A Reflection on Leah Price’s ​What We Talk About When We Talk About Books

“It’s true that bookstore sales’ and revenues have declined in the past decade. But the fact that the dip began right after the 2008 recession suggests that the culprit is financial, not technological. And it’s true that a third of Americans in their late teens and twenties reported reading an ebook in 2017, twice the rate of their counterparts over sixty-five” (3).

This passage from Leah Price’s ​What We Talk About When We Talk About Books​ stood out to me because it never crossed my mind that the 2008 recession could partially be responsible for the decrease in bookstore sales in the past decade. It appears that because people were going through financial difficulties they relied more on ebooks which are easily accessible, cheaper, and sometimes even free.

Leah Price argues that the rise in reading ebooks and the decrease in purchasing books from bookstores is because of the financial difficulties many faced during the recession, and I would have to both agree and disagree with Price. Certainly, people struggled financially; however the production of smartphones were drastically increasing and people were buying them despite their financial difficulties. Considering that more people were buying smart phones and becoming attached to them, accessing an ebook within just a few clicks was a plus which could possibly be the reason for the decline in bookstore sales.

Price also argues that in 2017, Americans in their late teens and twenties read an ebook twice the rate of Americans over the age of sixty-five and the reason for this could be that young adults spend more time using their phones than those who are much older. Also, it is important to realize that many young adults in their late teens and twenties could be college students who would rather purchase ebooks for their classes as opposed to buying tangible books which may probably cost more.

Works Cited