Has the Death of Books Been Greatly Exaggerated?
Decatur Metro | February 6, 2011Let me just start out by saying, I can certainly be accused of jumping the gun with a post like this.
E-books are still in their infancy and present one giant hurdle for an entire industry; they will never be able to compete with hardbacks in terms of pure profit. Of course, the same story is being written in the arenas of music and news. Smaller to non-existent profit margins for delivering the same product will inevitably shake up an industry. It’s really as simple as that.
But with so much general negativity surrounding the dying tactile publishing industry, a counterargument can be interesting if just simply in its rarity.
How can the book industry adapt to smaller profit margins? Simple: they must downsize and/or sell more books. The former is undeniably ugly for those involved. But perhaps we can find hope in the latter.
Early indicators have shown that e-book readers consume more long-form writing than in their earlier, analog lives. The accessibility of e-book readers may even help the industry cut into things like the time people spend watching TV, as was recently mentioned in a New York Times article about tweens e-book adoption habits. That’s good news.
And not only that, but such accessibility might even help the industry help monetize the library and person-to-person borrowing that currently doesn’t make the publishing industry a single cent.
That means there might just be a light at the end of the tunnel that reveals a world where everyone reads more. For all of its benefits, perhaps the physical book had just become an unworthy competitor in a world with so many more immediate forms of media. And maybe amidst days of biting our nails at the transition, we should take a moment to rejoice that increased consumption can be achieved without dumbing down the medium. The stories and ideas and pictures are evergreen, as we all knew they were. We just needed to speed up the delivery method.
P.S. Of course, this counter-positive outlook for the industry doesn’t take into account the fate of the countless indispensable local bookstores out there, which act as a meeting place for entire communities of book and idea lovers. Their future won’t be easy. But I believe the best will survive. The shops that give their customers an unique and satisfying experience with each purchase will carry on. Because regardless of the industry that produces and distributes them, books are foremost a form of art. And art has always been both a public and private pursuit.
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Honestly, it depends on the type of book, I think. Reference books will soon be completely and utterly obsolete. Textbooks I think will be next. But before ebooks completely take over, I think a few generations are going to need to pass…
There’s something special about curling up with a novel (or any book meant to be enjoyed from cover to cover), and an ebook really doesn’t offer MANY advantages over this process. Until people start entering this world without being conditioned to enjoy the smell of a novel, I think books are in for the long haul.
+1
Our sense of smell can evoke the most poignant memories. As long as we allow our children to experience this rare treat, books will be around.
I agree with you. In many ways, e-books can’t compete with a hard or soft copy. Trust me, I grew up literally surrounded by books.
However, if e-books mean that kids (and adults) begin to read more, that’s something that should be taken into consideration in this ongoing discussion.
There is something aesthetic and tactile in a printed book that is pleasing. I do not want to be tied to a machine in order to read (or hear) a book. Machine books, machine teachers, machine parents = machine population.
I agree with the folks who argue that the tactile and visual experience of printed material is different and not easily replaced by the machine experience. E-reading is not easily done in the bathtub, at the beach, on the potty, or outside on a hike. Machines have to be charged (the bane of my electronic existence), maintained, with instructions learned and passwords memorized. Hard copy books are low-maintenance. And touching and turning the pages IS a pleasurable experience for many. And I wonder about the biology of reading printed material vs. screens. My brain absorbs information according to my field of vision, not in terms of scrolling up and down.
I worry about kids with learning disabilities like dyslexia if the visual simplicity of hard copy reading materials becomes scarce. Oral communication is biologically hard-wired, written communication less so and some human brains find the written word harder to decode than other brains, unrelated to intelligence and understanding of the content. It seems to me that machine communication is one more layer removed from the biological level of oral communication and some brains may find the leap harder than others. (All conjecture, no research, on my part).
Storytime, bedtime, teaching little ones to read, these are moments that a Kindle or Nook just cannot create the memories a real book would. No way, no how.
Been a while since I have been in college, but what about writing in the margins, folding the important pages down and staring them, circling the numbers, the 15 different colored highlights and all those weird individual tricks you have to remember things.
My fav. way to spend a rainy day is with a good cup of coffee and browsing the book store for a couple of hours. Doing this online just doesn’t have the same feeling for me.
But, as anyone who loves to read know, when you go on vacation and want a couple of books, lugging around 3 that you may or may not get around to, is a total pain. Ebooks are great for this, and similar situations.
I really do think there’s room for both.