Printed book sales have gone up in the U.S. over the past two years, though this was largely driven by 'adult coloring books' and (in 2015) Go Set a Watchman.[0

Printed book sales have gone up in the U.S. over the past two years, though this was largely driven by 'adult coloring books' and (in 2015) Go Set a Watchman.[0] In my experience, the Strand in New York[1] is every bit as crowded as it ever was. While some smaller stores have failed, others[2] remain hectic with popularity, and while I don't have their sales figures I do see plenty of people making trips to the counter. Friends in other cities in the U.S. have much the same thing to say about bookstores near them. That won't reach everyone, but it isn't only urban environments where print lives on. I do wonder what all factors come into play here. Certainly there are many people who do not like to be roped into buying books from one retailer, or else converting them haphazardly using Calibre. More 'open' platforms, like the Kobo, are difficult to find in certain markets—and why search them out when EPUB prices might not beat prices at your local store (as at the Strand, if you're in New York)? Many e-books are still clumsily produced, thanks to some combination of a limiting markup language and corner cutting at publishers (poorly proofread OCR output, common in older materials, regardless of firm). Then there are the sentimentalists. There's no reasoning with sentiment—and why would there be? Then there is the ease of lending, exchanging, etc. You don't have to deal with pesky rights, and no need to convert anything. No need to give over your reading habits to someone else's server. It's your book. I understand some of the skepticism myself. Most of us have lived through deprecation of file formats and obsolescence of software. I do have e-books tucked away in plain text now, but that's the only reason I feel they're less brittle than the books on my shelves. [0] http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/69051-print-sales-up-again.html http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bo... [1] http://www.strandbooks.com/ http://www.strandbooks.com/ [2] http://www.mcnallyjackson.com/ http://www.mcnallyjackson.com/