Is This The Most Exciting Time Ever For Book Lovers?
by Jason Pinter, Bestselling Thriller Writer
Amidst all the doom and gloom (Books are dying! Print is dead! The Kindle will destroy us all! Big Publishers want to kill your pets! ARMAGEDDON IS NIGH!!!), I just want to take a moment to proclaim that this is quite possibly the most exciting period to be a reader in my lifetime. Think about it: when was the last time books and publishing were as much a part of the daily conversation as they are now? So enough with the catastrophic headlines. They might draw traffic and get people riled up, but they’re empty bloviations. The bottom line is that, in my opinion, the written word is healthier than ever. The health of the book industry is never about the success of one book–it’s a rising tide that lifts all ships. And the tide of buzz about books and publishing is perhaps higher than ever.
Sure individual books and authors have garnered their share of headlines–J.K. Rowling, Dan Brown, Alice Sebold, Stephenie Meyer, etc…–but in my thirty years on this planet, I cannot remember a time when so many people were discussing books themselves, the future of books, and what it all means for everyone involved.