Japanese readers have been enjoying a new kind of novel since their invention in 2003. The proud creator of this first innovative phenomenon is a young writer named Yoshi who wrote and published the first cell phone novel. It was a story about a teenage prostitute in the city of Tokyo titled Deep Love. This cell phone novel became so popular it was eventually printed as an actual book. The movie and television series soon followed. In 2007, half of the ten best-selling novels in Japan began as cell phone novels.
China was quick to follow in Japan’s footsteps, attracting many university students to try their own hand at cell phone novel writing. Many of these writers are young creative authors who are in tune with the youth of today and have no problems with this new-age method of writing novels. It has been noted that most of the cell phone novels are geared more towards teens and young adults with easy to follow storylines and predictable outcomes. However, that is not to say that these stories are only for teens. Many adults enjoy these stories as much as their teenage children.
Why are they so popular? Mass transit and public transportation are huge in Japan and China, much more so than in the United States and Canada. More and more people are visiting Acura Integra Toronto, indicating the opposite trend in North America. Many Japanese and Chinese workers and students have long commutes on crowded subways and busses to get to work or school. With barely enough room to stand, commuters hardly have the ability to open up a good book and get lost in its pages. With a novel compressed neatly into a pocket sized cell phone, enjoying a read on the way to work or school is a breeze.
Not only can commuters read a cell phone novel on the subway, they can be written there too! As easy as typing a text message, writers can create their own masterpieces and download them to a website (rapidshare) which will make it available for cell phone download.
Cell phone technology in countries like Japan and China has always been more advanced than other countries, including the United States. US residents are slowly beginning to use their cell phones for more than just making calls. Statistics still show that only five percent of Americans download music or videos to their cell phones. The Japanese and Chinese have been utilizing their cell phones for much more than communicating for some time now. Their cell phones have been a portable source of entertainment for them for many years, reading novels seems to fall into line with their cell phone technology.
Will this phenomenon catch on in the United States? Some researchers say probably not. For one thing, Chinese and Japanese symbol form of writing structure allows for fewer characters to be used to complete sentences and ideas. They fit more neatly on a tiny cell phone screen. However, American inventors have taken lessons from the Japanese by introducing things like the Amazon Kindle, an electronic handheld device to which full novels can be downloaded.
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