The only advantage a book has is that you can take it on the couch or bed with you. So when you’re able to develope a device the size of a paperback or a bit larger and load a book into it, books will become like the old 45s. Still around but only a niche audience.
Browsing bookstores is like browsing used CD shops. I used to love to do that. But in Chicago we went from having 5 used CD stores (all had been there over 10 years) in my area, we are down to ONE store left. The 3 of the just left the business and 2 went to online sales only.
It’s just as easy to browse online, when it’s set up OK.
So while books are not obsolete, eventually in a few decades they will too go by the wayside.
I don’t think you read the other responses to this thread before posting. You missed things like being able to read a book on an airplane when electronic devices aren’t allowed, being able to read in a steamy bathtub, taking it on a rafting trip, using it as disposable reading material, and a whole bunch of others.
A friend let me fiddle around with her Kindle recently and I was pretty impressed. It’s way out of my budget right now, but I could see getting one eventually. I am something of a nomad AND a bibliophile - I have books I have shipped from California to Ohio to California to Bulgaria to Michigan. It would be a hell of a lot more convenient if the books were in digital form, like my music now is. (I still have my CDs…somewhere.)
BUT of course there is a reason I have shipped my books around a lot and that is that I love books and I can’t imagine not having them around. I like the way they look and feel and smell. I looooove bookstores and libraries. I could never abandon them.
When I’m carting computer, textbooks, and notebooks around on my back, though, I wish they’d come up with a good way to digitize textbooks, though. (Actually, a lot of my readings are online, and I try to read what I can that way, but for anything longer than about seven pages, I have to print it out because it I find it difficult to really concentrate on something that long on a computer screen. It’s MUCH easier on my eyes to read it on paper. Plus, I can highlight and write notes.) Of course, textbooks will probably be the LAST thing to be digitized, due to the scammery that is the textbook publishing industry.
I really don’t understand why people are advertising no backlighting as a feature. Backlights are practically the best thing ever invented for mobile devices: the whole point is that I can look at it in harsh sunlight or in the dark without having to fiddle with another light source (which is a big disincentive to reading). If my iPhone just had a bigger screen, I would love reading text on its super-bright screen. I don’t find it “harsh on the eyes” at all.
Owning any kind of store is an adventure unto itself. I see bookstores morphing into mated demographic retail outlets. In other words, the sale of books are matched up to another commodity based on customer spending habits. You already see that with coffee shops and book stores. In the town I use to work in they have a book store/deli/picture frame shop. I think they also deal in skateboards. If they were smart they’d arange the store so that the customer has to walk past the books to get to the deli or rotate book selections next to customers so they are exposed to something different as they come back for food.
Wow, you’re in the minority then. You can read stuff on your iPhone in harsh sunlight? Really? If it’s even the tiniest bit sunny, I find the iPhone screen to be really hard to see. I’ve even gotten used to taking pictures that I can’t see because the screen is next to useless in full sun. Same with laptop screens. You have to find shade to see them.
The Kindle, on the other hand, is like a book. You can see it in bright sun, just like a physical book. And, with no light coming from the screen, there’s no eye fatigue even after reading for several hours.
I have a lot of books in my personal library so do not think I’ll get a kindle (0Or an ipod to replace all my cds).
When I first heard about the kindle from Amazon’s Jeff Besoz on BookTV on 8/26, I immediately wondered where they got the name. It then dawned on me that it must be a play on the Fahrenheit 451-degree temperature needed to burn paper and that the machine is the kindling to start that conflagration. Anybody heard the official poop on the origin of the name? I did not see all of the Bezos talk.
I can. Once the e-book becomes more interactive I imagine myself reading to a child, having the child learn to read part of the text with his or her finger, and pressing parts of the pictures for colorful animation…
This, alone, is something that will make me look seriously at a Kindle (or similar) in the future. I just kind of assumed that electronic paper-like displays would have the same drawbacks of LCD displays, and I hate the bright-light wash-out they have. (Backlighting I can stand, but it’s a waste of energy when something can be more efficiently lit with ambient light.) I read outside, inside, wherever, and just assumed the Kindle couldn’t be used in some situations.
I am indiffent to the ebook vs real book debate. Both are nice, and have their own pros and cons.
I suspect that books won’t go out of style for a while. I also predict that my grandkids will rarely ever pick a real book up, much like kids today rarely ever pick up vinyl.
By the time they have grandkids… paper books will be museum pieces or novelty/specialty items.
I don’t think books are obsolete at all, but recreational reading of books may be declining. I used to read a lot of books, but now 95% of my reading is on the Internet, just various message boards, news, Wikipedia, etc.
They are becoming mainly obsolete for me. I read on my laptop or on my moto m9. i dont go anywhere without my cell phone [within reason … i dont take it swimming, nor in with me for radioloogical tests …]
I am slowly scanning my crumbling paperbacks and OCRing them into text, I use project Gutemberg, and I buy from a a few sellers in mobipocket format. I use mainly Baen webscriptions, fictionwise and ebook mall.
Ah, yes. Books, in one form or another, is what got civilization to where it is today. They are made for the long-haul - at least they used to be.
To the OP, books will be around for at least another two generations. There are wayyyyy too many (book) Luddites out there to completely wipe out the printed book. Also, books are easily controlled. Think about it, once you start making book available (and readable) in a convenient digital format publishers are going to run into the exact same problem the music industry has run into. Sure the text of lots of books are available online today, but who actually reads them?! Nobody, it is too… urg. From Frontinus to Plato, all the classics are available free online, but if you really want to read them you are going to go out to the library or bookstore and get a real copy.
Until digital encryption and copyright issues are worked out, the book industry is in fine shape.
Today at the health club I sat beside a girl (on recumbent stationary bikes) who was reading one of those devices. Wow! I read over her shoulder for about 15 minutes. Very clear screen. No eye strain. I’m sold.
I can imagine students growing up with these and over time the popularity of paper books going down. I’m guessing it makes good ecological since too. Why if you bring your own bag to the supermarket to save resources, wouldn’t you endorse something that saves way more paper?
The book is recycleable both at used book stores and for the paper. It also doesn’t have a toxic battery that can run down in the middle of an exciting chapter. On the other hand, the reading toy is future landfill.
