About a week ago I joined the Facebook group Books that are actual books. Anybody who knows me knows that I have a lifelong love of books, and have a collection that puts some public libraries to shame.
With the advent of electronic reading devices like the Kindle and the iPad some people are declaring the printed paper book dead, or on its way out. And the book publishing industry certainly has its share of challenges, much like the newspaper and magazine and music and movie industries. But books have their fans. They also have centuries of proven success behind them, unlike gadgets that will be obsolete by the time their warranties expire.
I started making a list in the discussion board for "Books that are actual books" called
"Why are books that are actual books better than the other kinds?" Here are my half-joking, half-serious reasons so far:
- You can drop an actual book and it (probably) won't break.
- You can access books from decades or even centuries ago with very few compatibility issues.
- If you are reading a book in the bathtub and it falls in, you won't get electrocuted.
- If you leave a book on the front seat of your car in the hot sun, it won't be destroyed.
- If you leave a book on the front seat of your car under any circumstances, odds are no one will break into the car to steal it.
- Battery life is usually not an issue with a book, and you don't have to worry about where you left the charger.
- If you're reading a book poolside and someone does a cannonball and your book gets completely soaked, you can just let it dry out and keep reading it - or even keep reading it wet.
Of course there are many more, but for me it really comes down to obsolescence - ten or twenty years from now, your Kindle will probably be as much an object of ridicule (and just as usable) as a TRS-80, Commodore Vic-20 or even a Playstation. The information stored on it will also probably be just as accessible as a Commodore program on cassette tape or your college term papers on 5 1/4" diskettes.
But I'm sure the new gadgets have their proponents, and some legitimate advantages. After all, it IS more convenient to carry around a iPod loaded with 10,000 songs (downloaded at $1 a track) than it would be to carry around all the CD's (or cassettes, or records) on which those songs first appeared. (Trust me, moving a library is no easy task.) I'd like to hear any thoughts anyone else has one way or the other. And if you're on Facebook, take a look at the group Books that are actual books.
The narcissistic primarily autobiographical blog of the pseudonymous d.b. echo
The Kindle and iPad might be obsolete in ten years, but there will be future generations of electronic book readers. Printed books will certainly outlive us, but I can see them declining the way newspapers have.
ReplyDeleteI prefer paper, mainly because that is what I am used to. Several of my younger peeps have already switched to the Kindle.
if some close-minded person decides that they don't like something in your book, they can't take it away from you. they CAN censor it from your kindle or ipad.
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