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As I see it, people read books for two reasons: to gain some knowledge (consume info) or to be entertained. Maybe I'm missing something else? And I'm not at a

As I see it, people read books for two reasons: to gain some knowledge (consume info) or to be entertained. Maybe I'm missing something else? And I'm not at all announcing the death of books. I agree that some books mean more than just the words they contain. For this reason, I think they'll stick around as souvenirs of events, ideas, places, and people. But, many books don't represent more than the words they contain, so I don't think people will want physical copies of them. For these reasons, I would guess the staggering majority of books are consumed digitally in 10 years. I wrote more in depth about it here, if you're interested (and I'd love to know why I might be wrong): http://www.ajkesslerblog.com/books-are-souvenirs/ http://www.ajkesslerblog.com/books-are-souvenirs/

FrankenTan 15y ago
As I understand it, and in part how it is for myself; reading books can be a meditative practice. Having a physical book can help someone focus and get in the mood, as well as help them create the enviroment around the book itself as they consume the contents. An ipad or computer also has other purposes than reading, but a book does not. Some people can do this with an ipad or a computer monitor, but I think the people who say there's no replacing a good book might prefer the in-part ritual around reading an actual book. [edit] You might be right in that people will eventually create these things around their ipad, but I still think there might be a value in, even if not more valuable than having grep for a book, the single-purpose existence of books.
paganel 15y ago
> Maybe I'm missing something else? I don't think you're necessarily wrong, maybe is just that us, "book-fetishists", are a dying species :) Reading your post I thought a little harder about why I wouldn't like physical books to go away, or to be transformed into "souvenirs" (which I think it's pretty much the same as them books going away). First, like I said, maybe I'm just a "book-fetishist". It's very hard to explain, Borges explained it best when he said that he hopes "Heaven is a library". Second, and I saw that you wrote about that in your blog post, books do indeed "represent things, places, times, events or ideas to certain people". I know it happens to me very often to just sit in my couch and look through the titles of the books I've accumulated in my personal library. Half of them I haven't even read, but just reading their titles gives you a special feeling. Last and not least, I still continue to believe that my interest in reading was very much nurtured by me growing in a small apartment filled up with the books that my dad had bought. I kind of hope that my unborn child will inherit the same passion, just because s/he would grow up in a house surrounded by books.

FrankenTan 15y ago

As I understand it, and in part how it is for myself; reading books can be a meditative practice. Having a physical book can help someone focus and get in the mood, as well as help them create the enviroment around the book itself as they consume the contents. An ipad or computer also has other purposes than reading, but a book does not. Some people can do this with an ipad or a computer monitor, but I think the people who say there's no replacing a good book might prefer the in-part ritual around reading an actual book. [edit] You might be right in that people will eventually create these things around their ipad, but I still think there might be a value in, even if not more valuable than having grep for a book, the single-purpose existence of books.

paganel 15y ago

> Maybe I'm missing something else? I don't think you're necessarily wrong, maybe is just that us, "book-fetishists", are a dying species :) Reading your post I thought a little harder about why I wouldn't like physical books to go away, or to be transformed into "souvenirs" (which I think it's pretty much the same as them books going away). First, like I said, maybe I'm just a "book-fetishist". It's very hard to explain, Borges explained it best when he said that he hopes "Heaven is a library". Second, and I saw that you wrote about that in your blog post, books do indeed "represent things, places, times, events or ideas to certain people". I know it happens to me very often to just sit in my couch and look through the titles of the books I've accumulated in my personal library. Half of them I haven't even read, but just reading their titles gives you a special feeling. Last and not least, I still continue to believe that my interest in reading was very much nurtured by me growing in a small apartment filled up with the books that my dad had bought. I kind of hope that my unborn child will inherit the same passion, just because s/he would grow up in a house surrounded by books.