I think the title was poorly chosen. Is the technical book dead? Well, it's declining but I wouldn't say dead yet. The problem with the market for technical bo

I think the title was poorly chosen. Is the technical book dead? Well, it's declining but I wouldn't say dead yet. The problem with the market for technical books is that there are tons of them. Everywhere. Some are good, many are bad and there are a few 'classics' (Knuth, Stephens etc.). I think the problem with technical books (in our spheres) is that they don't integrate with the reader's workflow. The reader is often at a computer when reading a programming book. Switching between the computer screen and book page can be mentally expensive compared to having it open on the screen next to you. The pirated versions of books (particularly epubs) tend to be better indexed, can be copied and pasted and more easily integrated into your daily life. These are the challenges that technical books face. The pirated versions often provide a better user experience. It's the same (or rather similar) with DVDs. Now taking that a little further to the title. The book (in general) is not dead, very far from it. I took an ereader on holiday last year and read through about 12 books in 4 days. It was the only piece of tech that I took (I like to unplug). It doesn't feel the same, but as with comparing FLACs to Vinyl the experience makes up for it in it's accessibility. Having said that, I still prefer to read books where I can. Having a Star Trek TNG style reading experience is great, but having the paperware feels an irrationally superior experience.