LONGER VERSION:
When I was young, printed material such as books and newspapers were major sources of information (including education, news, reference and so on) and entertainment (fiction, gossip, comics or whatever). Those needs still remain, but what has changed dramatically since then is that a physical book or newspaper is no longer either the dominant delivery method, and - for many consumers - no longer even necessary. Not because of “E-books” in the narrow sense, but because of the massive increase in electronically delivered material right across the board.
For some people the TV has long been their main source of allegedly ‘factual’ information as well as fiction style entertainment. But the other big change in the role of books has been the Internet - which now functions much like one vast ever-changing book. I am a keen reader - with 2000+ printed books in my house and around 60 years of reading experience, but I have shifted inexorably over the past decade towards getting both information and entertainment via the computer. I’d suggest that, as you are reading this right now, then you probably have too.
In computer terms, 2000 - 2010 has been described as the “Google Decade”, because of the massive take up of the internet both for reference and for pleasure. What this appears to be saying is that the relevance of a traditional “book” is shifting rapidly and that the real change isn’t a battle between printed pages and E-pages but between the whole structure, length and format of how we read. There’s no longer any need to package things in familiar chunks of so many pages, or in traditional shapes, sizes or price points. Via the internet we can read not just a restricted monologue on a specific topic, but a continuing dialogue that we can even be part of ourselves. And we can consume our written material in anything from tiny bites to massive lengths with an almost endless array of choices in between.
Regardless of what we might personally think of Apple or Microsoft I believe that anybody who dismisses iPad style gear as pointless gimmicks is being massively short sighted. What that whole new generation of pad/slate type devices are seeking to provide is a way of bringing the complete modern reading experience to one conveniently portable device. That doesn’t just mean novels it includes forums, blogs, social networking, news, reference material, and anything else that can be communicated by print, pictures, sound in any combination you can think of.
E-books - in the form of electronic shadows of print books - are just one small part of an expanding picture. Things are not just getting ready to change - the main event already has moved on. It’s a done deal.
In my E-pinion....
