Quote:
Originally Posted by Lemurion
I think your mother's wrong. Digital provides a number of clear advantages over print, so people who rely on those benefits will continue to read digitally into the indefinite future. (Note that print has its own set of advantages, neither is universally better than the other, but there are people who find the advantages of digital more compelling as well as those who prefer print.)
My own expectation is that the mass market paperback is heading into a steep decline and will soon (5-15 years) be almost completely eclipsed by digital. The mass market, particularly in North America, with its combination of relatively low prices and strip cover returns is just too inefficient. Publishers will shift this part of the catalog to digital because it makes more business sense.
As for hardcovers and trade paperbacks, I don't see them vanishing any time soon. I'd be surprised if they didn't last at least the rest of this century, and expect them to survive even longer.
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This is exactly what I think as well.
I'll probably start reading in that way very soon: read all books as e-books, and buy a nice hardcover of my absolute favorites, just for the sake of having it as a tangible object. Previously, I bought my "nice to read" books as paperbacks, and replaced a favorite one with a hardcover. (Done away with most of the hardcovers after I switched from Dutch to English.)
Basically, what you described has already happened for me: e-books have replaced the paperbacks. The hardcovers are now just keepsakes. Maybe if I reread Lord of the Rings sometime (again....), I'll read it as a hardcover, for old times' sake.
And, as pointed out in some other threads, some books are just way more easily handled in paper, such as many textbooks and reference books.