Books Are Dead

Godot wrote:...as a student, I could appreciate the colossal savings e-textbook offers. Being able to search for text within a book is also incredibly useful, and not having to carry these 1000+ page behemoths around sounds good to me.

The problem with an eReader, particularly as a text book is that you can't scribble all over an eReader (though I'm sure someone will eventually come up with a way to). Similarly, I know half the time looking through text books I rarely knew where the bit of text I wanted actually was... so I flicked through untill I found something which looked familiar.

Godot wrote:I still feel really depressed by all this though. Bookstores as we know it will eventually disappear in the future, going the way of the CD store, so as much as I disliked Barnes and Noble in the past, I'll unfortunately be eventually left with nothing as far as bookstores go. It will certainly be a while before they become a rarity, but it will definitely happen. What with Borders going out of business, I'm thinking an eventual casualty of e-books might be libraries, and that definitely worries the hell out of me.

I think there will always be a space for bookstores, same way that even in the era of CDs, digital downloads and the like there's till a booming market for vinyl records. I think the difference is you'll see the big commercial stores fall by the wayside, but the smaller and more nieche ones will keep chugging along, not because paper books are better than eReaders but just because people seem to like them more. I think I mentioned it earlier, but there's a bookstore in Brisbane called Folio Books... and, if you're in any way related to the arts, litterary or design/fashion fields or interested in them; walking around with a bag from there is damn-near as good as walking around with a bag from Louis Vuitton.

As to the Libraries: I think the thing that's being forgotten is that half the reason for a library existing is as s repository of knowledge, not just for loaning books. Ok, so the local library might go, but things like the State Library will most likely stay. Again citing Brisbane, because it's the one I know, but the library there has newspapers from every day back to God-knows when, microfilm archives, runs exhibitions (including the very awesome retro-gaming one... loved the Missle Command machine), holds seminars (very good lecture spaces) and so on. In instances like that loaning out books is just a very small part of its function.

I agree with alfisti that the book stores will not completely dissapear there is a record store here in town for poeple who collect vintage records but they also sell cds and otehre associated items. Plus the libraries will stick around because in addittio to storiing knowledge there will be plenty of people who want to read who can not afford e-readers.

Godot wrote:

Kiskaloo wrote:

Godot wrote:I'm thinking an eventual casualty of e-books might be libraries...

Our libraries have added e-books to their catalog.

I don't see how having a virtual collection will keep a library afloat or relevant as a brick-and-mortar institution though. No point in going there if its available for download right?

True, but it might keep them around that much longer because they don't need as much tax money.

Problem with making a virtual library is, simply put, DRM. You cannot emulate a normal library digitally without some artificial restrictions which would have to be in the form of DRM. And then you've got to use an ereader they support, things break, etc. Just not worth it.
The alternative would be to simply have them available for free - but for ebooks this would never be accepted as it would be the equivalent of piracy.

Cherubino wrote:I don't own an e reader and I never will. Am I the only one who can't read 22 page long documents on a computer screen? Or can everyone else do that? I hate when my teachers post long works online because I just end up printing them out anyway...

Generally ereaders use a different type of screen, called e-ink. It reflects ambient light instead of emitting its own - so it's supposed to be much easier on the eyes and quite close to ink on paper. Don't know how good it actually is though, having never used one.

One more corpse for the mass grave that is print media:

After 244 years, the Encyclopaedia Britannica is going out of print.

Those coolly authoritative, gold-lettered reference books that were once sold door-to-door by a fleet of traveling salesmen and displayed as proud fixtures in American homes will be discontinued, company executives said.

In an acknowledgment of the realities of the digital age — and of competition from the Web site Wikipedia — Encyclopaedia Britannica will focus primarily on its online encyclopedias and educational curriculum for schools. The last print version is the 32-volume 2010 edition, which weighs 129 pounds and includes new entries on global warming and the Human Genome Project.

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/after-244-years-encyclopaedia-britannica-stops-the-presses/

A sad day indeed. wikipedia will never be able to fill the void

crazyidiot78 wrote:A sad day indeed. wikipedia will never be able to fill the void

Britannica was the void and Wikipedia filled it.

Kiskaloo wrote:

crazyidiot78 wrote:A sad day indeed. wikipedia will never be able to fill the void

Britannica was the void and Wikipedia filled it.

I weep no nostalgic tears for them. Every time I had any dealings with them (US division) they were a bunch of assholes.

wiki, wiki....... speaking of wiki what happened to Julian Assange was he arrested?

Kiskaloo wrote:One more corpse for the mass grave that is print media:

After 244 years, the Encyclopaedia Britannica is going out of print.

Those coolly authoritative, gold-lettered reference books that were once sold door-to-door by a fleet of traveling salesmen and displayed as proud fixtures in American homes will be discontinued, company executives said.

In an acknowledgment of the realities of the digital age — and of competition from the Web site Wikipedia — Encyclopaedia Britannica will focus primarily on its online encyclopedias and educational curriculum for schools. The last print version is the 32-volume 2010 edition, which weighs 129 pounds and includes new entries on global warming and the Human Genome Project.

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/after-244-years-encyclopaedia-britannica-stops-the-presses/

I was just looking up printed reference books yesterday too and was surprised that they weren't completely dead. Somewhat sad to see Encyclopaedia Britannica go, but again I'm only surprised they didn't go sooner.

129 pounds? And at $1,400 a set (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/14/encyclopedia-britannica_n_1346094.html)?! Yeesh, this is definitely one of the better casualties here. At least the trees will be happy

theprodigalson wrote:The progression to e-books seems natural, honestly, but for me you cant beat the feel of a turning page, or the weight of a book in your hands. I'll always pick up a book if I can.

Add to that the smell of the paper, and the curious sense of substance that comes from riffling through the pages.

Book are not dead. They just evolved

God knows that life would be easier for students if they could just buy a laptop at the student bookstore loaded with all their textbooks. Lots cheaper too.

As a student. I totally agree with that. Real talk

Thescarredman wrote:God knows that life would be easier for students if they could just buy a laptop at the student bookstore loaded with all their textbooks. Lots cheaper too.

When I was in the Air Force one of my jobs was assistant technical order librarian.  This meant any time there was a change to service instructions on the jets I had to;
1. Identify and find the proper volume
2. Pull all copies from the shelves
3. Identify and replace any effected changes
4. Shred the old pages
5. Replace the title page with one confirming this book had the most current update

We got literally thousands of new pages some days.  Now it's probably all done wirelessly on tablets.

One can hope. It's amazing how often high-tech organizations that pride themselves on being cutting-edge in their fields lag badly in bringing their bookkeeping and documentation into the Information Age.

After a few years since the creation of this topic, it has had some time to progress. The world is changing, but that small, dimly-lit corner bookstore with the friendly, old bookkeeper will always have a place in it. Where else will adorable adolescent girls searching for the rare edition of their favorite manga stumble upon the ancient texts containing the incantation they accidentally read to release the guardian spirit that gives them the magical power to save the world from the evil clutches of friendship-hating demons and cuteness deprivation? We NEED bookstores.