Quote:
Originally Posted by searcher
Nobody spend money for ..paper. We all buy books to read text not to touch or smell paper.  |
I actually own a copy of "
american gods" because i loved the way the pages felt. It is a very high quality paperback, and the pages have a soft but not flimsy feel that reminds me of nice linen sheets.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AMacD
I am old enough to remember when Television first became popular, after WWII. Newspapers were doomed because we could get the news faster on the TV. Movies were doomed because TV was free. Magazines were doomed because we were all mesmerized by Ed Sullivan. And books were also doomed because everyone was staring at the "idiot box". Anybody out there even notice that none of these things happened? I have heard of the utopian prediction that we would all be downloading our newspapers to an e-ink device by now. I am not saying this will not happen. I am saying that predictions rarely come true, but something will happen, just not that which we expected.
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There are several parts of this discussion that are, um, missing. First, people keep acting like paper is a static technology, and book production is as well. look at a hardback book that was produced this year, 5 years ago, 20 years ago, 50, 100, 200, 300, 500 (printing press?) and 900+ years ago... do the same with paper, and pay special attention to the last 200 years , and in the past 20. What about actually usable print on demand services... devices that can print, bind, package and ship... and they just need a person to clear the paper jam in section 21b every once in a while
The second thing is the way we access the data. How many people want to brows a text file on the internet rather than html? right now ebook readers are in the papyrus and boiled ick phase. Any decent publisher knows how to reference, create a decent TOC and can higher a good artist and technician to make the whole thing look wonderful.
Currently the "device" that reads p-books is also more evolved. It has the ability to understand dozens if not thousands of formats of p-books. It will even interface with some content rich slim editions from other countries (I like Italian photography magazines). Eventually the p-book format will show its limitations, and its lack of rapid cross reference, and large media size will prevent it from being the obvious choice.
Right now I am glad that there is a special format of p-book for my 6month olds to devour, in a similar and yet completely different way that their bibliovore mother does. It will be a long time before you will be able to find a better device for them to consume their books with, and good luck doing it for the price of 10-20 diapers.