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I read over this article several times, trying to understand its point. I'm still not entirely sure about it. > Curiosities aside, what makes the Fair so speci

I read over this article several times, trying to understand its point. I'm still not entirely sure about it. > Curiosities aside, what makes the Fair so special is that it is about books. Books with covers and pages have, in a society dominated by social media and other sorts of online detritus, become functionally obsolete. This is followed by several paragraphs about expensive, cultured books, and then about her own experience with a Kindle. Most books are not the unique artifacts she talks about, or the works of Geoffrey Hartman. They're usually paperback, usually won't get a second edition, and really are about as disposable as e-books. You can see this in a microcosm with the books that this site is interested in: go to a library's programming section and the timeless books are dwarfed by a depressingly large section of reference manuals on old versions of Java and Visual Basic. I'm not sure this is a bad thing! The heartless, disposable nature of the industry keeps the books I do want to read affordable. The author with her large collection of e-books actually is an outlier, with e-books only making up 20-30% of book publishing in the US. This share has been static over the past few years. Books only are a relic of a past age in her own mind.

K0SM0S 4y ago
On top of which I don't see books going the way of the dodo, ever. Digital processes are not a 1:1 substitution for the physical world (a forum isn't a café, period), but industry-wise they let us enhance the latter. Tech isn't about selling just tech, it's about making all the things better and/or cheaper, faster, etc. It's an industrial step up, way beyond its inherent end-use. For instance, go to any hardware store, and compare offer and price with 20-30 years ago (inflation aside), then tell me our days aren't a child's dream by comparison (include 'features' such as precise cuts, delivery, and other services). Or in the world of audio/video (wherein DigitalAnalog conversion happens, and perfection isn't attainable, only "good enough"), the kind of sound experience you can get today for a few hundred bucks dances around multi-grand systems from the 1990's. As I see it, years from now, you'll be able to buy books made in some fancy paper-like material for the equivalent of a few cents. Just like today IKEA manages to sell stuff for 10x less than 30-40 years ago.
- WalterBright 4y ago
  Furniture is so worthless these days that the thrift stores have signs out that they don't accept furniture donations.

K0SM0S 4y ago

On top of which I don't see books going the way of the dodo, ever. Digital processes are not a 1:1 substitution for the physical world (a forum isn't a café, period), but industry-wise they let us enhance the latter. Tech isn't about selling just tech, it's about making all the things better and/or cheaper, faster, etc. It's an industrial step up, way beyond its inherent end-use. For instance, go to any hardware store, and compare offer and price with 20-30 years ago (inflation aside), then tell me our days aren't a child's dream by comparison (include 'features' such as precise cuts, delivery, and other services). Or in the world of audio/video (wherein DigitalAnalog conversion happens, and perfection isn't attainable, only "good enough"), the kind of sound experience you can get today for a few hundred bucks dances around multi-grand systems from the 1990's. As I see it, years from now, you'll be able to buy books made in some fancy paper-like material for the equivalent of a few cents. Just like today IKEA manages to sell stuff for 10x less than 30-40 years ago.

WalterBright 4y ago
Furniture is so worthless these days that the thrift stores have signs out that they don't accept furniture donations.