So what IS the future of print books?

This week’s article discusses e-books in comparison to actual novels. The beginning of the piece discusses the rise, the fall, and rise again of digital books and the fear many print publishers have that e-books will “kill off their paper-based counterparts.” As someone who grew up without e-books, I can see why some may be concerned about print’s disappearance; in fact, I see myself as one of those people as well because nothing can beat filtering through the pages of a book. Personally, I don’t get the same thrill reading a novel if it’s electronic based, and I know a lot of my classmates feel the same. The article mentioned how even though e-books are essentially the same printed text as a paper novel there’s still a sense of loss associated with reading something online or through a device. Silberman got it right when he said “e-books fail because, although they repeat, they don’t repeat well enough.”

In the argument for or against e-books, I saw a YouTube video that asked Twitter users which they preferred. On the one hand, many people (such as myself) loved the feeling of holding a book in their hands. Others, however, favored e-books because they loved being able to hold an entire library at the tip of their fingers.

What’s interesting about this article, however, it doesn’t say who the proponents and top-audiences of e-books are. While at first I thought it may be a generational thing, I’m learning that may not be the case. I first thought it would be more commonplace of the generation after us to use iPad’s and kindle’s, rather than read an actual paper book, the people who are advocating for a move to the Internet it the older generation who wants something more “innovative.”

When there seems to be a decrease in the amount of books being bought and published, it seemed odd that the article mentioned how the appearance of books and bookshelves as something “prestigious.” If anything, owning a device that allows you to readily read e-books would do that more than a bookshelf would. According to the article, the solution to getting more books in circulation was the new fad of built-in bookshelves in homes, but the downside to this plan is that these amenities aren’t available to everyone. While I get that built-in bookshelves are pricey, if anything a paper book is cheaper than an e-book, kindle, IPad, computer, etc. (pretty much anything needed to read an e-book.) Yes, books can get pricey, but you’re more likely to find a paper back book on sale for a few cents or dollars than you are to find an e-book, in my opinion.

I think it’ll be interesting to see what’s in store for the future of electronic vs. print books. As mentioned in the article, even textbook publishers such as McGraw-Hill began using e-texts. At this rate, it seems very feasible that the future (as far as school goes) may not even use printed books in school anymore. While I think there any many downfalls to resorting to just online books (and I am certainly bias in that thinking) I want to hope that future generations are going to see the beauty of having a hand-held book, rather than reading something online.