Whither Books
Two phenomena are happening
simultaneously in our society and it's going to be interesting to see
what happens. Both are thanks to technology and both are conflicting
with the other.
The first
phenomenon is it is easier, cheaper, and faster to write, edit, and
publish a book. I have no idea how much discipline it took to write
a novel on a typewriter without spell check to catch typos and the
ease of editing and re-writing and moving text around. Then with
HP's print on demand technology replacing expensive off-set printing
for producing books, its relatively inexpensive to self-publish or
start a small-press publishing house. And with ebook technology, it
is free if you do all the formatting work. This has caused an
explosion of new books on the market (according to Amazon, there's
something like one million books available for the Kindle). The
problem for the writer/publisher is how to stand out in that crowd.
The other phenomenon that is happening
is I believe people, especially young people, are becoming less
interested in reading. When you can download movies onto your iPhone
or Kindle Fire why do you need to read? I think we are becoming more
of a visual society, which started with the invention of the motion
picture, accelerated with television, and is now at warp drive with
the internet, streaming content, and smart gadget technology.
So where does that leave book authors?
It's easier than ever to get a book published (selling it is another
matter) but there is a dwindling audience for books. I've been told
by a publicist that the people who read books the most are women aged
40 and up. And they are getting older and will all die some day.
Maybe with Harry Potter the so called Millennial Generation will
rediscover reading. But they are going to want to read it on their
contact lens interface.
I believe the purpose of books is to
make memory permanent. You no longer have to go to the village elder
to learn. That memory might be organic chemistry or the fevered
results of a writer's imagination. But in any case, once it's
published, it's permanent. If an civilization-killing virus hits,
the lucky immune survivors are not going to be looking for a kindle
but for books to rebuild their civilization on. As much as I hate
government interference in the free market, maybe there should be a
law that all books need to have at least one paper copy printed, just
in case.
It will be interesting to see what
happens to physical, paper books in the future. Will they become as
anachronistic as the buggy whip? Or will people still want them?
It's not very impressive to hold up an electronic gadget and say
"I've read all these books" but point to a book case
stuffed with paperbacks and hard covers and say, "I've read all
those books" is much more impressive. That is, if reading
impresses anyone in the future.
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