triggered bibliomania, a form of mind-control that prompts him to buy a copy of J.D. Salinger's Catcher In The Rye every time he goes outside his apartment.
This is not surprising, as I look back at my required-reading high school paperback edition, with this message on its tattered cover: "This unusual book may shock you, will make you laugh, or may break your heart -- but you will never forget it!"
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The Ever-Changing Book Business
Oh Where Has My Little Corner Bookshop Gone?
I love books. You love books. We ALL love books. So, why is the book business in trouble?Lord knows, it’s not lack of selection. Are books too expensive? Have books become mundane, lacking the interactive features and extras required by today's savvy info-tainment seekers?
Well, book buying may be sluggish, but book acquisition is through the roof. This summer, a whopping 30 million books were downloaded as part of the World eBook Fair, a giveaway coordinated by Project Gutenberg, the nonprofit organization dedicated to making e-books available for free. Between Gutenberg's 20,000 books and 125 participating e-book libraries and collections, more than 300,000 titles were available, and the project had to be extended for a week because unexpected demand at the start temporarily overwhelmed computer servers.
As anyone who's downloaded a Project Gutenberg book knows, these are BASIC, text-only e-books -- no bells and whistles here. Who knows how many of the books will actually be READ -- sometimes FREE ACCESS is a stronger impulse than intellectual curiosity…and there are still no affordable, efficient reading machines on the market to make reading e-books practical or portable. Regardless, the e-book community is abuzz with the growing popularity of this brave new medium, and what literary-minded soul isn't encouraged by people acquiring books, in whatever form, by the millions?
“On some peak days we had 150,000 different people downloading books,” said Gutenberg founder Michael Hart, who had hoped 10 million books might be downloaded. “A lot more people want e-books than the world ever dreamed of." So great was demand, that Hart says the project will be repeated starting Oct. 1 to coincide with World Book Fair Month.
Hart, who invented the eBook when he founded Project Gutenberg in 1971, has continually added new public domain works to the collection, and occasionally gets permission from authors to redistribute their copyrighted books "non-commercially." Even as publishers push to expand copyright laws, Hart continues his quest to bring free information to the people, including those in developing countries, “…to build a better world from the bottom up, not from the top down.”
Whether mining free works from the public domain, or "googling" for better selection and pricing, the Internet has changed the way we acquire AND buy books; Amazon.com has made paying full retail unthinkable; sites like Alibris.com and Biblio.com have made used book shopping efficient and affordable. Musty old book shops are becoming obsolete, and alas, the magic of leisurely bookstore browsing -- and impulse buying -- is a thing of the past.
At the same time, the way books are created and produced has also been turned upside-down. The "democratization" of publishing, beginning with the desktop publishing revolution of the 1970's and continuing with today's print-on-demand websites and publish-it-yourself software that make you "a published author in 48 hours" and allow you to "self-publish for free," have brought a tidal wave of first-time authors, "experts," and memoirists into print. Today, “impulse publishing” has become a reality.
Granted, a vast majority of these books, once relegated to would-be authors’ daydreams or Madison Avenue slushpiles, will never raise a blip on the cultural radar screen. But, as each new un-reviewed, un-bought, and un-read title joins that giant mountain of waste paper in the sky, it becomes a little harder for the book to retain its status as a sacred, valuable object.
This may help explain Amazon.com’s determination to ramp up their involvement in the print-on-demand and e-book markets, and to dominate every aspect of book delivery. Remember that they purchased P.O.D. publisher BookSurge and PDA content handler Mobipocket back in May, ’06? Now rumors are circulating about plans to market their own e-book device to compete with the Sony Reader. I see street-corner Amazon kiosks in our future, making content downloads as convenient as picking up the daily paper – and making the company an even more pervasive part of our lives.
I do think books will survive the technology boom, just like I think movies and recorded music will survive the digital revolution that gives anybody with a video camera and a Mac a shot at making a film or a music CD. Technological advances are a two-edged sword: bringing affordable personal computers to the masses has unleashed a mass culture of mediocrity; bringing reality T.V. shows to the airwaves holds a mirror up to ourselves that we might not find flattering. But the smooth edge of that sword, the one that helps us communicate with speed and efficiency, share opinions, spread news, and tell stories that can change lives, is a very good thing indeed.
Thanks to the Internet, we all have a soapbox, and if we yell loud enough in the right places and the right times, someone is bound to hear -- and maybe even repeat what they heard. Embrace the technology. Build a killer website complete with audio and video; learn to play the Amazon.com game well; create an e-book; give away free chapters; blog and podcast and MySpace and YouTube yourself into every outlet you can; AND always be alert for the NEXT big trend. It's just around the corner, guaranteed.
Yes, the book as we know it will survive, but those who don't embrace the ever-changing ways of promoting and selling them may not.
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Jim Barnes is editor of Independent Publisher Online and director of the Independent Publisher Book Awards. He is considering publishing a memoir about his life and love of books -- if only he can set aside 48 hours to do so.