Bookselling in the 21st Century by Craig Stark 18 January 2010

Question: Does the content of a book change if its format changes? At first glance, the question might seem ridiculous. How could the content of a book possibly change if you read it first, say, in print format and then on a Kindle? It's still comprised of exactly the same words, right?

Well, it might depend on what we mean by "content." In this context it could mean several things, and here are two applicable Webster's definitions to consider:

1. "the topics, ideas, facts, or statements in a book"

2. "essential meaning or significance"

Two very different things, wouldn't you say? If we use the first definition to answer the question, it's perfectly reasonable to conclude that topics, ideas, facts and statements would survive the journey to digitization more or less intact. But essential meaning or significance? It seems to me that these things may not be as transportable - that is, since "meaning" and "significance" have as much to do with who is doing the reading as they do with the author's efforts, isn't is possible for them to change as the reader's experience changes?

I'll concede that the change might be slight from a printed book to a Kindle, but consider how different the experience of listening to an audio book would be. For one thing, it's more difficult to "re-read" a passage in an audio book, and if you didn't grasp something the first time through, you'd be less likely to stop the tape or DVD, rewind, and listen again for clarification and more likely to venture into what followed laboring under a disadvantage. Also consider that the person vocalizing the book will bring his or her own idiosyncrasies along and inevitably impose a somewhat altered meaning on it via how it's being read.

Those of you who have been around the block once or twice may recall a ca. 1960s book, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, in which author Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase, "the medium is the message." McLuhan asserted that, as media change, there's a symbiotic effect between content and format that will alter one's understanding of the content.

Do you buy this? Consider another example - The Holy Bible, more specifically, for purposes of illustration, The Lord's Prayer. You first read the passage in a print Bible - and let's say this Bible is bound in top grain morocco with silk moiré endpapers, India paper, etc.; I'm sure you get the picture. Then you listen to Led Zeppelin perform it as a song (as many others have done), using precisely the same words. Will the meaning change?