The end of books? « Singletrack Forum

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The end of books?

131 posts & 65 voices | Started 5 months ago by the-muffin-man | Latest reply from Gee-Jay

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the-muffin-man - Member

I watched the Imagine programme last night about the eBook revolution, with many comparing it to the invention of the printing press.

I really can't see books dying out, paperbacks may will be affected most of all. But there's nothing like a really well printed tome on your favourite subject (motorsport being mine). The main benefit of iPad type books seemed to be their interactivity, but surely then they are no more than websites in an app?

I can see the advantage of Kindles for people who travel a lot or read on the train etc.

What do you all think, will you be ditching your paperbacks and coffee table books for eBooks and iPads?

Posted 5 months ago #
CharlieMungus - Member

Real books are easier to flip forwards and back, just to clarify and check

Posted 5 months ago #
5thElefant - Member

My mrs is a bit of a technophobe and loves books. I bought her a kindle. She hasn't bought a book since. It's not that the kindle is more convenient, it's just easier to read.

I didn't need converting. Books will go the way of film cameras. They'll virtually disappear overnight and the few left will be for nerds and the pathologically contrary.

Posted 5 months ago #
jameso - Member

No chance. Can't be arsed with any more technology than is necessary and I love a good book, especially tatty well-read / second hand ones. I can't imagine loving an electronic piece of plastic tat.

Posted 5 months ago #
Cougar - Member

It's not that the kindle is more convenient, it's just easier to read.

It's not that the kindle is more convenient, it's that you don't need a gods damned spare room to house all your books.

Posted 5 months ago #
john_drummer - Member

real books:
1) don't need a battery to be kept charged
2) still work if the dog chews them a bit
3) still work if the dog pees on them
4) still work if you drop them
5) still work if you drop them in the swimming pool
6) can be borrowed from a library
7) can be lent/given to somebody else when you've done with them

gadget for gadget's sake IMO

Posted 5 months ago #
kevj - Member

I am not a reader as such but use technical guides and codes at work daily.

I cannot get away with reading on screen for work and tend to print off and work from this as it is easier to flick back and forth or make notes.

That said, I have no problems with reading on forums and other online content.

MTFU time??

Posted 5 months ago #
mastiles_fanylion - Member

Don't agree 5th - just like CDs (and now the re-emergence of vinyl), digital isn't going to replace the real thing anytime soon.

Posted 5 months ago #
miketually - Member

Despite TV, we still listen to radios. Despite the internet, we still watch TV.

Posted 5 months ago #
MSP - Member

I was looking at getting a tablet PC, mainly as a book reader, I thought that it would be better for diagrams in technical books than a kindle, but when I looked at the price of ebooks it hardly seems worth it.

They are clearly exploiting the market, like music and movies, instead of enticing users in with reasonable prices and services they are driving the consumer to illegal markets.

Posted 5 months ago #
kevj - Member

Actually, another salient point.
My Bro in law works at a local junior school and they have bought a kindle per pupil as apparently it is easier for them to read from, bookmark etc.

Maybe it is the end for books? Who has recently had a photograph printed (Or a full 'film' of photographs, not just the good ones?)

Posted 5 months ago #
emsz - Member

7) can be lent/given to somebody else when you've done with them

got a book off the GF that's at least 10th hand. shabby but still readable (and it's got handwritten notes on it)

Posted 5 months ago #
5thElefant - Member

Don't agree 5th - just like CDs (and now the re-emergence of vinyl), digital isn't going to replace the real thing anytime soon.

Have a look at vinyl sales now compared to their peak, the pathetic trickle of sales are the just nerds and the pathologically contrary.

Posted 5 months ago #
Coyote - Member

No chance. Can't be arsed with any more technology than is necessary and I love a good book, especially tatty well-read / second hand ones. I can't imagine loving an electronic piece of plastic tat.

This.

However, ebooks have their place for travelling where it would just be impractical to carry a case of books.

Posted 5 months ago #
CaptJon - Member

CharlieMungus - Member
Real books are easier to flip forwards and back, just to clarify and check

this

Posted 5 months ago #
CaptainFlashheart - Member

JamesO and John Drummer - + Many

Also, if I leave a book on an aeroplane, I rather hope someone has a good read. If I left an e-book reader, I'd be very out of pocket and rather miffed.

Books are ace.

Posted 5 months ago #
ebygomm - Member

As much as I see it would be great to have something compact to take on holiday with you, I wouldn't fancy leaving a kindle on the beach whilst I went for a swim. No such problem with a paperback

Posted 5 months ago #
noteeth - Member

Electronic hyper-availability isn't going to kill the book - if anything, it's made yer actual old-school reading even more of a pleasure.

Posted 5 months ago #
noteeth - Member

Edit: I had to say it twice, for good measure.

Posted 5 months ago #
the-muffin-man - Member

I think the comparison between Vinyl / CD and Books / eReaders is a bit different.

Most people didn't own decent record players back in the 80's so the difference in sound quality between vinyl and CD was night and day. It was also easier to access tracks and skip between them - and you didn't have to get out of your seat every 20 minutes to flip sides!

Books are a visual, touchy feely thing though, which electronic devices can't replicate.

Posted 5 months ago #
Nick - Member

Friend of mine who devours ebooks tells me he can't remember who wrote any of them or even what they were called, because he doesn't have the cover/spine in his face or lying about around the place for a week while he reads.

Books won't die out, if anything it might mean less pulp paperbacks but I predict an increased demand for beautifully presented and bound volumes to provide for our asthetic whims and satisfaction.

Posted 5 months ago #
mastiles_fanylion - Member

Have a look at vinyl sales now compared to their peak, the pathetic trickle of sales are the just nerds and the pathologically contrary.

But there is still a market (which is growing again). And CDs still outsell downloads.

Posted 5 months ago #
SaxonRider - Member

There was an excellent article in one of the national papers recently about the philosophical problems with the Kindle. IIRC, these include the nature of ownership (you don't actually own an ebook on a Kindle), and interactivity.

From an academic point of view, you can't really engage the book in a 'dialogue' if you don't have margins. That makes something like an ebook less than ideal. Many of the books I use are marked up with pencil - something that really does enable a type of 'conversation' with the text.

In fact, I have an entire library's worth of books in PDF form on my hard drive, but I will still buy many of the same volumes in hard copy.

Posted 5 months ago #
mastiles_fanylion - Member

And an eBook won't fix a wonky table ( unless the adjustment required is the thickness of a Kindle).

Posted 5 months ago #
noteeth - Member

A year of beautiful books.

Posted 5 months ago #
PMK2060 - Member

I have not read from a kindle but when reading complex documents at work i always prefer to print them off rather than read from the monitor.

I can see the advantage of kindles etc for travel but will still continue to buy books.

I have stopped buying dirty mags however and now view all my porn online

Posted 5 months ago #
CaptJon - Member

+1 saxonrider

We have lots of e-textbooks for undergrads. But when i need to read one of the chapters i print it out so i can annotate it. We use iPads in seminars sometimes, and it is much easier to search for keywords electronically, but when you're looking across more than one page it is so frustrating to do electronically.

Posted 5 months ago #
TandemJeremy - Member

I will all ways have books - many of my books will not be available on a kindle having been out of print for decades. I will probably get a kindle tho for backpacking. last backpacking trip we had over a kilo of books with us - two kindles would be lighter

Ebooks will not be the end of books - there is so much a book can do that a klindle never can. Less book sales perhaps

Posted 5 months ago #
Northwind - Member

TBH as soon as they offer some sensible way to get your existing books onto an ereader, I'm sold... I do like books and they'll still have their place but I don't have room for the books I own now, and I'm still buying more... And I read fast, so hauling a pile of paperbacks around on holiday is a total pain.

Posted 5 months ago #
mastiles_fanylion - Member

I have stopped buying dirty mags however and now view all my porn online

But that's only because the standards are higher online

Posted 5 months ago #
mintimperial - Member

I've been reading eBooks for years. (I've just realised it's almost a decade! God I'm old.) I've used various devices, and whilst I love the convenience of electronic reading, it's not killed my love of printed paper books. I like them both, they each have their pros and cons.

In contrast, the number of CDs and vinyl records I've bought in the last few years has to be down in the double digits, and I buy a fair amount of music. I'd be the same with movies etc if it wasn't for the fact that I have a lousy DSL connection and it would be a massive pain to download digital video regularly. The difference is that you need a CD player or a DVD player to use those things, and when you have a computer you can just cut out the middle-man and go directly digital. A book, though, stands by itself. All you need is your eyes and (unless you're reading Dan Brown or something) a brain.

The unit cost of printed books will probably go up over the next few years due to reduced demand, and there will probably be far fewer titles available, but I don't think the book will go away completely in the way that, say, magnetic cassette tapes or floppy discs pretty much have, and the way that CDs and DVDs will. The book is far too elegant an invention for that to happen.

Posted 5 months ago #
simonralli2 - Member

Well for me the kindle version outsells my paperback by around 3 to 1, but then the kindle version is around 1/3 of the cost of the book right now.

For me reading a story on a kindle is fine, but for academic works I really feel the need for marking sections, adding notes and flipping back and forth and I can't see myself giving up books any time soon. Maybe a few which are not so important to me I would read on a Kindle.

Maybe if interfaces improve in the coming year it may get better, and there is the advantage of space when travelling, but I also have a dream of having a mini library in my home one day with all my books finally on shelves.

Posted 5 months ago #
GW - Member

john_drummer - Member
real books:
1) don't need a battery to be kept charged
2) still work if the dog chews them a bit
3) still work if the dog pees on them
4) still work if you drop them
5) still work if you drop them in the swimming pool
6) can be borrowed from a library
7) can be lent/given to somebody else when you've done with them

gadget for gadget's sake IMO

er.. dog pees on my book = book goes in bin
dog pees on expensive electronic toy = dog goes in bin

you've put me right off librarys too

Posted 5 months ago #
noteeth - Member

I rarely buy new books... again, I doubt kindles etc will see the death of 2nd hand bookshops. Or for that matter, libraries.

Posted 5 months ago #
samuri - Member

I'd never take my kindle to the beach or on the bog or in the bath.

But really, there's nothing quite as nice as holding a real book. Maybe once old fogies like me all die off and the new generation who have only know ebooks are in charge, then your revolution will happen.

And then of course these chaps will turn up.

Don't say I didn't warn you. And if anybody doesn't know who those chaps are, you need to read more books.

Posted 5 months ago #