New York

In 2009 the literary world lamented the closing of the Biography Bookshop in New York, to be replaced by a Marc Jacobs store. So it came as a huge surprise when Marc Jacobs announced that he would open his own bookstore there, called Bookmarc. Now that the store has opened, the blogger and twitter world is reacting with astonishment and skepticism, and asking the question: Is this the future of the bookstore? Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York is not impressed by the store. Very little literature, expensive coffee table books on fashion, a lot of accessories, loud music and customers who are more interested in ambiance than content. “Racked” is somewhat more positive, finding the large reading table in the center of the space very attractive, though (as yet) no books can be found there, but Instead, Marc Jacobs’ pencils (perhaps for those who can’t afford the clothes?) However, according to Marc Jabobs’ business partner, Robert Duffy, who is in charge of the bookstore, book presentations and other events are planned.

- Which book have you not read yet?
- How often haven`t you read the book?
- Since when haven`t you read the book?
- What would have become of you if you would have read it?
- How do you compensate for not having read it?
- And if you had read it, what would that mean?
- Can you prove you have not read your unread book yet?

These are only some of the questions that Austrian artist Julius Deutschbauer asked roughly 40 people on April 14 and 15 at the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York. For 13 years he has assembled descriptions of unread books, which he has compiled into a Library of Unread Books. During these 13 years, he has conducted over 600 interviews. The unread books can be found in the Arbeiterkammer Wien (the Austrian equivalent of the employment agency), with each book including the name of its non-reader.

The questions that Julius Deutschbauer puts to those he interviews reveal, of course, not only their experience of and assumptions about the books they haven’t read, but also a great deal about the interviewees themselves as well, who are subjected to a seemingly unending list of questions. “Would you be charismatic in your unread book?” “Has reading always done you good?”

Over time, as Julius Deutschbauer told me, a hit list of unread books emerged: the Bible, James Joyce’s "Ulysses", Robert Musil’s "The Man Without Qualities" (revealing that most of the interviews took place in Austria), Proust’s "In Search of Lost Time"; Karl Marx’s "Das Kapital" – these are the favorites among unread books. Or should one say the least favorite, as they haven’t been read?

It’s interesting how Julius Deutschbauer arrives at the questions he asks on unread books. He has taken most of them from Denis Diderot’s "Jacques the Fatalist and His Master", which itself must also be a good candidate for an unread book.

Those questioned also repeatedly mention made-up books. Books that not only are unread, but unwritten. But there are often also very specific titles that have not (yet) been read. In one interview I briefly overheard, someone named as his unread book "Basic Electronics", published by the U.S. Bureau of Naval Personnel. And this person also gave an interesting answer – among others – to the question “How would you prepare a snack for the protagonist or hero of your unread book?” As the navy presumably rarely has fresh ingredients at its disposal, this interviewee responded that he’d probably serve something out of a can.

One of the advantages of the Goethe-Institut’s new quarters in SoHo is the proximity to an Apple Store. This allowed me to pay a quick visit to check out for myself the new tech marvel. It’s chic, of course. After all, it’s part of the Apple family. The iPad, too, doesn’t fall far from the apple tree ;-).

And otherwise? The screen has a high-gloss finish and therefore is probably more susceptible to reflection than the matte finish of the Kindle – and I was already bothered by it in the store. And a dedicated e-reader fits better into a handbag. But the iPad’s iBook app has a few advantages over the Kindle: the background of the pages is adjustable in shades from paper-white to Kindle-gray. The font size is adjustable, of course, and the font type as well. Pages are turned with the flick of a finger, and if you hold the iPad horizontally you view two pages at once, as if you’re looking at an open book. And the IPad includes all of the other apps as well (marking text, bookmarking, etc.) But the iPad user should buy books over iTunes, which already offers over 70,000 titles. One thing to keep in mind is that while titles that have been downloaded to the Kindle from Amazon can be read on the iPad using the Kindle app, the reverse is not true. iBook purchases made on iTunes can’t be transferred to the Kindle.

The Kindle presents its titles as a simple list, whereas the iBook displays books with a full frontal view – on a bookshelf! That alone I find unnecessary. Hello, people – we’re in a virtual world here, where wood doesn’t exist. I find dubious the idea that the average iPad user is more likely to choose a book if s/he can “take” it from a shelf. And even if that’s true: why an old-fashioned imitation of imitation wood? Dear Apple: have you never seen a modern bookshelf? Why do all of the latest technological developments assume these outmoded connotations when it comes to books? I personally don’t know where to start with Second Life’s virtual fireplace with logs ablaze, obviously designed to create a cozy atmosphere. Come on, get real!

But back to the iPad: After my brief excursion into iPad World, I came to the conclusion that this is an opportunity to see technology overtaking itself. Fascinating. One example: There’s an Apple app for the New York Times, but it’s available in a version developed for the iPhone, and therefore much too small and, well, sort of laughable on the iPad. But if you download the New York Times to the iPad directly from the Times’ site, a whole new world opens. According to an Apple Store clerk, the New York Times spiffed up its pages technologically especially for the iPad. (With the question being, how long it will be available for free…). The much-lamented fact that the iPad cannot show videos created with Adobe Flash doesn’t apply to the videos in the New York Times, as the Times videos are created in a more developed format, HTML5. And that, according to the friendly Apple employee, is the reason why there’s no reason to deal with Flash. A technology that soon will disappear, he said with a shrug. The videos embedded in the Times play just fine, at any rate. The iPad, apparently, affords itself the luxury of wanting to surpass the present. (If one disregards the imitation wood shelves…). Perhaps that’s why it also doesn’t have a USB port. Who needs to transport data via USB when everything’s already in the “Cloud.”

What also appears problematic to me is that the iPad functions only as a wireless device. If you don’t have a WLan nearby, you’re stuck. There’s no USB option and therefore one can’t use one of those practical USB surf sticks I’ve recently come to know and love. And here, too, there’s an answer: In the meantime one can buy a device that creates a portable wireless connection. For a monthly charge. Whether there’s a prepaid version (which I prefer), I’m not sure.

And to those who wonder if there are still lines outside the Apple Stores: No. As was the case with Harry Potter, by the day after the hype, things have returned to normal.

So much for my first – layman’s – impression of the iPad.