I have to admit that a Kindle cannot compete with a classic bookshelf when it comes to impressing guests. Luckily that is not a concern for me.
“Read more!” I saw the text on a small plastic bag I had acquired some years ago from Narvesen, a kiosk chain here in Norway. I don’t know how this is in other countries, but in Norway kiosks usually sell snacks, newspapers, comics, magazines and hot dogs. In later years they usually also sell paperbacks, foreign magazines and pizza. Narvesen is the larges of the chains here, and has contributed quite a bit to the current bilingual state of our nation. A lot of literature is either unavailable in Norwegian or far more expensive, as our country has still less than 5 million citizens (about 4.5 million speaking Norwegian, I would guesstimate).
These days, the Narvesen kiosks may not be profiting the most if people took their old advice to heart. Norwegians have flocked to Amazon, buying first ordinary books but these days mainly e-books for Kindle. Most Norwegians have computer, smartphone, tablet or something in between. All of these have the ability to run the Kindle software. In addition, many Norwegians have bought a dedicated Kindle tablet.
In contrast, I am happy to say that Barnes & Noble’s Nook is virtually unknown here. Â This is reasonable since they refuse to sell many of their books in our country. It also warms my heart because B&N is evil and should die, die, die and become like ash under the soles of the righteous. They sold me several e-books in the early years of that business, then after a while closed down their e-book business and deleted the books (which they had promised would be available for re-download). Meanwhile, during the dark years, Fictionwise.com was patient and was the major actor in selling recent fiction in e-book format. Just as the tide was turning, B&N bought them up and stopped them from selling many of their books overseas. Today, judging from the mails I get from them, they are mostly selling cheap romance books. May righteous judgment come upon B&N for their crimes against the innocent! May their shops become public toilets and all who pass them shake their heads and say “This was the high and mighty Barnes and Noble; may all who break their promises be destroyed like they were destroyed.”
OK, got a little carried away there.
In any case, it is a safe bet that if Norwegians take to heart the encouragement to read more, Amazon.com is likely to get at least as much profit from it as Narvesen. Even though there are cheaper competitors, like Smashwords, they tend to not have anywhere near the same number of different books. They also don’t have the synchronization across different devices. Still, I think competition on price is a good thing at this stage: In today’s mass market, it is no longer sane to have e-books cost more than paperbacks. So I will encourage you to search on Smashwords, or Google for other outlets, before pressing “Buy with 1-click”.
In any case, I plan to keep reading, if Light allows. I still have a backlog of books I have bought, most of them pretty heavy and dense – although no longer in a literal sense, I am happy to say, as far as the e-books are concerned!