By Michael Seese
... with all apologies to those of you who will now have that sappy 70s song in your head, I read something the other day which, to be honest, leaves me with mixed feelings.
Here is a link to the Wall Street Journal article titled, "Your E-Book Is Reading You"
It's an interesting, short piece. I would suggest you check it out. But the main point is this. If you use an e-reader -- a Kindle or a Nook -- then you obviously know that Amazon or Barnes & Noble are aware of the fact that you downloaded, for example, The Hunger Games.
But did you realize:
- If you read The Hunger Games in a single eight-hour sitting, they know.
- If you read the first ten pages of The Da Vinci Code, and then stop reading, they know.
- If you bookmark or highlight a passage, they know.
The privacy professional in me rates this about a "10" on the "creep-o-meter."
But the author in me thinks, Hmmm. I can't help but be intrigued by comments like "Pinpointing the moment when readers get bored could also help publishers create splashier digital editions by adding a video, a Web link or other multimedia features" and "If you can find out that a book is too long and you've got to be more rigorous in cutting, personally I'd love to get the information."
Hmmm.
Did you know about this?
What do you think?
Please share your thoughts.
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