Chris Mullin, the former MP and writer, and one of the judges of this year's Man Booker prize, has refused to use a Kindle to read the submissions. Daisy Goodwin, the television producer and writer, who loves her e-reader, thinks he's wrong. Is this next chapter in book publishing a good thing? Emine Saner got the conversation started by asking the black-and-white TV-owning Mullin if he was simply a technophobe . . .
Chris Mullin - I don't want to disappoint you, but I don't have a fundamental objection to new technology. I was offered the opportunity, as all judges of the Man Booker prize were, and I declined it on the grounds that I like to feel a book, see the look of it.
Daisy Goodwin - I'm interested that you didn't leap at the idea of having a Kindle for the Booker. I chaired the Orange prize last year and would have given my eye teeth to have had one, because I spent months where everywhere I went I was carrying two or three hardbacks. I'd be interested to see if it changes the judging process, because you inevitably make judgments about the book from its cover, the author photograph, all that kind of stuff. You don't get any of that on a Kindle, so it may be that you end up judging the book purely on the words it contains. I think you're being unnecessarily luddite if you have to read 130 novels for the Booker.
CM - I don't find a problem with it. I travel up and down the country on the train, and I have two or three books in my case. I'll ask the other judges soon [if they are using theirs] and I expect they will tell me what an idiot I am . . .
DG - I do share your reservations about whether the reading experience is the same. I don't read continuously in the way I read with a book. When you have a book you have a real tactile sense of how far you're getting. With a Kindle, there's just an indication of how far you've got, which doesn't feel the same. It feels much easier to pick up and put down. The novels I've read on [my Kindle] are probably not the novels I was absolutely concentrating on.
CM - That reinforces my view that if it's the kind of book you want to enjoy, it's preferable to read the actual book.
DG - I agree, but there are advantages with an e-reader. It's good for reference, and having random things. I downloaded all of Shakespeare's plays so, at a loose end, I will start reading some Shakespeare on the tube, which I wouldn't have done before because that would have required forethought.
CM - The manager of a famous bookshop told me he thought the only bookshops that would exist in a few years would be in central London and one or two specialist independent stores around the country. You only have to look to America, where this trend is further advanced, and huge bookstores are going out of business. The book trade is going to consolidate in fewer and fewer hands. It might turn some of our town centres into intellectual deserts.
DG - Big bookshop chains may go out of business, but I think it will be good news for boutique independent booksellers, because they will find themselves without competition. The other thing is, because the cost of entry is far lower, I know of two or three people who have set up e-publishers with very little capital, so there may be more choice.
Emine Saner - It will open up publishing. Anyone will be able to write a novel and publish it. Is that a good thing?
DG - In the same way you can be discovered through YouTube, maybe the gatekeepers will change – they will no longer be agents and publishers. But I like having my choice curated a bit. I think it would be a great shame if there were no more editors.
CM - I hope it's not the end of editing.
Read the full conversation at The Guardian.
I think Kindle is a great invention. It encourages more reading and allows readers to discover new authors. It is also quite a beautiful experience reading from a Kindle machine and is much more ecologically friendly than printing lots of books.
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