Quote:
Originally Posted by thibaulthalpern
I don't think paper books will go away any time soon. There is time and place for eBooks but it is certainly not a replacement for paper books. For one, having paper books is like having multiple screens. You can't open more than one book at a time on a eBook reader because it only has one screen. Of course, you can buy multiple eBook readers but that's a major expense and a hassle. With paper books, you can open multiple ones at the same time and often this is needed when skimming and scanning things. eBook reader is cumbersome with its one screen.
There is something to be said for materiality.
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But can we afford such materiality in a world that is rapidly running out of resources? We have to, and we are, shifting our thinking away from the material and into the realms of the digital. Nobody would carry around a filofax when they have a PDA or a smart phone. Nobody would type up their report on a mechanical typewriter when they have a word-processor. I can't remember the last time I used my printer as a writer, where five years ago that's all I ever did - print, correct, reprint, correct, mail off etc.
The shift in entertainment is taking longer not because of limitations in technology, but because of companies who don't want to see their cash-cow run away. Movies, Music, they've been stalling progress now for 10 years, and it looks like the publishing industry might be trying the same tactics. The romance of the written word should be just that, the words, not the packaging. If the status-quo remains we'll never truly be readers, but just collectors with pretty things on the shelves.