We got wind of an Italian chap who wrote a book on his mobile a while back and were suitably impressed, just because of the sheer bloody mindedness of it all (let’s face it, phones aren’t exactly best suited to the task).
But little did we know that Japan has a bustling cellphone book culture that began all the way back in 2000 and has been thriving since 2004. Not only that but of the top ten best selling books of 2007, five of them were originally cell phone books before being reprinted for the shelf.
The phenomenon is so widespread that the New York Times recently ran a front-page feature in its Sunday edition (from which the above info was gleaned) about the trend. Apparently the books are often love stories and are comprised largely of the same sort of short sentences that are characteristic of text messages. And to think that people say technology is detrimental to culture.
(Via mocoNews)
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About Fraser MacInnes
For a while now I’ve been reading books with my cell phone. It’s great being able to flip open my phone and start reading whenever I get the chance, if I had to carry a paper book I’d probably forget it most of the time. My phones screen is pretty small but fine for novels and general prose. I get books all packaged up for the phone from http://www.booksinmyphone.com The give away hundreds of titles. You can install direct to the phone from the mobile version of their site, or via a PC.