The Jobs Memes - for Readers & for Writers

My first meme is reaction to Steve Job's comment that since people don't read he's not going to put an e-book reading device on his iPhone.

Like Timothy Egan who I quoted from his recent op ed in the Times - I'm offended. The very last thing we need in this world is people in positions of being quoted to misquote stats and suggest that reading is dead.

I'm betting Mac writers combined have more books in print  many times over than Jobs has sold iPhones. And that readers who use Macs read more books a year than Jobs sells iPhones.

With all the Mac users who are readers and writers, it would be great see  books get the respect they deserve.

The Jobs Meme for Writers

How many books have you written? 11. 9 Novels, 2 non fiction books.
How many copies of your books are in print? More than half a million, less than a million.
How many of your books did you write on a Mac? All 11.
When did you buy your first Mac? 1994

The Jobs Meme for Readers

How many books do you read a year? Over 100
When was the last time you bought a new computer? Last year
When do you expect you'll buy your next computer? Next year.
When do you expect you'll buy your next cell phone? Next year.
On a scale of 1-10 how important do you think it is that we support reading and literacy? 10

Comments

[Douglas Clegg]

I'm not a Mac user (yet!) although I guess I can count the year or two I worked on a magazine and we used the early Apples...but Steve Jobs lost credibility as a visionary when he said this.

Everyone who uses a computer reads in one form or another. Whether it's an ebook, an online newspaper, or just a website with intriguing content...we're reading.

I'm hoping he meant it to come off as a joke -- but it doesn't read that way.

When reading fiction goes away -- if it ever does -- the human imagination will have reached the end of its evolution.

Someday, Steve Jobs will go away (I will, too -- all of us will), but reading and books will still be here as long as there are those who believe in their importance keep them alive. No one ever will say, "Video games shouldn't die. They're too important." Nor do they say, "Text messaging is too vital to our youth for it to ever go away."

But I think most people who would read this post would agree that there is something far and away so important about reading that for it to go away, the world would feel dark.

Sadly, if anything is killing reading, it's the schools. I know: I taught in a school. I was handed a curriculum that the kids found boring. Then I found a more advanced book to read -- well within the "American Classics" tradition -- a Mark Twain novel, no less -- and the kids (7th graders) loved it. But I was told to go back to the book that even I found dull (I had found the book dull when I was their age, and I found it dull as an adult).

You can't get kids to love reading with books that are not interesting to anyone but an academic.

Interestingly, a writer named Deborah LeBlanc is doing what I consider the most brilliant marketing move combined with a really important step forward for encouraging reading in youth.

Imagine this: a competition about reading.

To read about it, go here:

http://www.theleblancchallenge.com/

I think publishers, booksellers, and authors should create these kinds of challenges for schools across the country.

Get America reading.

[Dana King]

I dismiss almost everything Jobs says; frankly, he's an ass. (I left out four letters for delicacy.) He likes to compare Mac vs. Microsoft to us and the Russians during the Cold War; really, it's more like Russia and Red China.

Jobs shares an annoying tendency with many wildly successful (read: rich) people: they were good (and lucky) at one thing, and think that means they know everything about everything.

[Ali]

Mr Jobs is irresponsible by pandering to the illiterate.

What's the saying?

"A person who can't read is no better off than the person who doesn't read"

Reading is alive and kicking -

Ali

[Roy LaPlante]

Steve Jobs is full of himself and speaks impulsively.
To the contrary I believe the written word has become a much more enticing medium to young people since the internet relies so heavily on text.

[Sales Jobs]

Although I am not a Mac user yet! I just got a ibook pro, I am a little nervous about making the switch. I hope it is as good as everyone says.

[Will Entrekin]

The funny thing about it is that the digital version of my debut collection became, the week after Apple released the iPhone, became the first e-book on it.