Read any Good Books Lately? (Google Wants to Know)

When was the last time you sat down with a good book? More likely, you sat down with a good paragraph, snippet, or screenful of info.

Thursday at the New York Public Library (that bastion of wood-pulp and oak walls), Google hosted an event called Unbound that discussed (well, mandated might be a better word) the future of books. I gotta tell you, as I sat in the audience of NYC publishers, authors, and media, listening to speakers from BoingBoing and Wired, it felt like the left coasters had come into town to do battle.

The speakers included Wired Magazine's editor Chris Anderson, who told about how he promoted his own book, The Long Tail, through early blogging, links, and fostering community; Seth Godin, the quintessential marketer, who believes you have two choices (give away your writing or toil in obscurity); and Cory Doctorow, founder of BoingBoing, a science fiction writer, and all around wired-guy extraordinaire. He, too, provided testimonial to the power of giving away your books and creating a community of kindred souls around you the persona. Other speakers included Tim O'Reilly (O'Reilly Publishing), who coined the term Web 2.0., and Stephen Dubner, co-author of Freakonomics.

Any of you who've ever made a dime off of printed words on paper would have sensed the audience's discomfort. Chris Anderson cited a statistic that the average book sells only 500 copies. And publishers were challenged throughout the day to rethink how they market books and work with authors. Imagine Random House going back to their authors and saying, "We're giving away your books, but we'd like you to please submit your manuscript with every word tagged so we can ready it for online production (people will probably read your work in little snippets), then please blog to promote yourself to your audience, and, oh yeah, did we tell you we'll pay less of an advance, too, because there's no way we can predict what you'll be able to do to market your book."

As a book author, a lover of books, and someone who's watched traditional publishing become so irrelevant it's not even a part of the conversation (Cory Doctorow pointed out that no one even discusses "stealing a book" the way they do movies and music), to me, Google Unbound Day was a bit of a wake up call.

But as the pundits do their thing, the rest of us need to speak up. How do you feel about books? Would you read them in an e-book form or do you enjoy a physical page-turner? Would you love it if every book ever made were online and searchable? Do you buy a Rachael Ray cookbook because she's on TV instead of buying some fabulous cookbook by a no name without a brand?

Today, Google's Book Search tool lets you search for information in a book by author, title, and even a passage. It's part of the Google initiative to digitize and make available online all the world's books. Today, depending on the publisher and book, your results will vary.

The NY Public Library was probably quaking in its catalogs by the end of yesterday's eight-hour conference. But ultimately the fate of the book won't be decided inside any hallowed halls or even by Google—it will be decided by folks who either choose to relegate the printed book as "quaint" or "relevant."