The BBC News article "Digital Fiction Book Sales Soar, Publishers Association Says", says that even though paper books are not becoming more popular, digital books are rapidly gaining in popularity with readers in the United Kingdom: sales more than doubled from one year ago (2012). According to the article, publishers think that strong intellectual property protection has encouraged publishers "to invest in exciting authors and titles", but they are not sure what might be popular in future.
I agree with the article that reading will remain an important pleasure for many people, but I'm less sure about paper books. They might be holding steady for now, but I think that the paper versions could very quickly die out. I remember that when digital photography arrived, everyone thought that film would always continue and be better. This was true for a while, but then the digital version became so good, so much cheaper and so much more convenient that film and film cameras just disappeared overnight. Do you use a film camera today? If you were interested in photography as a hobby, would you even think of buying a film camera?
I've always loved books, and have thousands of them in Australia and thousands more that I've collected since I settled in Bangkok. If you had asked me about eighteen months ago, I would have said that I would never prefer a computer version to a "real" book. But then a year ago, I tried a friend's Kindle. Then I was reading in bed one night and had to use a dictionary. That was the decisive moment! When I'm working at my computer, I have the wonderful and massive Oxford English Dictionary available online, along with the excellent Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. They are quick and easy to use. In contrast, when I was lying in bed with my book, I had to put the book down, risk losing my page, reach over for the 2 kg Concise Oxford English Dictionary sitting on my bedside table, find the entry, and then read the tiny print. It was a real pain. The dictionary is heavy enough to exercise the arm muscles more than I want, and it's a long, messy business. My friend's Kindle had the excellent Oxford Dictionary of English included to automatically look up words! (I'm a fan of the excellent Oxford range of dictionaries.) The next day, I ordered my Amazon Kindle. I love it! Over the past year, I've bought more than a hundred new books, but only three or four paper books.
I'm sure that the future of reading is bright. But I think paper books might be heading into the darkness of museum exhibits.
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Although it's hardly to find photograph shop that still served film's processing and it is expensive price to using film camera,I still use film camera which is a LOMO camera because it is classical, easy to use and I can create many of beautiful pictures which are very different from the digital camera. In my point of view,I believed that the good benefits of using digital source to keep your information like your favorite's books for instance, are less weight than the physical version and it is instantly used it in anywhere. However,It still have some weakness in how long that your device can use in battery mode.
ReplyDeleteBas,
DeleteThanks for sharing your ideas.
Actually, I do have a couple of friends who still do film photography. They are enthusiasts who started before anyone had heard of digital photography, but for most things, they now go digital.
I'm glad to hear that someone is keeping an older art form alive.
One thing I really like about the Kindle is that unlike an iPad, the battery lasts a long time. If I'm just reading, and not connected, it lasts for a few weeks between recharges, which is long enough for me to visit Australia without having to worry about it running down. And I can carry a whole library in that one, small, light tool.
I agree with you, Peter. I also think, it will not be long before the reading by using Kindle or other reading devices will be main stream. I already decided to buy a Japanese version Kindle, which is said to be going on sale soon. I am hardly able to wait for getting it after reading your comments about Kindle.But the other hand, I feel sorry that paper books are going to disappear. I love books themselves:I love beautifilly designed book jackes, carefully selected fonts, and even a little bit dusty smell of old books.Especially when I think about libraries in 50 years, I feel almost sad.How the library in the future might be? There might be only flush memories or SD cards to be borrowed. Old books may be displayed there as historical things, as you mentioned. There is an animation about the life of librarian, who loves books and is also loved by books.Have you ever watched it? When I watched it, I wished I could have had such a life as the librarian did. The name of the animation is Flying books of Mr. morris Lessmore(2011).
ReplyDeleteThank you Chieko for the introduction to the animation, I've just watched The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore on YouTube. It is very well designed and produced; it's fun and thoroughly enjoyable.
DeleteSince I bought my Kindle and realised that I was not going to use a lot my books ever again, I've been finding new homes for them. Some I've given to friends here in Bangkok, and the ones I really can't bear to part with forever, I've shipped to my brother in Australia. He might never read them either, but he will put them on his shelves, so I can see them and perhaps browse when I'm visiting.
But I'm afraid I've become a strong convert to the non-paper versions, which are so much more convenient and useful than paper books.
Now, I'm looking forward to getting the latest version of the Kindle in a month or so. It came out a week or so ago, but the demand is so high that new orders won't be filled until some time in October. I'm obviously not the only one who has fallen for it.
I am absolutely agree with you, Peter, that paper books will be gone, but not because people will stop using it. It will disappear because our world has no tree anymore. And of course, most people do not like carry many books because of their weights. Therefore, new technologies were created to replace everything which have not enough raw materials to produce or which are been unwanted, including paper books. Definitely, their benefits are more than the old. For example, your kindle, Peter, seems as a small library you can handle. You do not need any place to keep books. Even you do not waste time to think how to clear books after reading. This technology has great advantages but it also have some negative effects. For example, it can work because of electricity. It means you have to pay for the bill every month. As we knew, electricity has many ways to produce because electricity become our necessaries. Nonetheless, the product after electricity production mostly causes many pollutions. Even worse, after being out-of-date technology, it will accumulate as enormous waste mountains spreading around our world and nothing eliminate them all. It seems our products always have some benefits and some drawbacks as two blade knife.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I love paper books as Chieko. I love book smell and I can read books longer than read on my i-pad. I feel deeply regret if paper books are gone.
Aor,
DeleteI worried about the power consumption and need to recharge, too. But I did some research, mainly asking my friends, and found that unlike the iPad and other tablets, the Kindle uses very little power. I only have to recharge mine about once a month. Of course, it's only black and white, and only useful for reading, not watching movies or anything else, but that's OK. I don't want to watch movies on a small screen, just read my books.