Monday, April 19, 2010

Books Up and Down

The good news: Ebook sales shot up 176.6% in 2009, though they comprise only 1.3% of book sales. Better news: adult hardcover book sales were up nearly 7% over 2008 levels. Not so good news is that adult paperback sales went down 5.2%, and overall book sales were down 1.8% in 2009--all according to this New York Times story.

I'm part of the problem, I suppose. While I've bought books as gifts over the past month, my own reading material has come from the library. Right now it's Olive Kitteridge and the Orson Scott Card Homecoming series, which I guess is sci-fi (the first book is pictured at left; there's five in the series).


My very Catholic bff thinks that the Homecoming books tell how the Bible was written. I don't want to break the spell by pointing out that Card is Mormon and the main character is named after Nephi, who (Mormons believe) wrote the Book of Mormon on golden tablets. I suppose we all look at our books through the lenses (or seer stones) of our own beliefs, so does it matter?

2 comments:

Bryan said...

Nephi was a major player in the Book of Mormon, but he only wrote a small portion of it.

But yeah, your personal interpretation of a book is more important than what the author intended. Because your subjective experience with a work of art is the most important one.

Plus, as Neil Gaiman said: "Trust the tale, not the teller."

Vickey Kall said...

Thanks for checking in, and for your info. Love the quote!