Can technology makes us read more books?
There is one thing about all electronic book readers that improves on the technology behind analog books: convenience. With my Kindle
That ease of use means that those who own these e-book reader might buy more books in general:
Amazon for example, says that people with Kindles now buy 3.1 times as many books as they did before owning the device. That factor is up from 2.7 in December 2008. So a reader who had previously bought eight books from Amazon would now purchase, on average, 24.8 books, a rise from 21.6 books.
People who own digital books are clearly a self-selecting crowd. For one, those who are willing to purchase these electronic devices are passionate book buyers in general. But as a trend, this is encouraging.
And with more devices being introduced all the time, we’ll have plenty of opportunity to observe how technology affects book-buying habits.
But are those people actually reading all of the books they buy? Or are they just getting lost in personal Kindle abysses?
There are some books that I haven’t read on my Kindle (mostly those that I got for free). But … I definitely read most of what I buy.