Bitchin' Blog Posts
Links! They are Online, Much of the Time
by SB Sarah | by SB Sarah | June 02, 2011 | Thursday at 9:16 pm | 60 CommentsNeed a laugh? Via Twitter: The most popular Damn You Autocorrects this past May. I often go to that site when I’m so pissed off I might break something, because without fail, I will hurt myself laughing. Free therapy FTW!
Here’s some research sent to me by reader Kim, via Media Post. First: eReaders Found Lying in Bed:
According to the Nielsen recent survey of nearly 12,000 mobile connected device owners, 70% of tablet owners and 68% of smartphone owners said they use their devices while watching television, compared to only 35% of eReader owners.
Further, when asked where they use the devices, 61% of eReader owners use their device in bed, compared to 57% of tablet owners and 51% of smartphone owners.
I find this interesting, especially since Kobo’s last presentation that I saw at Tools of Change in February stated that their research, based on user habits of their reading apps, indicated that people don’t read in bed so much as they do read on their morning commutes. (I wish I had a link to the Kobo research and I don’t. I’m sorry). Maybe the correct answer is that readers do things all different ways, all the time, which is why we are awesome and frustrating from a market research perspective.
When examining what else people are doing while they use their devices, the results were also interesting:
Tablet owners said 30% of their time spent with their device was while watching TV compared to 21% lying in bed. Smartphone owners say that 20% of the time they are using their smartphones is while watching TV, compared to 11% lying in bed.
However, while eReader owners indicated only 15% of their eReader time was spent watching TV, but they spent a whopping 37% of that device usage time in bed.
I am totally one of those people who has an internet-connected device with me while I watch TV. If I’m not searching for and saving a recipe, I’m looking up who that guy was that killed that girl on that show I saw .02 seconds of. Hubby uses his laptop while watching TV to keep track of the baseball games he’s not watching.
But wait, there’s more!
Today’s Media Research Brief examines who buys ebooks: Book Worms Consuming More. The results are SO NOT SHOCKING:
Today’s e-book power buyer, someone who buys an e-book at least once a week, is a 44-year-old woman who loves romance and is spending more on buying books now than in the past. She uses a dedicated e-reader like a Kindle instead of reading on her computer.
I’m not 44 but that sounds a lot like me. Drawing from BISG research that I’ve heard before at ToC and DBW, the report also repeats the data such as:
- E-books currently make up around 11% of the total book market. The percentage of print book consumers who say they download e-books more than doubled between October 2010 and January 2011, from 5% to almost 13%.
- Women make up 66% of e-book power buyers. In 2009, they didn’t even make up half of e-book customers (they were at 49% of the e-book market)
- Most e-books sold (58%) are fiction, with literary fiction, science fiction, and romance each comprising over 20% of all e-book purchases
- “Power buyers” represent about 18% of the total people buying e-books today, but they buy 61% of all e-books purchased
- The most influential factors leading to an e-book purchase are free samples and low prices.
Again, not shocking. I’m more curious if there are more e-readers in bed than I thought.
Mazel tov to Quest, Kendal, and the Harlequin team for the arrival of baby Harlequin, an endangered Peregrine falcon. Harlequin was born Sunday night, and the pictures online are adorable.
There’s a live cam shot of the nesting box at the Harlequin blog, and I have my fingers crossed, and toes and talons too (Yes, of course I have talons. You suspected otherwise?) for the happy family.
Expect falcon romances, y’all. Which would be awesome!
And finally, this total douchenugget said something shitty about female authors, but then the Guardian did something funny that’s totally worth experiencing, especially because it proves the asshat douchecanoe wrong. Via Laura Vivanco comes this fun activity.
In an interview at the Royal Geographic Society this week,
during which VS Naipaul provoked fury by suggesting that women
writers are ‘sentimental’ and ‘unequal to me’, he also claimed
that ‘I read a piece of writing and within a paragraph or two I
know whether it is by a woman or not.’
Says Vivanco, “So the Guardian has made up a quiz that allows you to guess the gender of the writer based on the excerpt.
I was very gratified that I did extremely badly. I was also amused when it was revealed that one of the excerpts comes from Laura Abbot’s A Forever Mother. It’s a current online read at eHarlequin.”
AWESOME.
So…. how’d you do on the quiz?
Filed: General Bitching, The Link-O-Lator
Tagged: research, peregrine, laura vivanco, harlequin, falcons, ereaders, ebooks
Cris said on 06.02.11 at 09:30 PM • [link]
I’m definitely an E-Book Power Buyer, averaging 10 per week (yes averaging) and I’m kind of creeped out that they nailed my age range and book preferences.
I don’t like being a statistic dammit!
Laura Vivanco said on 06.02.11 at 09:37 PM • [link]
For extra amusement, Abbot’s short story begins with some lines which, in this context, could be used as a response to Naipaul (just replace the heroine’s name with that of your favourite female author):
cayenne said on 06.02.11 at 09:40 PM • [link]
I also thought that the commute number was really low, but they’d have to exclude car commuters and select for train/transit users only, which is not a clean comparison. But from looking around the subway car every day, it seems that at a majority is playing with some sort of screen device; it’s just not obvious who’s using a reader or reader program (personally, mine is a Sony, and I am a Power Buyer).
- -kim
Julie Brannagh said on 06.02.11 at 09:42 PM • [link]
I haz a Kindle. It spends a lot of time in the bedsheets. I’m one of those scofflaws who reads before she goes to sleep. Luckily, my husband finds this comical.
I’ve bought about a book a week since I got it.
CarrieS said on 06.02.11 at 09:45 PM • [link]
I only got two right and I’m particularly gratified that I got #1 wrong
Captcha: points42
42 points go to whoever came up with this quiz!
CarrieS said on 06.02.11 at 09:49 PM • [link]
also re autocorrect: tears are streaming down my face! LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!
almost45: I almost laughed for 45 minutes
Laura (in PA) said on 06.02.11 at 09:50 PM • [link]
I got 7 out of 10.
I have a Kindle and an iPad. I use the iPad while I’m watching TV or eating, and the Kindle while I’m in bed.
I don’t read on my commute, since it distracts me from the tractor trailers on the highway as I drive to work. :)
Alpha Lyra said on 06.02.11 at 09:55 PM • [link]
I got 3 out of 10 on the quiz. Felt like I was blind guessing on every one of them.
Linda said on 06.02.11 at 10:10 PM • [link]
OMG thank you for that link. I laughed so hard I nearly fell off my chair :D
Jo O said on 06.02.11 at 10:11 PM • [link]
I got 5/10 right and am (apparently) a sloppy thinker who clearly needs to read more male authors!
I use my e-reader in bed because I’m very short-sighted and as I lie on my side to read I have to take my glasses off. My e- reader is light and I can hold it close to my face or just make the type a little bigger and it’s just easier than holding a paper book especially a hardback.
If there were no geographical restrictions I would be a power reader, I prefer to buy e-books but can’t get the one I want so have tons of print books instead. Mainly female authors in romance, science fiction and fantasy genres :)
chrocs said on 06.02.11 at 11:03 PM • [link]
6/10
The first quote was written in such a self-important voice that I was not surprised to find out it was a Naipaul book.
Lizabeth S. Tucker said on 06.02.11 at 11:20 PM • [link]
I own two Sony eReaders, my original which is now used by my 80 year old father and one of the touch screen eReaders. I do some reading in bed, but only if I wake up before the alarm goes off. I tend to read when out and about (doctor’s visits, waiting in lines or for service) or when the television is not on. I am on my computer 70% of the time when the television is, tweeting about the shows currently on or what I last read.
I think I buy less now, but that is due to finances, not due to the change from physical books to digital. But considering that digital bookstores provide free books and you rarely got that with physical books, in the long run I probably have acquired more ebooks than I ever did physical books during the same time period.
Sheila said on 06.02.11 at 11:23 PM • [link]
5/10
I have a Sony Ereader and read it most on break/lunch at work, at the doctors office, at home (while not watching tv) and in bed.
I would love to read while commuting but DFW doesn’t run to commuter trains or busses between counties yet. Reading would distract me from avoidance of the SUVs determined to run my little car off the road.
Reaction86: Naipaul’s reaction is 86 kinds of wrong
Hydecat said on 06.02.11 at 11:37 PM • [link]
6/10! Naipaul is full of bullshit.
Anony Miss said on 06.02.11 at 11:43 PM • [link]
4/10. Hah!
And Kindle in bed, all the time.
Except the first week I had it. Laying on my back, holding it over my face… I fell asleep. BAM! Kindle falling on nose hurts more than paperback falling on nose.
I have become a statistical power-buyer of eBooks, but only because I ‘buy’ about 10-15 free Kindle books a week. I have actually paid for only about 3 eBooks ever; I just watch the Kindle free’s like a hawk (at least once a day check the top 100 free) and click click click. So what does that do to the stats? To me, free Kindle books are like a library.
DreadPirateRachel said on 06.02.11 at 11:44 PM • [link]
5/10
I read on my commute as well as in bed. And on the couch, at the table, at my desk, in the kitchen… You get the picture. Where I am, the Kindle is also.
Sharon said on 06.03.11 at 12:03 AM • [link]
8/10, but I recognized some of those excerpts, so perhaps it wasn’t a true test.
A nice alternative to Damn You, Autocorrect! is Dear Blank, Please Blank (askimet doesn’t like my link, but it’s easy enough to google).
bookstorecat said on 06.03.11 at 12:10 AM • [link]
NookC. and I go everywhere together. I don’t tend to read while watching tv—unless we count reading interesting blogs and other online stuff, like right now, as I am enjoying SBTB, typing this on NC, and watching I Love You Beth Cooper on the HBO.
I only got 50% on the quiz—still less lame than the extreme lameness of VSN.
Mina C. Lobo said on 06.03.11 at 12:12 AM • [link]
6/10 from lame-ass, no man-writer reading, sloppy-thinker, here. But I heart the quote from the Mary Wesley book. ::adds to list of books which must be possessed::
Karenmc said on 06.03.11 at 12:29 AM • [link]
6/10. In the middle, like my Asperger test results.
iPad, La-z-boy, television on, every evening. iPod Touch during lunch at work. I’m thinking of getting a Kindle with Special Offers to replace the Touch.
Time to buy a smartphone and start texting so I can autocorrect myself silly.
darlynne said on 06.03.11 at 12:42 AM • [link]
3/10. And I swore the first one was written by a woman. Take that, asshat Naipaul.
darlynne said on 06.03.11 at 12:55 AM • [link]
SB Sarah, thank you so much for the auto correct link. I did hurt myself and it was worth every moment.
jujukitty said on 06.03.11 at 01:05 AM • [link]
DYAC is my new crack! Thanks for the link.
Khenta said on 06.03.11 at 01:20 AM • [link]
8/10.
I don’t read male authors, ever, because they never get female characters right, and usually can’t convey emotions very well (like it’s a language they don’t understand).
And I nearly fit completely into the MediaPost statistic! Dunno if I should be depressed now…. :)
Anony Miss:
Ouch! Yes! Happened to me, too - now I make sure I only read while lying belly-down.
LG said on 06.03.11 at 01:28 AM • [link]
I finally got to look at DYAC, and I just laughed until tears ran down my face. LMAOPRomotionalkittenbasket. :D
I tried the test and scored 4/10.
elaine mueller said on 06.03.11 at 01:34 AM • [link]
“One of my first projects would be associated with the concept of romantic fiction—and whether it is a classification that is based upon the writing—or the sex; I have long wanted to place a D.H. Lawrence novel between the covers of Harlequin/Mills and Boon, and to test its status when seen in this light.”
—Dale Spender, The Writing or the Sex? or why you don’t have to read women’s writing to know it’s no good, (c) 1989, p. 79.
Shay said on 06.03.11 at 01:35 AM • [link]
Epic fail… 3 out of 10. I’m just going to blame the low score on multi tasking (screaming at kids, helping with homework, painting my nails and taking test at the same time)!
Color me an ebook power reader, although I probably spend more time reading in the tub.
Calgon and Nook take me away!
Cialina said on 06.03.11 at 01:52 AM • [link]
interesting studies! Majority of the time I do use my e-reader I am lying down… Hm, I guess Kobo better do some research again?
AmyW said on 06.03.11 at 02:08 AM • [link]
I think I got the lowest score yet—only 2 out of 10! And those two were, ironically, Naipaul’s and the Harlequin online read…
ElaineGolden said on 06.03.11 at 02:11 AM • [link]
6/10
I totally guessed that the excerpt from Nicholas Sparks was written by a female.
ReadinginAK said on 06.03.11 at 02:19 AM • [link]
Nook in Bed…
The Nook Color (backlit) helped me IMMENSELY when we were co-sleeping w/ baby because I could read w/o turning on lamps or overhead light. (After falling asleep a few too many times with my headlamp, I was tired of that too.)
Jo said on 06.03.11 at 02:54 AM • [link]
Huh I got 9/10 and I’m pretty sure I haven’t read any of those, weird… Not to sure what that says about me!
Mary Stella said on 06.03.11 at 03:09 AM • [link]
If we’re talking e-devices, bed and stats, here’s one. . . I learned today that 6 to 10% of people who text admit to texting while having sex.
The survey did not reveal A) Who they were texting or B) What was said.
I can’t help but wonder if anyone texting at that time typed OMG! OMG! OM..AHHHH.
MarieC said on 06.03.11 at 03:17 AM • [link]
I got 7 of 10.
Hm…I normally read in bed. I drive to work (with a really short commute!) so reading in transit is out for me.
helen said on 06.03.11 at 03:59 AM • [link]
6/10
Jenyfer Matthews said on 06.03.11 at 05:18 AM • [link]
5/10
And when I have a functional ereader (mine is dead now! wah!) I use it when traveling but mostly when I am in bed. I love how I can read in the dark if my husband is asleep and that it shuts itself off if I fall asleep :)
AmberG said on 06.03.11 at 05:20 AM • [link]
Two out of ten, woo-hoo!
Jeffe Kennedy said on 06.03.11 at 05:51 AM • [link]
dammit - I totally thought I’d rock that quiz! 3 out of 10. Turns out I’m a girl or something…
Also, both reading and writing smack dab in the demographic. Alas.
Through 47? in a few years…
Elisa said on 06.03.11 at 07:09 AM • [link]
I got a 3 out of 10… the quote following the score cracked me up “What are you, a girl or something?” ha ha ha.
I got the douchecanoe’s (Naipaul) book right as written by a male, but in my defense I read the passage and thought, “kind of crap and sounds a lot like Naipaul’s statements about women writers - he totally could have written this.”
On a slightly related note, I once had a customer ask me for help finding any good mysteries I could recommend - but insisted I not recommend those written by female authors. He also insisted I take no offense. Oh to have been a fellow customer rather than employee, I would’ve told him exactly how much offense I’d taken. ::muters under breath:: I’m a female author you jackass.
Suzannah said on 06.03.11 at 08:20 AM • [link]
I got 7/10 on the quiz.
But how cool to learn that I’m a power buyer! I’ve never been a power anything. I read on a Kindle *and* my laptop, though (not at the same time). We only got the Kindle in the UK last year so I had lots of books in other formats, and while I am focusing on the Kindle now for new things, I still have ePubs to read.
Thank goodness I read that autocorrect link at home and not in the office, is all I can say ;-)
Evelyn said on 06.03.11 at 09:24 AM • [link]
nice one, I scored 7 out of 10.
captcha 77: that`s nearly 77 %....
Daisy said on 06.03.11 at 09:49 AM • [link]
Wow, that power-buyer description was eerily close to me—after all, I don’t look a day over 44. ;-)
In bed is about the only chance I do have to read my Kindle, although I carry it with me for waiting-around moments. I barely watch tv and I don’t have any handheld internet devices, so it’s me, my Kindle, and sometimes my kid in bed with me.
SusiB said on 06.03.11 at 10:38 AM • [link]
I did take the test just for fun…but really, why would I even want to know if a male or a female author wrote a text?
India Drummond said on 06.03.11 at 10:46 AM • [link]
7/10 for me. I noticed that if the author started talking about where objects were in the room, I thought it was a man.
I usually read my Kindle in bed, but I also read in the living room, in waiting rooms, airplanes… really the same places I used to read ‘real’ books.
Jamie Michele said on 06.03.11 at 01:31 PM • [link]
It’s so exciting to watch the falcons nest! Thanks for sharing the link.
cayenne said on 06.03.11 at 03:44 PM • [link]
THANK YOU. To me, quality is ultimately subjective (...duh?) and doesn’t need pre-qualifying by gender. I personally feel that Naipaul is pretentious crap, but I wouldn’t necessarily say that someone else wouldn’t enjoy it, so if asked if I would recommend his work, I would generally say “I didn’t like it, but you might.” How is this so hard for anyone, even a douchecanoe being interviewed, to say?
And Sarah, I thank you forever for “douchecanoe”. It is now in my canon of insults, and it’s nice to know my potty mouth can still be improved at 42.
- -kim
tee said on 06.03.11 at 03:45 PM • [link]
2 out of 10! Agree, felt like guessing on most of them, had even read one of the books and did not recognize the paragraph.
I have read a few ebooks on my smartphone and laptop, maybe 2 a month, but getting most of my books at the library and continuing to tackle my TBR pile of physical books (about 15 physical books a month. Will be a while before I am tapped out of library items, very inexpensive and convenient.
Would like to convert all my keeper pile books to ebooks, but only when the platform wars have stabilized and they are offering good bulk purchase deals.
Definitely read in bed - sometimes in morning before getting up, sometimes in evening before sleep, like Motel 6, leave the light on for ya!
Kristi Lea said on 06.03.11 at 03:46 PM • [link]
Gotta love those survey folks who believe that most folks read while commuting. I’m not sure if there’s a specific law against e-reading while driving, but it can’t be that different than texting while driving, right?
Oh wait. Everyone in the world lives in New York City (or another major metropolis whose mass transit goes somewhere interesting…like to places where people actually live and work).
:)
Rebecca (another one) said on 06.03.11 at 04:15 PM • [link]
5/10 My favorite quote in the article is
Exactly how can that not be unkind. Don’t insult someone and then try to worm your way out of it.
He’s just an attention grabbing idiot.
Laura (in PA) said on 06.03.11 at 04:33 PM • [link]
I forgot to say, that baby falcon is full of fluffy cuteness. Thanks for the link.
And I’m glad to see the DYAC link - it is also my go-to site for a belly laugh, usually leading to tears of mirth.
TracyP said on 06.03.11 at 04:59 PM • [link]
Thank you for the autocorrect link. Hilarious! Sent it to my husband. We’re always having these issues. But they’re great for a laugh.
Lynn S. said on 06.03.11 at 05:24 PM • [link]
I’m almost a textbook example of the ebook power buyer, so for research purposes: read in bed, yes; read in chair, yes; read in bathroom, yes (but only if the book has me really hooked); read on commute, no (I’m avid but I’m not dumb enough to try reading and driving at the same time); read at work, yes (shh, some of it is NSFW); read while waiting in a line (not yet, but I’m seriously tempted); read while watching television, NO! (I don’t even want a t.v. on anywhere in the house while I’m reading). I’ve also been known to read while eating eggs and ham.
Am I misreading this quote or do the numbers not add up? Basic math tells me that over 20% each adds up to more than 60%. Also, isn’t all fiction literary? I know it is to me. I guess delusions of grandeur fiction is a bit lengthy for a genre title.
That quiz is the perfect response to Mr. Naipaul and I sucked at it. 3 out of 10. It would have been 4 out of 10, but No. 10 seemed too obvious, so I got it wrong. I did get Mr. Naipaul’s excerpt right though. Does that mean he’s a really male male?
Rowan Speedwell said on 06.03.11 at 05:34 PM • [link]
Got 8/10, mostly by marking the stuff that was awkward and overly-detail-oriented as “male.” Whoops! Did I say that out loud?
And definitely read the Kindle everywhere, buying 8-10 books a week (my book budget has gone WAAAAY up since buying the Kindle: Publishers, take note).
Nana said on 06.03.11 at 05:40 PM • [link]
I gots ‘sloppy thinking’ and a ‘clearly must read more books by mheeennnn’. Ha! 4/10.
Kindle. Bed. Before sleep. Plus chocolate.
Ros said on 06.03.11 at 07:27 PM • [link]
Oh, Jason! Possibly the worst way to get dumped ever - by Autocorrect.
I got 4/10 but I recognised one of the books and guessed which was the Harlequin. So there were really only 2 I got right without knowing.
Copa said on 06.04.11 at 12:03 AM • [link]
9/10, it would have been 10/10 but I changed one of my answers thinking it was too easy and was therefore a trap! I don’t think either gender is superior, and I read both genders about equally.
Kathleen said on 06.04.11 at 12:44 AM • [link]
Author gender and character construction is actually something I think about a lot. I tend to prefer books written by women, mostly because I find that a lot of books written by men have empty or overly simplistic female characters (although obviously there are men who write awesome female characters and women who write terrible ones). IMHO, it’s more based on how often one thinks about one’s gender socialization and positioning in society than one’s sex.
I find Naipaul’s comment especially offensive because men frequently have the luxury of not thinking about how their gender affects them, while women rarely do.
alyslinn said on 06.05.11 at 03:22 AM • [link]
I had 3 of 10 right. So much for that :)
I’m a Kindle user and I have more books on my Kindle than I’ll ever get round to reading. I read everywhere I can (bus, train, at work on break, in bed, on the sofa, you name it.)
Lynda the Guppy said on 06.08.11 at 02:44 AM • [link]
Hmm…I’m a little disturbed I got 8 out of 10 right. LOL.
I’d be interested to see how people who read on other devices (iPhone, tablet, etc.) stack up compared to dedicated devices. For example, My mom reads her Kindle in bed, but takes it with her out of the house. I rarely do. I read in bed (and on the sofa, kitchen table, etc.) on my Kindle all the time, but out of the house, I’m usually reading the same book on my iPhone, because I don’t want to have to lug my Kindle around everywhere. The only exceptions to that are if I’m going somewhere I KNOW there will be a lot of downtime (doctor’s office, etc.) or if I’m traveling.
Captcha: left77. I left my kindle with my TBR “pile” of 77 books at home.
Funny enough, my TBR “pile” on the Kindle is actually 72 books. So not far off! LOLOL
iPhone release said on 07.27.11 at 09:55 AM • [link]
Even if you could afford to buy your own Apple iPad, it will be difficult to get your hands on one once they are released at the Apple store.
iPhone
Care to comment?
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