Will e-books kill the book?

I always figured e-books and e-readers as a very big cottage industry. I like my books, the feel, the smell, the weight. I love the idea of using hemp though!

 

Quit huffing books!

 

Exactly right! :sunny:

But somehow, I think the gov't here in the US is so STUPID that we would come closer to buying this product from another nation than to legalize it here, even for paper and the excellent cloth it also makes.

When I begin my next project, which will be to handmake some paper, "Hemp" will definitely be used. I'm serious about handmaking some paper. However, a loom and handmade cloth are not part of my plans...since I've known how to sew since I was a relative child, I'll always find cloth.
Yet, it is said that hemp cloth is quite good in that it lasts long. :mickey:

I guess I just got off on that rant because no matter how very many good uses there are for hemp, this back-ass-wards place will not capatilize on any of it.

 

No man this will never happen.. I work at a bookshop and have so many customers say that e readers will never replace their love for paper books.. I feel the same, fuck reading from an e-reader..

 

Those people are going to die. You know old people today who think computers are bad and hard and not useful? People who feel this way about books and the emerging technology around them are going to be the grumpy old people of the future. Embrace this new awesome stuff, you people are trapped in your traditions.

 

Paper books will always have it perks dude. There's room for both. Just like there's room for old people to keep their old habits and also alot of oldies killing time on the computer and internet. It's awesome. No need to take a radical stance in this case I guess. Although a radical change in the paper industry would be welcome for sure (to use hemp on a large scale).

 

how narrow minded to think that because some like to physically turn pages that the e-book will not replace printed ones.

First and foremost e-books have only been around a few years; Their sales growth will explode over the next several. Once big publishers find out that the demand is high enough they will start delivering books electronically and save millions in printing, binding and distributing. Think of all the books that end up on clearance tables that will no longer clutter landfills. Think of the trees that won't get cut, the diesel that won't get sold, the air that won't get fouled, the roads that won't get clogged, the accidents that won't happen, the back injuries from lifting cases of books that won't happen. Think of the writers who will be able to get their voices heard because their is no risk to let someone download their work vs the risk of bringing a book into the store by an unknown author.

Anyone who is against the e-book is a reactionary luddite.

My dad was a novelist.

 

That's hardly an accurate sample group. Obviously those who go into book stores prefer books. It is the hundreds of thousands, and soon to be millions of people who no longer go into book stores that are the true indicator.

 

yeah instead you're out a $100-200 because you spilled your drink on your ereader.. it's not like they cure stupidity

 

I know man but we also sell E-Books (Well very few of them anyway.)

I just can't see the traditional paper book being replaced, thinking about it is kinda scary. Whenever we bring in new technology, things seem to get worse.

 

They do indeed.

 

Well, yeah, the thing is the E-book si based on electrictricity energy. If the paper book stains you can still go on reading it, but with the Kindle your ereader doesn't work anymore; you have to buy a new one. Careful not to drink while you read!

 

Great question. Lets take a few examples

Vinyl, Films and Live Music.

Vinyl is pretty much gone now. It's only for nostalgic music lovers who grew up with it. Obviously books will always at least have this amount of a following.

Once upon a time there was no TV and everyone went to the cinema for their entertainment. It was the equivalent of a giant TV that everybody shared and could afford to go watch. You could drop in and out of a show when you wished. So when TV came along and was affordable to have one at home people really thought that cinema would die out. Many people were sure of it. But yet films are still around today, stronger than ever. Perhaps this is the way books will go. Most books will be available as ebooks, but the blockbuster books, the ones by famous authors with a large following will be only released originally in paperback, accompanied by big advertising campaigns.

Live music. It's easy to conceive of a world where live music dies out replaced by recorded music. After all why pay and travel to go listen to something you can listen to at home for free. However people love the experience of live music so much, that they can't get enough of it. Maybe books will survive in the same way. Loved by everybody. Everybody uses ebooks on a day to day basis, but the books they love, they buy a hard copy of too keep.

 

long life to books!!!

 

In Jewish tradition ‘long life’ is something you say after someone dies. Rather apt in this case I think!

 

I'm a Librarian, so books are quite literally, my life.
However, we have had to change how libraries are used because of the internet and e-books.
Think of encyclopedias - they're now completely obsolete, thanks to Google and the like. No one would pick up information that "dated" when they can google it and get the information instantly.

The library has had to evolve and will continue to do so - we now lend not only e-books, but e-magazines, music, dvds, xbox/ps3 games, etc.

I own a Kindle and love it.

As a minimalist, I don't hold onto to anything I can either digitize or borrow.
I have one bookcase full of all my most favourite books. That's it. I pared it down from three full bookcases.
Sure, I love Michael Crichton, but do I really need to keep all of his books, when I know every single library has them??

So, no I don't think the printed word will become obsolete, but I think it will drastically diminish, and more quickly than most people like to think.

Peace,
-Mama

 

I don't think e-books reduce the publicity if printed books. It's the fact that now-a-days we all are so busy, so that we have no more time to read from paper printed books at all the time and it's not mandatory that our required books must be available in the market everytime. So it's a better chance and practice to learn through e-books.:love:

 

I like much of the artwork on book covers, especially vintage books, which I don't think the e-book can replace. Also, I usually read about 50 pages in a reading session, and I'd hate to read 50 pages at a time on an e-book.

 

As long as Steam never comes out with an e-book service we'll be fine.. they've more or less killed the idea of owning a physical copy of a game for PC gamers