We Know What You Read
The Wall Street Journal looks at the information now available on the reading habits of people using e-readers.
Ever wonder if you’re a slow reader? It took the average reader an hour to read 57 pages of The Hunger Games on an ebook.
Barnes and Noble has begun studying this information. They admit that “Some of the findings confirm what retailers already know,” but some of the insights are “already shaping the types of books that Barnes & Noble sells on its Nook.”
True to form, Amazon decided not to reveal what they do with their data.
What do writers think? Scott Turow tells the WSJ, “If you can find out that a book is too long and you’ve got to be more rigorous in cutting, personally I’d love to get the information.”
Privacy? According to the WSJ, “Some privacy watchdogs argue that e-book users should be protected from having their digital reading habits.”
July 1st, 2012 at 1:36 pm
Oh good grief! Can’t we just let writers give us good stories and forget about how long it takes someone to read 57 pages for crying out loud. The better the book, the more time I want to spend on each page savoring the language and thinking about whatever the characters have in their heads and what they are doing. Nothing is more annoying that a book that is 200 pages and has 115 chapters.