Seth Godin: An end of books, and a new golden age

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by crich70

I don't remember when they changed from sewn to glued books in general but I do remember when TV guide was stapled together and how they switched to a glued binding for that. Back then the TV guide was about the same size as a Reader's Digest book. It seemed they had a lot more in it back then too than in any book of any size about what is on TV now. Of course they had better programming back then too so I guess it balances out.

I remember the sewn books and how after they started coming apart in chunks my grandmother used to do her best to sew them back together on a treadle operated Singer sewing machine. There were electric sewing machines available but my grandmother stuck to her treadle. Cost almost as much as the farm she told me when she got it. She had a pretty fancy freezer for the time but still had ice delivered once a week for her icebox

Helen

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

Still with the right equipment analog recordings can get more detail. Digital is two values only and analog can theoretically have infinite values.

Nah. Common myth; a misunderstanding of how digital audio works.

Explanation of digital audio in here

Click the link "Show and Tell" link at the top of the article. An audio engineer converts a purely analog signal to digital, and then back again, and compares the two analog waveforms. They're exactly the same. If digital would lose quality because of being digital, the second (analog->digital->analog) waveform would be different.

[Sregener]

Originally Posted by supermighty

Paper books were a means to and end. They were never intended to be the object of attention themselves. When people tell me the prefer paper books I wonder if they even care about what they are reading.

Huh? I prefer paper books. And I care a lot about what I'm reading. Why are those related ideas? Paper books have some distinct advantages. They also have their disadvantages. Ditto for eBooks. I read both. There are times where I can read much easier with an eBook, and then I do. There are times where I want to dig into a text, and then a paper book is the way to go for me.

I don't see enjoying a format to mean one does not care about the content.