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Now, imagining a world without print books is,
for some people, not far removed from imagining some sort of horrific dystopia.
A world without print books is a world without bookstores—a world without a new
book smell, or the crinkle of turning pages, or the subtle yellow tint of an
aged book.
A world without print books is a world without
real, physical bookshelves—except in the homes of those old-fashioned book collectors
who scour the web for a limited-edition print copy of their favorite novels.
A world without print books is a world where
everyone must charge their e-readers at night or else risk not being able to
read the next day due to a low battery. It's a world where no one can know what
you're reading just by glancing at the spine in your lap, a world where book
signings, indeed, become a tad more complicated.
Note that I did not say a world without print
books is a world without reading or a world without authors.
You see, because a world without print books
is something else, too—it's a world where children don't have to lug
twenty-pound book bags to school or must use textbooks that are falling apart
because it's too expensive to replace them or even must hide what they read
because what would their classmates think if boys were caught reading girly books or vice versa?
A world without print books still has,
ironically enough, print books on the market—they're just harder to come by and
a tad more expensive. Owning a print copy of your favorite novel isn't commonplace—it's
special. It means you took the time to get your hands on a limited-edition
print copy, it means you are one of those slightly eccentric and mostly archaic
book collectors (which is a title, I'm sure, that you wear proudly).
Yes, it's painful to imagine the closing of
bookstores or the diminishing of book signing events and it's hard to look at
our bookshelves and think that those paper things we took for granted all those
years may one day be much more difficult to come by.
But just as people continued to listen to
music long after the digital revolution in the music industry, people will
continue to read and authors will continue to write. The written word will
still be out there, and those stories we've learned to fall in love with will continue
to be created and published—and really, isn't that the point?
Let me get this straight: I love print books
just as much as any other book collector—I love adding books to my shelf and
seeing those beautiful, colorful spines line up neatly next to each other as
much as the next person. I love the new book smell, I love the feeling of
turning the pages and looking at the texture of the page and how the text was
laid out and even how the font that the publisher chose fits with the tone of
the novel.
I love all of those things, and it's sad to
think of a world where those nuances will no longer be appreciated.
But a world without print books is not the end
of the world. There will always be something to read, new stories to immerse
ourselves into and new characters to fall in love with.
I hope not to live to see a print-book-free
world, but if I do, I guess I'll be one of those crazy book-collector types who
hunt down those special limited-edition print copies like it's nobody's
business. And I guess I'll proudly add it to my bookshelf while the younger
members of my family roll their eyes at me.
Because although print books may one day
become obsolete, they will never lose their place in our hearts.
39 comments:
Well said. I don't think that will happen overnight. And I don't think it will happen at the youngest level or with readers K-3. But I think it will start from the top and go down. Adult books to kidlit. I can't see it happening in the next 5 years. I just think we'll see more digital reading, even if ereaders are just a phase.
I don't think it will happen at all. "Obsolete" means "no longer in use or no longer useful," and I don't think print is going to suddenly cease to be useful because we have digital alternatives.
What I do think will happen is that print-on-demand services will become the primary means of dispensing print books. Print will become just another option in an ever-expanding series of options. There may be no saving the bookstores, granted, but I'm not writing their eulogy just yet, personally. They will become more niche, and the huge chains will probably disappear in favor of small local shops in larger cities, which I don't actually see as a bad thing.
People still cut records on vinyl. Office supply stores still sell floppy disks. People still use fax machines. Books have been around much longer, with an infinitely larger cultural footprint, than any of those things.
What -may- disappear is the mass market paperback -- the books people buy to read on an airplane, read once, then throw away or shove in a box somewhere, never to look at them again. The market for those may simply vanish when easy digital alternatives gain ascendancy. Of course, you still have to turn off your e-readers when you get on a plane, so it might be a while...
That's an interesting theory. Honestly there are just so many ways the digital market could go that it's hard to predict what will happen, but it certainly makes for interesting discussion.
I'm not sure if e-readers are a phase--they seem to be gaining steam rather than falling away, so I think they might be here to stay. Either way it should be interesting to see how things go.
I want to see a bookstore that looks like an Apple store. I want to see a digital store front, where you walk in to a children's section with animated touchscreens, where they can scroll through their favorite books, and skype online with an author. I want to see a bookstore, where people gather to talk about books, to have events and to play with the latest devices that will house their library next. (I feel a blog post coming on...)
Does this really matter? I know it's engaging to speculate about the future but if you want to become a writer, well, write!! Don't worry about whether books will still be around 100 years from now. It doesn't matter! Spend some time getting your words written down. Then can be shared in some form -- whether it's writing on cave walls, to the printed page, to the e-screen. There will always be ways to share your thoughts. Just get then OUT of your brain!!
I love my e-reader...but I'll be a crazy, book-collecting type right along with you!
Interesting thoughts! I think you may very well be right about print-on-demand eventually becoming a huge means of receiving paperback books and I could certainly see local shops becoming the main bricks-and-mortar bookstores (if, of course, local shops survive to see the end of the chain bookstores).
The airport mass-market is an interesting point all on it's own, but the fact that for now, you do need to turn off all electronic devices when you get on a plane and sometimes the wait to take off can be excruciatingly painful, the paperback may live on a little longer if only so that people have something to read until they can turn on their e-readers or tablets. If airplanes ever make it possible to use electronic devices throughout the entirety of the flight, that may very well change.
Wow. That's a really neat idea! I hadn't thought of that at all, but come to think of it...that'd be pretty cool!
It very well may, and I certainly wouldn't rule it out. I'm just saying I think paper is a more competitive technology than we give it credit for. There are still some speed bumps e-readers need to get over.
Cave walls are a terrible distribution system to try to promote... tried it dozens of times...
;)
I agree--as I said in my post, regardless of the format, I'm convinced there will always be readers buying new books and writers getting their work out there. Even if print books do disappear (which would be a very sad thing) I for one know I will continue to read and write. :)
That pretty much sums up my feelings as well--e-readers are great, but I'll always love collecting books. Yay crazy book collectors!
That's certainly true. I hope print books last for decades to come. In a perfect world, print and e-books will coexist happily.
I'm optimistic about the survival of paper because the impetus in our entertainment has been toward MORE distribution channels, not less... used to be, you could watch movies in the theater. Now you can see them on your phone, computer, TV, toaster... I think the paper market will shrink, but I don't forsee it vanishing. Not for a long time.
I like your optimism and your logic seems sound to me. Hopefully you're right!
Also, I now want a toaster I can watch movies on.
I have nothing to add, because you said it all perfectly. And yes, I will proudly where the title of Archaic Book Collector. :D
All of this, please. :)
I'll have one of these and a double-espresso! The book reading by the author will reach thousands at once.
Thanks, Tina! We archaic book collectors will take over the literary world one book at a time. >:D
I think Susan may be on to something with this Apple-bookstore idea.
I think where there's opportunity, there's money and where there's money, there are entrepreneurs. When movies started coming out on video I wondered if movie theaters would become obsolete. It hasn't happened. Instead more money is being made because people have the choice. I think it will be the same with books. But I've been watching this whole Amazon vs. brick and mortar bookstores with interest and wrote about it on my blog. Like I stated there, it's like a cosmic hand has tossed the whole industry in the air and it hasn't quite landed yet.
I love books and at this point still prefer the old fashioned print ones. I have a Kindle app on my tab and use it but not as much as my regular books. My kids are having I-pads integrated at their school to use next year instead of textbooks.
I like your last line there--everything still very much feels as though it's still in the air. There are tons of variables and everything's rather unpredictable at this time. It's been interesting to see the developments with Amazon and bookstores, though.
Really! I guess I shouldn't be surprised to hear some schools are already integrating iPads into the curriculum especially with the new interactive textbook authoring app out there, but that's pretty incredible.
Interesting post. :)
I think one of the things keeping books from going "out of print" is the fact that people like to physically have them (for the sake of collecting, being able to look at them on the shelves, to display to others what kind of books they are interested in, and so on). But perhaps one day there will be a visual aspect of e-books (a more accessible virtual bookshelf that can be placed in the living room) that renders that argument obsolete.
Very thought provoking. I'm in a tribe you are in but I wanted to comment as well.
Well written, well done
Thank you, Jane! :)
If print books ever do disappear, I hope there would be some sort of virtual bookshelf that you could set up in your home. It'd at least make the collectors happy.
It is so hard curling up in bed with my iPad. It's cover is inflexible, it's pages do not rustle, it will break if it slips out of your fingersv onto the floor when you nod off and it is not returned by post if you leave it in the hotel room by mistake!
It's funny the things we think about when debating the differences between e-readers and print books--the rustling pages, for example, is something few of us really thought about until e-readers came around.
Also, you're probably right about it not being returned by post. I imagine some cleaning lady would be very pleased to find an iPad left behind in a hotel room.
Print books will not be missed. I for one can't wait until the day that all books are digital. One must move with the times.
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Last comment was two years ago --- 'my' descendent twins - future citizens - were born at that time and now their mom posts this -- -- -- "My girls will sit and read books together for hours. Literally hours
every day. They love bundling up in cozies, sitting on the porch couch
under a shared blanket with stacks of books…Just recently, Harlowe discovered the book chair. She
carefully puts her book pile in order in a huge stack, then she sits on
the stack and reads one book at a time. . . . Getting up from the book chair
and selecting a new one. Until she has read her entire book chair and is
sitting on the floor."
I wonder --- Will they and their age mates still be enamored by such books in 2041 at age 30 ? ?
So you want a cold, calculating world where there is no privacy anymore, devoid of any aesthetics. Skype with an author? Are we talking about real literature, or fantasy novels and other crap?
I'm an author, and a recluse at that. I have no interest of talking to my readers. I need peace and an absolutely quiet environment to write books, that's why I live in the forest in norway. A world without the printed book is a world in which I don't want to live.
I already made the decision to not have children because of the ongoing degeneration of our culture by way of electronic media. People, even older ones, have become children. The Privatgelehrte is gone, extinct. The printed book has been the Leitmedium of the intellectuals. Maybe the future will be a world without intellectuals, where everyone's voice is heard, even that of simple-minded people with no education. But in such a world, as I wrote, I don't want to live.
Also take into account that by 2050 we might even be a post-literal world (search for "The Dawn of the Postliterate Age").
So the book is completely obsolete by then, even the ebook. We will no longer read or write. A horrific thought to me, as the book -- the printed book -- made life bearable for me. Without it, I feel cheated, as if someone played a trick on me. So yes, no children for me, such a world is not worth living in. Might as well go the route of Ernst Toller sooner rather than later if the trend continues.
I want to start off by saying that I welcome respectful dissenting opinions on the blog. I like polite debate, as long as both parties remain respectful.
Unfortunately, you've made more than a few comments here that are, intentionally or not, rather rude and disrespectful.
I've said on this blog before, and I'll likely say it again, but no one book or genre is better than another. Period.
It's totally fine if you don't like genre fiction—we all have different tastes and I certainly don't expect everyone to enjoy the same type of book. I, for example, don't usually like books that run along the literary vein, but that's just my personal taste, and I certainly don't consider literary books inferior simply because I don't like them.
For you to refer to genre fiction as "crap" is, in a word, rude. In another word, it's also disrespectful. If you'd like to continue posting here (which you may or may not after this comment), then I ask that you refrain from disrespecting anyone or any genre.
I'm not even going to address the large majority of your comment, because to be frank, the judgmental attitude your remarks display isn't one I want to encourage here. Like I said, I welcome respectful debate. Your comment, by and large, was far from respectful.
I will agree on one point—a world without books would be terrible. But to me, a book is a book regardless of the media, and while I would absolutely miss print books if they ever stop making them, I imagine e-books would still very much be available—which are still very much books.
As for a post-literal world...to be honest, I'm extremely skeptical that that'll ever happen, at least, in our lifetimes. It's not something I'm particularly worried about.
This article doesn't make sense to me. If book collectors can still find books, then it's not a print-book-free world. Something can't be something and not be something at the same time. The question I think is: will the day come when newly written material will not be published in book format, not even if the author wishes it. That would amount to making printing presses and paper illegal. Given the penchant for governmental overreach recently, I suppose it's possible if one extrapolates pessimistically.... however, illegal drugs are still available despite their illegality, so I suppose books will be too. But even in Fahrenheit 451 there were still some books.
I don't see why not. :)
Okay, so, I'm going to try to get at what I was trying to say two years ago when I wrote this post.
I didn't necessarily mean a world where print doesn't exist at all and/or is illegal (so not quite a Fahrenheit 451 world). What I meant instead was a world where e-books have overtaken the print market and become the major way of selling books, with print books becoming a very small minority. Finding print books then, wouldn't be impossible, but would be very difficult as most books would never be printed at all.
So...yes. That's what I meant. Though the idea of black market illegal books is an interesting one. :)
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