Funny article about the future of paper books

[Tom Swift]

From the Huffington Post

Is Print Dead?

[whiteorca]

Quite ingenious... thanks for sharing it :-)

[CyGuy]

That was actually very good, thanks for sharing!

[Wetdogeared]

Hilarious! Thanks for the link.

[omk3]

Dot Matrix Printer: Effing laser and inkjet. Doesn't anyone else miss tearing off the perforated hole punches on the side of paper? Don't they miss the feel and smell of that?

Actually, I did kind of like tearing off the perforated hole punches
Ahh, the fun we had in the old days!

Good article, thanks!

[happy_terd]

(no one gives Cassette Tapes a high five)

[Worldwalker]

Originally Posted by omk3

Actually, I did kind of like tearing off the perforated hole punches

So did I. And doing origami with the torn-off strips.

To make an octopus, take 4 strips and tie an overhand knot in them, so you get a neat, flat pentagonal shape with 4 loose ends on each side. Fold the loose ends over as necessary to make them look like tentacles. Fold the tips to points. Hang this from your monitor to weird out your office mates.

[sassanik]

Hey I still have a buggy whip!

Thanks for the funny article.


Amy

[dsvick]

Very nice. I remember the old mimeograph copies we used to get in school, the teacher would pass them out and all the kids would spend the next 5 minutes smelling them

[Jaime_Astorga]

I didn't make me laugh, but it was amusing enough to make me smile. And all while making a good point, too!

[kacir]

The best article about the print industry I have read in YEARS.
I have chuckled all the time I read it. I had to read it several times.

Now, I am downloading all the free books J.A. Konrath provides on his site http://jakonrath.com/freebies.htm . The books have moved to the top of my ever-growing ToBeRead queue.

[SameOldStory]

Spot on.

Moderator: We all read on JA Konrath's blog that the way to fight piracy is with cost and convenience. Print Industry, are you lowering your prices and making it easier for customers to download your books?

Print Industry: Actually, we just raised prices on our ebooks.

(all-around sighs and head shaking)

Moderator: Well, far be it for you to learn from any of our mistakes. Are you making it easier at least?

Print Industry: Well, we've begun windowing titles, releasing them months after the hardcover comes out.

Guilty as charged. Pull the plug.

[Format C:]

I think a big point is missing, here.
Digital reading gives the user totally different stimuli than paper print (and audiobook).

LP, cassettes, CDs and audiofiles stimulate the auditive channel of their listeners all in the same measure. None of them stimulate visual, tactile or olfactory senses. So they compete for the same audience.
Single player videogames are essentially the same whether played in a boot or at home. And the Internet can replace and somehow expand the social aspect of gaming.
When on paper, you can't distinguish between a digital photo and a film one (unless the latter is a good B&W or a medium format: still no match there). But there will always be place for the darkroom, with the distinctive smell of acid...

When it comes to book vs ebooks, the thing is completely different: they don't give comparable experiences to the users. The only stimulus they can give in common is the visual one.
A paper book cannot be replaced by an epub file when it comes to the senses of touch, smell and hearing.
The sound of pages turning, the weight of the book swifting from one hand to the other while going on through a story, the dusty smell of old paper... They cannot be digitized, as of now.
So, while people more sensible to visual stimuli like I am can easily switch from paper to devices, the ones who rather lean on other senses cannot and won't.
And that's why audiobooks won't never replace printed books, too: they rely only on the sense of hearing.

Print Industry will suffer, of course. It can lose a great percentage of its audience. But not all of it.
Because we don't yet have a perfect and complete replacement for the book, something that gives the whole experience, in the digital world.

[J. Strnad]

Now I'm worried about Slide Rule. Why isn't he showing up for meetings? Gosh, I hope he's okay.

There were visual, tactile and olfactory aspects to opening up a new vinyl LP and playing it. I loved the big cover art and the ritual of cleaning the disc with a brush before playing it. I loved the smooth mechanical movement of the tonearm and, as I went hifi, I loved moving it myself and gently placing it on the revolving surface of the record.

But I hated the crackles and pops and the storage space the records took up, and I love having so much more music available to me in a pocket-sized device, and I love the option of buying a single tune from an album if I so choose and all of the other benefits of downloading music. And the selection! Wow! No record store ever offered so much.

Ultimately, it's about the content. The other stuff...those other senses that are engaged...are sacrificed for content, price and ease of use.

Print will be around a long time yet for certain content, but things will never be as good for the print industry as they have been for the last couple of centuries.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by J. Strnad

Now I'm worried about Slide Rule.

;-)

Slide Rule is OK.
Have a look at my avatar. He is in another meeting with a MicroVAX and VT420 terminal. Bakelite Rotary Dial Telephone is Moderating.