Topic: Cell-Phone Novels

10-second review: Cell-phone novels are, in one sense, like Dickens’ serialized novels, but their quality is suspect.

Title: “The Cell-Phone Novel Emerges as a New Literary Form.” J Laanzendorfer. The Writer (August 2009), 8-9.

Quote: “Cell-phone novels are being called the first literary genre of the cellular age. These serial novels, written in short installments for easy reading on a cell  phone, are all the rage in Japan. In 2007, four of the top five Japanese bestsellers were cell-phone novels. A survey in a Japanese newspaper said that 86 percent of Japanese high-schoolers read cell-phone novels. The trend is so huge that it’s starting to take off in the rest of the world as well—including the United States.”

Summary: The most popular of these cell-phone novels are love stories written by high school girls on the way to school. Their readers can comment on their work and rate it. Two popular Web sites in the U.S. are “Quillpill” and “Textnovel.”

Comment: Well, at least the Japanese teenagers are reading and writing. RayS.