Steve Jobs observations on the Amazon Kindle book reader, and reading in general has caused some interesting debate on the whole matter.

“It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore,” he said. “Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore.” - NYT

I think the statement is not completely incorrect but I tend to agree with Charles Arthur from The Guardian.

“It would be foolish to predict how electronic reading is going to pan out, because there are two unstoppable trends going on which have been continuing for at least 20 years and show no signs of letting up: people prefer to read bite-sized pieces of information, and people are reading more distinct pieces. Whether we’re reading more in terms of the volume of words compared to 20 years ago is hard to tell, but I’d guess so.” - The Guardian

This trend is not limited to reading alone but part of a Snack Culture which embodies the phenomenon of products, services and experience becoming more temporary and transient; products that are being deconstructed in easier to digest, easier to afford bits, making it possible to collect even more experiences as often as possible, in an even shorter time frame. The signs are everywhere, from ubiquitous commerce to fragmented media to fast fashion to temporary ownership to Netflix-style all-you-can-eat models.

It is a fact that people read less books in the traditional way but the same goes for other types of content. Let’s have a look at the music industry. The sales of the traditional music CD are going down year after year, but I wouldn’t conclude that people don’t listen to music anymore. I just believe that the consumptions patterns are changing and digital content fits better with these consumptions patterns.

A good example is the iTunes WiFi Music store. Say you’re in line at Starbucks. You hear this amazing song wafting from the speakers. You gotta have it. Now. Tap the iTunes button on your iPhone or iPod touch, tap the Starbucks button, and preview, buy, and download whatever you like, right then and there. Basically the idea behind the Kindle is the same - with a tap of a button you connect to amazon.com and can access, preview and buy ten thousands of books.

So I believe Mr. Job has it wrong, when he says that people don’t read anymore, they just read different things like RSS feeds, websites, forums, blogs and of course e-books in different ways using e-readers like the Kindle or the iLiad or other devices like a laptop or a mobile phone, dare i say iPhone?