The Two Kinds of Books ( One Kind )

Saturday, October 25, 2014 8:31:01 PM

The Two Kinds of Books ( One Kind )

 

In The Very Near Future, Possibly as early as tomorrow, There will be Two Kinds of Books. & this Division Extends to Children’s or Adolescent Books;

1 ) Coffee Table Books

2 ) Electronic ( Digital Tablet ) Books

 

Electronic, Digital Books are for Reading, Principally Classical ( Novella ) Fiction, or Very Dry Non-Fiction.

All Non-Fiction though, Written with The Intention of Being Educational, Should be Published as Coffee Table Books.

 

By Coffee Table Books; i mean;

Big Illustrated Pages with Prose Poems for Text.

 

Although The Classic Coffee Table Book is Usually Pretty Large, Intended to be Read ( or Perused ) while laying Flat on A Table or On Lush Carpeting, while you lay prone, supported by Decorative Throw Pillows, The Coffee Table book may easily be much smaller. i have several very small books of this genre, which often take The Form of 500 (x.

 

Such as my Beloved _500 Chairs_ Book / © 2008 Lark Books

 

Most Art Books would take this Form.

As a small side note; i can Not Stand ( Stomach ) Art books with either No Pictures, or Poorly Reproduced Black & White Images.

Ugh. ( ! )

OR :

Any book with A Photo Insert Section.

 

i have often thought; ( or asked )

How well do Children’s Books Sell ?

 

Sure; There are lots of Children, & Any Good Parent buys their children lots of Books, But The Children’s Book Market is also Fully Saturated, So that any Given Children’s Book is Competing Against a Much Larger ( Genre ) of Books, as opposed to any given cheaply reproduced Science Fiction Paperback or Romance Novel.

 

But, you see;

The Point i am making, is that Children’s books are always Lushly Produced with huge Colorful Pages.

Why aren’t all books made like this ?

That is my Question ?

 

Specifically;

i often come across Fringe Science, or Science Books that have few illustrations, or very poorly reproduced illustrations, & i have thought, why wasn’t this book created with The Same Enthusiasm as any given children’s book ?

i am sure ( ? ) That if it were, it would enjoy a much broader readership. As i just pointed out ( Asked ), It can’t be all that much more expensive to make such a book, Although i would allow that it would seem that it Should be much more expensive.

How then, can The Children’s Book Market Persist ?

 

i suspect that one solution for this puzzle is that many writers of ‘Intellectual’ or ‘Pseudo-Intellectual’ Books, have this kooky idea that books with ‘Pictures’ in them, are Necessarily ‘Children’s Books’, So that if they do find themselves obligated to include a photograph, graphic image or illustration for some reason, they make sure that it is of The Poorest Imaginable Quality so that it Won’t Be Aesthetically Appealing ( !!! )

 

i find it Incomprehensible how any, ( Literally ANY ) Publisher or Editor would allow an otherwise scholarly book of any real merit, to be Published with these gawd-awful illustrations or photographs in them ( ? )

 

What are they Thinking ?

 

Again; Would it really be that much more Expensive to Publish a ‘Nice’ Book ( ? )

Does it have to ( Necessarily ) be Drab & Ugly to be taken seriously by ‘Intellectuals’ ( ? )

 

One thing that i noticed when i was fairly young;

Around 11 or 12 years old, Was that The Smartest Kids in School were The Silliest ones. Very rarely would i find a really bright student that was overly sullen &/or morose.

The ‘Ordinary’ or ‘Dull’ Students were The ones that were Glum & Sulky, Trying to ‘Appear’ ’Serious’.

 

The ones that really were Serious about their Education & were Engaged in Their Own Futures, didn’t care a lick about how they appeared to others.

 

So i think this same ‘Formula’ applies to Book Publishing.

 

Scientific American; A Very Serious Scientific Journal is Always filled with Very Colorful & Informative Illustrations & Photographs, Because The Publisher of SciAm knows that their Readers want to be ‘Easily’ Educated & aren’t concerned with ‘Appearing’ to be smart by having to scratch through pages after page of incomprehensible text to find an interesting idea or revelation.

 

Actually;

What i would really like to see, is all books published for a Digital Medium in The Same Manner as Magazines.

 

The One Kind of Future Books :

1 ) Digital Magazines

 

i have dozens of Magazines on my Kindle Fire, & they are much more enjoyable to read than A Paper-Magazine.

 

Firstly ; They much more Convenient to lug around.

 

Two : They don’t exhibit Page Glare that is very common with Glossy Illustrations on Paper Magazines.

 

Three : With The Magazines that feature The Alternative [ Text ] Mode; This makes it very easy to read The Article. i especially like The Infinite Scroll down, which i think should be available ( As an Option ) to all Books.

i have a Bible App that also features a Auto-Crawl Feature which ( Would, if it were faster ! ) makes reading even easier !

 

Four (a : The Most Enjoyable Feature of Digital Magazines is that they are so Lush Looking & The Pinch & Zoom Feature makes them very easy to examine fine details in The Illustrations, Pictures or Text Blocks.

 

Four (b : One of kinds of Book that i have discovered that i very much _Do Not_ like; are Graphic Novels published for Digital Tablets !!! They have been ‘Over-Produced’ to Ostensibly make them ’Easier’ to Read, Jumping from Pane to Pane, but this actually makes them much Harder & Often very Frustrating to Read, because The Pinch to Zoom doesn’t work Consistently or Reliably, & there are often ‘Additional’ features that are activated by touching The Screen in a Variety of ‘Clever’ Ways that make reading them Additionally Annoying !!! If they were Dumbed down to The Level of Ordinary Magazines which present each Page as a Single Easily Examined Single Image that can be Intuitively Navigated Over, They would be much better.

 

Five : No Matter How Big ( Long ) The Book or How many Pictures or Illustrations you want to Include; The Production End of it’s Creation would be Practically Free, as would Distribution.

 

Six : Any Pre-Adolescent Child with a Sense of Quality & A Modicum of Design Appreciation would be able to create a .pdf that would be entirely equivalent to The Most Well Made Fashion Magazines now available, & would then be viewed on any Digital Tablet as a 100% Equivalent Product. Any Child that produces a School Report any less than this is a Slacker.

 

Seven : The only ( Cost ) ( Downside ) of this is that Digital Tablet would require more Internal Memory than they now typically possess. When i first got my Kindle Fire, i was annoyed that it came with only 16Gb, of which i was only able to access or use about 12Gb of that. i was also aware that The Apps would take up quite a bit of that Memory Resource, leaving almost none for The Actual Books— But Amazingly ( To my Great Surprise ) i was able to fill up my Kindle Fire with Dozens & Dozens of Books, quite a few Game & other Apps, Plus Several Dozen Magazines. The Magazines by far are The Memory Hogs & The Few Times that i have ‘Run Out’ of memory, that Collection is where The Trimming is Performed. But even So, Although The Kindle Fire doesn’t allow me to Store The Magazines on my Computer, they remain accessible in The Cloud, so that i can retrieve them at any time i wish.

 

Also : Downloading a Magazine takes MUCH longer than a Book. Sometimes 20_minutes !!! or so, as opposed to a book of nothing but text, which takes less than a minute.

 

So that : If these Downloads could take place entirely in ‘The Background’ while i use The Tablet for other Functions, that process would become invisible ( unnoticeable ).

 

In The Near Future ( Next Week ) These Magazines will cross The Book/App Divide & become much more Interactive, Featuring Films, Audio Tracks & such. The New Yorker Magazine already has Features like this to some degree, but they are just experimenting with these things.

 

One thing that i would like; Is when a Letters Column Item refers to an article in a previous Issue, It would be very convenient to simply jump to that previous article & jump back.

 

Some magazines allow you to look up words, which is much more common in books, but since most of these magazines are ( apparently ) page scans of The Paper Versions, The Text is only images, like The Pictures. In The Future; These Digital Magazines will be produced as Digital Interactive Magazines, & then Scanned Down for The Paper Versions !