4 ms·

I don't see any reason for printed books to exist anymore. They're more expensive to produce, they are not environmental friendly and it takes time to go out an

by snitko 16y ago

I don't see any reason for printed books to exist anymore. They're more expensive to produce, they are not environmental friendly and it takes time to go out and buy them or to deliver them. I think it's almost the same as with printed photographs. Can you find anyone using them today? That would be a challenge. Sure older people like to sniff paper and are somewhat sentimental about printed books. Hell, even I like to touch printed book with a nice cover. But that's just an illusion and the truth is that printed books do not add anything (and maybe even subtract) from the reading experience.

c1sc0 16y ago
What about long-term preservation of knowledge. As far as I know a well-printed and maintained book lasts a long time. Are you confident that future archaeologists will be able to read Kindle files 500 years in the future? 1000? 2000?
- StavrosK 16y ago
  We can't get our shit together long enough to stop destroying the planet, do you think we'll care if people will be able to read our books 2000 years later?
  - c1sc0 16y ago
    That's what people were thinking around the year 1000 ... "OMFG the antichrist is coming, the end is near". Sure, civilizations disappear, maybe we'll manage to reduce world population to 1/100th of the current population. But disappear outright? I'm more confident in the resilience of homo sapiens than that. And given this, we owe it to future generations to at least think about these issues.
    - StavrosK 16y ago
      My point wasn't that we'll disappear, it was that there are more pressing concerns to address...
- c1sc0 16y ago
  Stavrosk: that's what people were thinking around the year 1000 ... "OMFG the antichrist is coming, the end is near". Sure, civilizations disappear, maybe we'll manage to reduce world population to 1/100th of the current population. But disappear outright? I'm more confident in the resilience of homo sapiens than that.
- snitko 16y ago
  If we start thinking about what archaeologists will be able to find after us, then I think we're probably done.
binarymax 16y ago
I'm going to play devils advocate on the environment claim. Producing complicated electronics take a toll on the environment. Sure you have one ebook reader that consumes many books, but it will be obsolete in 2 or 3 years and you will most likely upgrade. Also when I buy a book and have finished it, I sometimes lend it out or even give it to a charity/reused book store. In turn its very nice to go into those shops and buy a book for 10 pence that was printed in 1979!
ja27 16y ago
It depends. For a nice linear read (fiction, biography, etc.) I don't see many compelling reasons to buy a print copy even now. But there are some: giving as a gift, getting signed by an author, the physical experience of having a real object, etc. But electronic readers have a long way to go before they're useful for other types of books. A textbook or reference where you might constantly flip around the book would need better navigation or a way to use multiple synchronized displays to view a book. Art / coffee table books need a better display and physical experience. In the future I can see something like a leather-cased super-sized iPad sitting on stuffy coffee tables, loaded with amazing visuals. Kids books still need a cheaper, sturdier reader and color. Electronic readers can never replicate books with popups and textures, but the sound, video and interactivity they can offer could blow that away. I don't think electronic books can ever really replace coloring books for kids, but they should be able to replace workbooks.
fierarul 16y ago
I looked at Amazon and the Kindle prices were almost always a bit more than the paperback price. I don't see why this is so (given that books are supposedly more expensive to produce, etc). I can share physical books, give them away when I'm done or have a yard sale with my library. What's the resale market like for ebooks ? I can have multiple books spread in multiple rooms / places or even compare two side by side. If I forget a book while visiting my parent's it's no biggie. If I forget my Kindle I can't read anything else until I get it back. The big advantage of ebooks is that they weigh nothing, so moving my entire collection to a different city doesn't involve the movers. Also, I don't have to wait for some rare book to physically get to my bookstore, I can just download it (although retailers might still try to limit this artificially with something like DVD regions, etc). So I don't see ebooks entirely replacing my books any time soon.
- gaius 16y ago
  Well quite! A 20-30% premium for an electronic version is just plain ridiculous. A few books recently I've bought have been available for iPad or hardback on Amazon and the hardback was cheaper so I bought that.
RodgerTheGreat 16y ago
Paper books add to the reading experience in the same way text editors like WriteRoom[1] add to the writing experience- they're less distracting. [1] http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/writeroom http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/writeroom
- regularfry 16y ago
  That depends on the book. I find large, or tightly-bound, books to be very difficult to read, precisely because their physical form is difficult to handle, and therefore distracting.
zephyrfalcon 16y ago
When I was little, my parents and grandparents had a bunch of old books in their attics. I loved to go through them and read them, even though some of them were (obviously) dated. How do you envision this scenario 50 years from now? Or even 20? Do you hand down your old dusty Kindle to your grandkids? (Then again, if there's information overload already in 2010, I doubt that kids in the future will go around looking for more things to read...)

by snitko 16y ago

c1sc0 16y ago

What about long-term preservation of knowledge. As far as I know a well-printed and maintained book lasts a long time. Are you confident that future archaeologists will be able to read Kindle files 500 years in the future? 1000? 2000?

StavrosK 16y ago
We can't get our shit together long enough to stop destroying the planet, do you think we'll care if people will be able to read our books 2000 years later?
- c1sc0 16y ago
  That's what people were thinking around the year 1000 ... "OMFG the antichrist is coming, the end is near". Sure, civilizations disappear, maybe we'll manage to reduce world population to 1/100th of the current population. But disappear outright? I'm more confident in the resilience of homo sapiens than that. And given this, we owe it to future generations to at least think about these issues.
  - StavrosK 16y ago
    My point wasn't that we'll disappear, it was that there are more pressing concerns to address...
c1sc0 16y ago
Stavrosk: that's what people were thinking around the year 1000 ... "OMFG the antichrist is coming, the end is near". Sure, civilizations disappear, maybe we'll manage to reduce world population to 1/100th of the current population. But disappear outright? I'm more confident in the resilience of homo sapiens than that.
snitko 16y ago
If we start thinking about what archaeologists will be able to find after us, then I think we're probably done.

binarymax 16y ago

I'm going to play devils advocate on the environment claim. Producing complicated electronics take a toll on the environment. Sure you have one ebook reader that consumes many books, but it will be obsolete in 2 or 3 years and you will most likely upgrade. Also when I buy a book and have finished it, I sometimes lend it out or even give it to a charity/reused book store. In turn its very nice to go into those shops and buy a book for 10 pence that was printed in 1979!

ja27 16y ago

It depends. For a nice linear read (fiction, biography, etc.) I don't see many compelling reasons to buy a print copy even now. But there are some: giving as a gift, getting signed by an author, the physical experience of having a real object, etc. But electronic readers have a long way to go before they're useful for other types of books. A textbook or reference where you might constantly flip around the book would need better navigation or a way to use multiple synchronized displays to view a book. Art / coffee table books need a better display and physical experience. In the future I can see something like a leather-cased super-sized iPad sitting on stuffy coffee tables, loaded with amazing visuals. Kids books still need a cheaper, sturdier reader and color. Electronic readers can never replicate books with popups and textures, but the sound, video and interactivity they can offer could blow that away. I don't think electronic books can ever really replace coloring books for kids, but they should be able to replace workbooks.

fierarul 16y ago

I looked at Amazon and the Kindle prices were almost always a bit more than the paperback price. I don't see why this is so (given that books are supposedly more expensive to produce, etc). I can share physical books, give them away when I'm done or have a yard sale with my library. What's the resale market like for ebooks ? I can have multiple books spread in multiple rooms / places or even compare two side by side. If I forget a book while visiting my parent's it's no biggie. If I forget my Kindle I can't read anything else until I get it back. The big advantage of ebooks is that they weigh nothing, so moving my entire collection to a different city doesn't involve the movers. Also, I don't have to wait for some rare book to physically get to my bookstore, I can just download it (although retailers might still try to limit this artificially with something like DVD regions, etc). So I don't see ebooks entirely replacing my books any time soon.

gaius 16y ago
Well quite! A 20-30% premium for an electronic version is just plain ridiculous. A few books recently I've bought have been available for iPad or hardback on Amazon and the hardback was cheaper so I bought that.

RodgerTheGreat 16y ago

Paper books add to the reading experience in the same way text editors like WriteRoom[1] add to the writing experience- they're less distracting. [1] http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/writeroom http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/writeroom

regularfry 16y ago
That depends on the book. I find large, or tightly-bound, books to be very difficult to read, precisely because their physical form is difficult to handle, and therefore distracting.

zephyrfalcon 16y ago

When I was little, my parents and grandparents had a bunch of old books in their attics. I loved to go through them and read them, even though some of them were (obviously) dated. How do you envision this scenario 50 years from now? Or even 20? Do you hand down your old dusty Kindle to your grandkids? (Then again, if there's information overload already in 2010, I doubt that kids in the future will go around looking for more things to read...)