That’s the
question Richard Charkin (CEO Macmillan
poses today
on his blog. To answer that question fairly, I believe you
need to consider the ways in which we use books.
For centuries,
books were the only mechanism available to store and share information. Wouldn’t you all agree that there are now
much better ways to store, maintain, search, and retrieve information?
Would you rather
have your doctor consult a regularly updated database for drug information or
an annually published handbook? In the
area of professional reference – for use on the job – books have serious
drawbacks.
What about
professional and personal development?
In the interest
of full disclosure, I must confess that there is a new Amazon
or 800CEOREAD package on my doorstep
almost every week. Nothing beats the
portability of a book for me – yet.
Nothing allows me
to do what I do with a book either. I highlight
and tab my books and often refer back to them. When I pick up a book I’ve read, it’s immediately obvious where I have made
notes (because of the tags sticking out all three available sides).
But, when
technology enables me to do this as well with an electronic version of the
book, I will.
What about the
role of the book in recreation?
This is where, I
believe, it will take a bit longer to replace the book. There is nothing like curling up with a book
and relaxing. I’m on the computer so
much that a book is a nice change of pace. Books don’t hurt my eyes. They
don’t cause repetitive stress injuries. A
book is warm. I can’t explain that. I can’t justify it. But, I don’t think I’m alone in that either.
Books are not
dead.
Are they dying?
I’m not
sure. They could just be shedding some
of the uses for which they are no longer best suited. Time will tell.
UPDATE:
Interesting post over on Buzz
Machine that’s worth checking out.
Plastic Electronics and the eBook
Today in EPS Insight, a daily email update produced and distributed by Electronic Publishing Services, Ltd, David Worlock discussed a new electronic reading surface. As David points out, E-book readers to date are “still clunky…and they create an inter…
Are Books Dead (part 2)?
The debate around the future of the book continues! Here are some interesting links: The New York Times article that probably started this round: Digital Publishing Is Scrambling the Industry’s Rules Richard Charkin’s post Are books dead? Jeff Jarvis’ …
Are books dead?
That’s the question Richard Charkin (CEO Macmillan) poses today on his blog. To answer that question fairly, I believe you need to consider the ways in which we use books. For centuries, books were the only mechanism available to store
I remember when books died — A.D. 2000 or so. Replaced by the ebook, or so it seemed that it would happen. I attended the SSP annual meeting last week and the ebook of today was largely portrayed there as HTML or PDF via web delivery and intended for large PC desktop screen display (for what that’s worth). Books live.
Actually John, I think we might just be on the same page after all (pun intended).
managetochange.typepad.com/main/
2006/06/are_books_dead_.html
And I thought you bought everything I wrote Ann!
http://makemarketinghistory.blogspot.com/2006/05/worth-paper-its-not-written-on_21.html
…….and now my comment is longer than a post, so i’m going to copy it, and paste it on my blog.
see you there…
You bring up a good point. Regardless of the future of the book from a utilitarian perspective, the book is an art form as well. I think that this question (are books dead) is answered much differently by an engineer than by an artist – don’t you? The problem is that there are elements of truth and bias in both of their accounts!
PS – I think “writers” will always write!
Great post, Ann, and just today John UpDyke spoke on that topic at NPR. So the timing was perfect … and he had a bit of another take. He felt concerned for people losing their art and their intellectual property… and he wondered if that would impact their incentive to write. What do you think?
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