[Katsunami]

It is no secret that everything is becoming digital these days. Some things are not really a problem. For example, if you buy a digital piano in 2013, you can play it basically forever, as long as it does not break down. If it does break down, you can probably replace it with an equivalent or better model, maybe even for a lower price you paid now.

Not so with eBooks, or pictures, or music. They depend on devices to be able to be used: eReaders, viewers/programs, or players. The problem is the format: you can never be sure that a format that is dominant today, will be readable tomorrow. The computer world is littered with dead formats that are out of use, and can no longer be read completely, except if you are lucky enough to have a 30 year old system around using the original software from back then.

I've already future proofed my music as much as possible, by ripping all my CD's to FLAC. FLAC is an open source and lossless music format, and as long as someone writes a FLAC-to-whatever converter, I will be able to convert my music to whatever desired format without losing any quality.

I did the same with pictures. Instead of FLAC, I've settled on Adobe DNG (Digital NeGative). It's an open (but not open source) format, that stores pictures as they where captured. As long as someone supports a software package that can read DNG, it will be possible to output the pictures in basically any wanted format, without loss of quality.

Not so with ebooks at this time. Converting from one format to another may keep the book usable, and looking OK on an ereader, but the code inside will become quite crappy. Try converting a book, starting with an original one, from EPUB to MOBI to LRF and back to EPUB. It'll probably work, but the code is a mess.

Still, I've settled on EPUB as my base format, because it's open, it can easily be edited, and takes well to conversion to other formats. However, even many bought EPUBs do not validate correctly; they have many errors. Also, when I buy an AZW3 file, Calibre produces a usable EPUB, but it doesn't validate. Therefore, EPUB is not perfect. It's still possible that a future convertor will choke on the non-validating part, and refuse to convert the EPUB.

Still, I want my books to be available for the next 50 years or so (and 50 is not exaggerated, with the current life span in the Netherlands). I've had paper books on my shelf that have sat there for almost 10 years after the first read, but I sometimes pick one on a whim to start re-reading it.

I cannot afford to keep buying books. I do not have enough room for them. I've not read a lot over the past 10 years, because I was occupied with study, work, and playing computer role playing games (which also involves a lot of reading, by the way). Since I've got an eReader more than a year ago, I've seriously picked up reading again. Even at my current lackluster pace, I read around 50 books a year, so counting forward 50 years would come down to reading at least 2500 books. I cannot put that many books away, not in my current house, and probably not in a future one. (And I also collect movies...)

The library is not an option. Dutch libraries mostly have translated stuff, or they don't have it at all. They don't have many books in English, and what I read is mostly English, and many works are not even translated (or not fast enough for my liking).

So, what to do?

An eReader has many conveniences with regard to portability, readability, size, weight, and lighting, but I have the feeling that a paper book is more future proof. If you treat it correctly, it can go for hundreds of years, especially a hardback.

I've been thinking to use my ereader for convenience, and "bulk reading": you know, the books you buy for €2 to €5 or so, the ones you read for pure entertainment, but that do not invite to be read a second time, just because they're too simple or shallow. Entertainment, nothing more; not literature like Shakespeare, that'll endure 500 years or more. The eReader can also be used to conveniently and cheaply read free classics. Then, to future proof the books I probably DO want to reread some time, I'd buy them as hardcover, or, if not available (anymore), as a large paperback.

It'd combine the convenience of the eReader, with the future proofing of paper books; and IF there would be a book that I'd desperately want to re-read in the future, I could always get it as a paper version, should the eReader version not work anymore. If I'd feel the need to reread it, it's probably good enough to have in paper.

What do you think? Do you have any strategy with regard to future proofing, or are you someone who just reads what can be read now, and see what comes along?

edit: I've just checked, and many books that I'd want as a hardcover are already no longe available as such. Some of those books are >1000 pages, and a 1000 page paperback is BAD. At some point, the spine WILL break. With regard to this, I think that a correctly validating eBook may actually be more future proof than a paperback.