{"id":28,"date":"2012-01-30T21:13:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-30T21:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/franzen-says-ebooks-not-for-serious-readers\/"},"modified":"2012-01-30T21:13:00","modified_gmt":"2012-01-30T21:13:00","slug":"franzen-says-ebooks-not-for-serious-readers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/franzen-says-ebooks-not-for-serious-readers\/","title":{"rendered":"Franzen Says Ebooks not for Serious Readers"},"content":{"rendered":"
Literary author Jonathan Franzen says that ebooks aren’t for serious readers.\u00a0 You can read\u00a0 his comments here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

As a person who considers himself a serious reader, I take great offense at these remarks.\u00a0 The medium through which a person chooses to read, whether paper, electronic, or (as in my case) a combination of both, is in no way a reflection of whether that person is a “serious reader”.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Of course, Mr. Franzen doesn’t define what a “serious reader” is.\u00a0 Is it someone who places a high priority on reading and buys numerous books every year or month or in some cases every week?\u00a0 Or perhaps it’s a person who only reads serious Literature?\u00a0 (Capitalization mine.)\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Aside from the brain-dead connection Mr. Franzen tries to make between paper books and responsible self-government, his remarks show just how out of step he is with vast numbers of readers, both here in America as well as other parts of the world.\u00a0 Franzen is a darling of the literati, those arbiters of taste and snobbery, most of whom wouldn’t deign to read genre fiction.\u00a0 At least not in public.\u00a0 Franzen clearly seems to share this elitist view, despite the fact that his books are available in electronic editions.\u00a0 He states that paper books provide a level of permanence.\u00a0 He’s also gone on record<\/a> saying that “It’s doubtful that anyone with an internet connection at his workplace is writing good fiction.”\u00a0 I strongly beg to differ, but good fiction is in the eye of the beholder.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, I doubt Franzen would recognize good fiction if it bit him in the ass.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Of course, Franzen’s remarks illustrate one of the results of a recent survey<\/a> by Verso Digital.\u00a0 Among their findings was that resistance to ereaders is growing, even among avid readers.\u00a0 If I’m understanding the survey correctly, the resistance is from people who have never been inclined to read on an ereader.\u00a0 Frankly, I don’t care what format you choose for reading.\u00a0 Just don’t take a condescending attitude toward those of us who don’t choose the same as you.<\/p>\n

Franzen also says<\/a> that if printed books become obsolete, he’s glad he won’t live long enough to see it.\u00a0 Given his attitude, I find it hard to disagree with that statement.\u00a0 In the meantime, I’m going to read some good indie fiction.<\/p>\n

On my ereader.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Literary author Jonathan Franzen says that ebooks aren’t for serious readers.\u00a0 You can read\u00a0 his comments here. As a person who considers himself a serious reader, I take great offense at these remarks.\u00a0 The medium through which a person chooses to read, whether paper, electronic, or (as in my case) a combination of both, is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[42,41,43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-electronic-publishing","category-jonathan-franzen","category-verso-digital"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3P5pJ-s","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}