Critical Linking: February 17, 2012
“Electronics are here to stay, but someday the digital revolution in publishing may well be seen as just another phase in the natural evolution of a vital and resilient industry.”
Excellent timeline of past “threats” to the book industry. Generally speaking, I think doomsday predictors and futurists often forget to look at history.
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“Amazon.com’s consumer ratings have increased significantly, moving them from 8th to 4th in the ranking of brands with the best reputations among the American public. It is now outranked only by Apple, again at number one, followed by Google and Coca-Cola.”
Might be a shock to some, but to the average customer they provide a fast, reliable, inexpensive service. Right or wrong, that goes along way with John Q. Public.
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“Why do I so often hear intelligent, educated women admitting that they read commercial women’s fiction, but only as a “guilty pleasure”? Are there millions of clever men out there feeling guilty about reading John Grisham?”
Well, just because you don’t feel guilt doesn’t mean you didn’t commit the crime, but the point is well taken.
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Like most Amis fanciers, I had heard of the existence of this video game book –- the full title of which is Invasion of the Space Invaders: An Addict’s Guide to Battle Tactics, Big Scores and the Best Machines –- but knew very little about it. What I did know was that he dashed it off at some point during the time he was writing Money, one of the great British novels of the 1980s, and that it has long been out of print.
So Martin Amis is a cabinet hound and he now lives in my neighborhood. Why are we not best friends!?
