Will e-books kill the book?

When cameras were invented, people thought no-one would paint anymore.

e-books will never replace real books. Touch-screens frustrate me.

 

What has the government to do with e-books? Aren't all those paper books bad for the environment? Just wondering

 

I think that epublishing does allow more people to send their work out to the computer literate public.
I hope that the paper book still prevails with the book stores, the problem is that paper publishers do not want good authors but only popular ones and this is what will kill the paper book

 

Not if there are those who continue to romanticize the book, as I do. I love to touch them, smell them, and fold the pages to keep my place. There's plenty of people like me who will continue to use books just for that feeling, so the e-book will never take over completely, i don't think.

 

Paper books can be produced from hemp, and they dont require shipping all kinds of parts and stuff together, and they dont use electricity constantly and arent dependant on it. Also e books can be controlled by the goverment and corporations more easily. You need electricity to read them, you need internet to get them, you need a computer or ipad or whatever to read them, and all those things are controlled by the goverment. They can filter and track what you read and what books to make available for reading. In USA i would not be suprised if they start banning books because of terrorism. Now if you have a physical copy of it you can hide it in your basement somewhere or copy it. But if its in the internet, its gone in a few seconds. And also it will give the book companies a reason to support SOPA.

 

Considering the lowering book prices, I say YES! Good for me for now though because I've shunned all ebooks and will be forever stocking up on REAL BOOKS.

 

I think that the music industry is a good parallel here, and serves as a pretty good example as what I think will happen with books.

The form we get our music on has gone through a number of changes over the last 60 years, the most recent of which being digital music. Whilst technically you can still buy music in all of those formats, digital has rapidly been taking over. Last year, for the first time, digital music overtook physical music sales.

From a CNN Money article: "According to a Nielsen and Billboard report, digital music purchases accounted for 50.3% of music sales in 2011. Digital sales were up 8.4% from the previous year, while physical album sales declined 5%."

I suspect that figure will continue to grow as young people (who use digital formats predominantly) become more upwardly mobile and account for a larger percentage of overall sales. Eventually digital music sales will be dominant.

The same thing will happen with books. Just like you can still buy cd's, or even vinyl records they are really only the domain of the collector. They will continue to produce paper books in decreasing numbers for collectors and enthusiasts, but digital sales will dominate for the majority of people.

We can argue about the rights and wrongs of this (personally I am in favour of it), but in reality the argument is irrelevant, because it is what will happen.

 

I like scrolls.





I mean that seriously, I like to make paper... and create my own scrolls.

 

I think that's pretty likely, as well. Someone (on page 2) said, that some books only come out as ebook, so you can't even influence it. I'm not a friend of it and I really hope that paper books will still be available and affordable when I'm old.

Maybe a lot of publishing houses will only sell popular authors but who say that people don't read those and only go for quality? because if you're implying that the internet will provde people with good stuff and they'll take it, then you're wrong. I used to work in a bookshop. people didn't want quality. They wanted thrillers and they wanted romance, as trite as possible. And those are the things that get promoted in a big way, even on the digital market. If someone new and great selfpublishes on the net they still won't get as much coverage as the big names. You might be able to find it. But for that you will first have to know it exists and actually make the effort. Most people who read to pass the time just don't do that.
So, I don't see how selling popular authors will kill the paper book. People who don't want to pay more than a buck for quality reading will kill the paper book IMO.

 

Lots of big ifs and cans if you ask me though...

 

it'll be better for the forests of the world...there will no longer be a need to cut down trees to produce paper.

 

Think of all the space it can save.


I can hold 32,000 novels in a device smaller than most books.


Also, I have back ups! No more spilling a drink on a good read, only for it to be ruined!

 

You don't need e-books to save the forests. Hemp produces more paper using less land, less resources, and grows much faster. The paper is also stronger, last much longer, doesn't yellow and doesn't crackle. Anything made from wood can be made from hemp.

Sort of a repeat of my earlier posts in this thread, but as long as someone brings up the argument for saving trees, I'll bring up hemp as well. Personally e-books are an eye-strain, and they're dependent on hard drives and batteries. Humanity will suffer a huge loss if the physical, written word disappears.

This is coming from an 18-year-old, so it's not like I'm old fashioned or whatever.

 

I personally would not be able to go without old fashioned bound books. Ive had an e-reader in the past and i have to say i loved it, but you still cant beat an actual book. I love going intobook store not just to peruse the shelves looking at all the interesting titles and such but also to meet people. In a world where we are constantly being funneled into seclusion with our electronic devices. The bookstore becomes an awesome intellectual meeting place.

 

not in my life. there is just something about turning pages that can never be replaced. and what's going to happen when everybody's 200 dollar kindle breaks and their purchased books get deleted? I love going to Goodwill and buying an armfull of books for five dollars.

 

Exactly. People rarely think of what goes into the production of batteries. That's a problem with hybrid cars right now. The savings in fuel (which is not that much) probably doesn't overcome the environmental degradation from toxic battery production and disposal.

It's amazing that there is such a great resource right in front of us but big industry doesn't want to touch it because researchers will be seen as "dumb potheads".

 

Did videos kill the radio stars?

 

Well, what has e-mail done to postal mail?

Considering the cost to print & bind books and then distribute them and the fact that Border's is gone with only Barnes & Noble is the only nationwide bookseller I think 10 years from now books will be a specialty, boutique item for a few 'coffee table' style books plus the Bible.

 

^ Books-A-Million is still going strong as well. Books + coffee shop is the way to go.

 

no