The Netflix of Books

Online streaming services for movies and TV shows have become a cultural phenomenon. How many people do you know with Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, or HBO Go accounts? I use my family’s Netflix account, pay for Amazon Prime, and occasionally borrow my friend’s HBO Go login. Instant streaming has become the number one tool for procrastination, or better yet, laziness.

When I watch an episode of Friends or Breaking Bad on Netflix, I go through a series of emotions. First, it’s the relief: Now I can finally relax. Then, it’s the doubt: Should I really be watching TV right now? Finally, the guilt: I really should be doing homework, or finishing that project, or reading, or exercising.  Five episodes later, it’s too late. I’m hooked. There’s no going back.

But not all streaming has to be a guilty idle activity.

This is where Oyster Books comes in. For $9.95 a month (roughly the same cost of Netflix), Oyster allows unlimited streaming of its digital book collection anytime, anywhere. As if that’s not enough, Oyster just added the complete Harry Potter series to its collection.

I’m not championing digital e-book reading over print by any means. I actually do not own a Kindle, Tablet, Nook, or any other e-book device. I’m one of those people who has hundreds of books because I have to have the print copy. I still buy and read tangible, print copies of books. I prefer it. However, Oyster gives me the chance to decide if the print copy is worth it. I reread good books all the time, so Oyster gives me the opportunity to save a little money on the books I don’t like.

I don’t believe Oyster is the downfall of print books. I think Oyster can drive book sales. Opponents believe that $10 is too much for unlimited books every month because who can read that much to make up for that cost? My record is eight books in one month. My average is about two, and when I spend time watching Netflix, I finish about one book each month.

Since Oyster, my average number of books per month has increased. My guilt has decreased. And my intelligence has skyrocketed. Now, when I log onto my computer, I type Oyster into my web address bar instead of Netflix for the same sense of relaxation, minus the guilt of laziness.

Don’t hesitate or wait to get on board with Oyster.  Avoid the guilt of Netflix. As the Oyster website claims, it’s “beautifully digital reading for everyone.”

~Molly Spain, intern

Print is here to stay.

With the introduction of the e-book and tablet readers, many people are predicting the demise of printed media in the near future. However, I do not see such a Bradburian doomsday for the printed word. In fact, when looking at the current climate, there are many reasons for pessimists to reassess their half-empty glasses.

To see a brighter future, it is first necessary to look to the past. In his book, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, Neil Postman notes that the United States is unique in that it was founded in the age of the printed word. In fact, it was one of the most literate countries in the world. This “Typographic America,” as Postman calls it, was integral to a democratic system because it was the only means of communication across a vast landscape. Just think: how would a democracy work in a country where citizens could not read the laws or understand their very freedom? The very size of the country would also make any sort of verbal discourse across states next to impossible! This foundation on the printed word still remains today. The problem with foundations, however, is they are hidden under everything else.

Today, media is overwhelmingly dominated by screens. But if one would behind those screens, he would see a thriving typographic landscape. Let’s start with the e-book, the printed word’s latest arch nemesis. Since 2008, e-book sales have grown 4456%, an alarming number to be sure; at least until one considers the fact that they still only make up 20% of all sales. Last year (2013), e-book sales grew by 43%, which is another healthy number except that it is the first time in three years that they have not grown by triple digits. One last statistic: 457 million e-books were sold last year compared to 557 million print books, but that is just hardcover! Finally, polls have shown that millennials—those people that are supposed to be so plugged into their screens—still overwhelmingly prefer physical print.

That’s not all the good news lurking behind the screen, however. According to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), more than two hundred movies coming out will be based on books this year alone. While those pessimists might point to this as a sign of the cannibalization of print as a medium, I find it quite comforting. This is mostly because these big movies actually drive book sales, and not just for the juggernauts like the Rowlings and Sparkses of the world; a new trend has emerged in the past couple years where studios are optioning promising novels before they are even published. So in a way, films and television function as multi-million dollar book trailers.

Speaking of television, it too can drive book sales; shows like True Detective and Game of Thrones have proven this. True Detective is an especially interesting case because it shows how different media can feed on each other and boost sales and ratings. The show centers on two detectives trying to solve a cult murder, with the twist that the mythos of this cult is based on the book The King in Yellow, written by Robert W. Chambers and published in 1895. But the show never mentions this. Instead, it took io9, an online blog, to point out the fact. The end result was a significant spike in sales of the book through Amazon.

The future of print can rely on screens, and vice versa. So, while printed books will never be as powerful or popular as they once were, there is reason to believe that the foundation is here to stay. Now take another look at your glass.

by Ian Burnham, intern

E-books Ready for Download!

TCU Press is proud to announce that many of our titles are now available in e-book format and are ready for download! Find a full list below and click on the title to go to the Amazon Kindle Store. These e-books are also available from Barnes & Noble, Google Books, and many other popular vendors. Please note that these are the first wave of our ongoing process to convert many of our titles to e-books. There will be more to come!

• Elmer Kelton: Essays and Memories edited by Judy Alter and James Ward Lee
• Legacy of the Sacred Harp by Chloe Webb
• Before Texas Changed: A Fort Worth Boyhood by David Murph
• Dividing Western Waters by Jack L. August Jr.
• Moving Serafina by Bob Cherry
• Dancing Naked: Memorable Encounters with Unforgettable Texans by Mary Rogers
• Dinosaur Highway: A History of Dinosaur Valley State Park by Laurie Jasinski
• Echoes of Glory by Robert Flynn
• North to Yesterday by Robert Flynn
• Wanderer Springs by Robert Flynn
• Sundays with Ron Rozelle by Ron Rozelle
• Adversity is My Angel: The Life and Career of Raul H. Castro by Raul H. Castro and Jack L. August Jr.
• From Birdwomen to Skygirls: American Girls' Aviation Stories by Fred Erisman
• Dictionary of the American West by Win Blevins
• Home Truths: A Deep East Texas Memory by Gerald Duff
• Steplings by C. W. Smith
• Slow Moving Dreams by Tom Hardy
• The Chicken Hanger by Ben Rehder
• Texas, My Texas: Musings of the Rambling Boy by Lonn Taylor
• Galveston: A History of the Island by Gary Cartwright
• Baja Oklahoma by Dan Jenkins
• Hell's Half Acre: The Life and Legend of a Red-Light District by Richard F. Selcer
• Killing Cynthia Ann by Charles Brashear
• A Woman of the People by Benjamin Capps
• Comanche Sundown by Jan Reid