EReaders, Schmeereaders

This past week, the NY Times had an article called Thumbs Race as Japan’s Best Sellers Go Cellular about the new breed of "cell phone novelists." [Picture from Times article, with caption: Rin, 21, tapped out a novel on her cellphone that sold 400,000 copies in hardcover.]

Now, as I've stated many times, I can't even read for long periods on my computer, with its lovely bright screen, let alone attempting to read on my cell phone. And the last time I tried to send a text message, it took me something like 15 minutes to write "I'll be ready at six." But I totally "get" that I am old, and not like the people writing and reading cell phone novels.

What I don't understand is this statement:

After cellphone readers voted her novel No. 1 in one ranking, her story of the tragic love between two childhood friends was turned into a 142-page hardcover book last year. It sold 400,000 copies and became the No. 5 best-selling novel of 2007, according to a closely watched list by Tohan, a major book distributor.

I can't imagine wanting to read something written-- and designed to be read--on a tiny screen in short bursts (and therefore composed of short sentences and chopped paragraphs) in book form. And then there's the weirdness of the fact that the people who write these things aren't readers. If you're like me, you'll find some of the quotations in the Times article astonishing. And, if you're a grammar geek, a word geek in general, you may even find them frightening.

But take heart. Once a generation of cell phone novelists have their hands crippled by writing on the things (or, at the least, bloodied like the woman in the article), maybe cell phones will at least become more ergonomic. And when that happens, perhaps they'll make a cell phone/eReader us regular book-loving folks can tolerate.