Quote:
Originally Posted by Liviu_5
Also it may or may not happen (to me the jury is still out there if e-books will succeed in displacing p-books, or even if commercial e-books will succeed in increasing their size of the pie at more than a small fraction - the print books are "very fit" from an ecological point of view in our culture)
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Yes, most of the culture can't see a good reason to stop reading print books right now. However, I do expect this to change at some point, due to:
- the ever-increasing (and still very small) awareness of the ecological impact that book and magazine printing makes;
- the increasing cost of print-based book distributin, due to the increased costs of chemicals, power and transportation;
- the inherent advantages of electronic files, such as easier storage, always with you, library in your pocket, etc.
I think we can expect to see the attitudes towards printed books and magazines change, especially as the things I listed above become more and more extreme over time.
We're on a tipping point now with many other "accepted norms" of our lifestyles, such as commuting to work, driving gas-guzzling vehicles, burning lights, throwing away trash, etc. Print books can tip over to digital books in the same way.