Is there much of a future for books????

Elizabeth Slick · Jul 16, 2006

With internet, blogs, TV, movies and all sorts of other electronic devices for people's entertainment, how promising is the future for novels, plays, memiors, or, books of any kind? It seems like a lot of people, especially younger generations, prefer to look at a screen or watch a movie rather than read a book.
This worries me. Books are so incredibly rich and you can not get the same experience from a movie. Sorry, it's just different. I recently heard from a well known author ( won't mention his name but he's sold about a million copies) that today there seem to be more writers than readers.
And the other concern I have is, where is the depth and content of novels these days? every one I read is lighter than the last.

Deleted member 42 · Jul 16, 2006

More books are being sold now, and published now, than ten years ago.

Don't think about the container that holds the content; just think about the content.

veinglory · Jul 16, 2006

I am in a town of 30,000 with 5 books stores--one the size of a barn--an dozens of news agents. I don't think the end of books is particulalry nigh.

MadScientistMatt · Jul 16, 2006

I'm 28, one of the generation that supposedly prefers liquid crystal to paper. And I do read a lot on the Internet. But I don't like to read fiction online, that's for sure. And there are many cases where I want to buy non-fiction books, too. It's especially helpful if I need comprehensive information about a topic and can rest assured that someone has screened it for quality.

Andre_Laurent · Jul 16, 2006

There will always be people who want to read books. Have no fear. A movie cannot give the same experience as a book.

JanDarby · Jul 16, 2006

I wonder more about the future of magazines. I know I've cut back on my subscriptions, and I think it's at least in part b/c of all the blog reading I do.

Books will be with us, one way or another. With new technology, such as ebook readers that look more like paper books and are inexpensive, the format may change, but not the content or the demand for storytelling.

JD

alleycat · Jul 16, 2006

Book are somewhat like bricks. It's hard to replace them with "something better". Personally, I'll always prefer the convenience of a printed book.

Jamesaritchie · Jul 16, 2006

books

In 1947 there were 375 commercial publishers of all sizes and types. Today there are several thousand commercial publishers. There are more books published by commercial publisheres today than ever before. Immesnsely more than back in the so-called "heyday" of publishing.

And if I remember correctly, there were more than 2,000,000,000 books sold last year. US sales figures say we sold more that $16,000,000,000 worth of books last year, not counting souces such as Wal-Mart, school sales, etc. You can add at least another ten billion for these.

People have been predicting the death of books for decades. I remember reading that the novel was dead even before Al Gore invented the internet.

I also remember reading somewhere that the only prediction you can believe is the one predicting all other predictions are false.

maestrowork · Jul 16, 2006

They said the same things about plays, movies, radio and TV shows for decades now... but still more and more books are printed, sold and read. I do think the Internet is going to change things, but not necessarily in a bad way -- much like how movies changed the ways people write and publish novels...

badducky · Jul 16, 2006

I don't think there's a future for books.

Global warming is going to kill us all here in a matter of months, and I suspect the ants that take over the world will not be particularly interested in my miserable scribblings.

Cath · Jul 16, 2006

I don't know that JK Rowling would agree that young folks aren't reading as much these days.

I can't escape into a film or a tv program - if I want to forget about the world around me, the only way I can do it is by reading. And I know I'm not alone.

I doubt there's much to worry about just yet.

Soccer Mom · Jul 16, 2006

I recently heard from a well known author ( won't mention his name but he's sold about a million copies) that today there seem to be more writers than readers.

Writers are readers. I can write a book in a couple of months. I can read a couple of books in a week.

Supply and demand, baby. Keep them books acoming!

MidnightMuse · Jul 16, 2006

Everything changes. And everything stays the same.

There's one thing that isn't going to change, ever, and that's curling up with a good book. You can't get comfy on the couch with your computer screen - not for very long. You can't slip that PDA into your back pocket, go camping, and read the story you downloaded all week long.

Where I live, people commute to work on a ferry - for one hour each way. Those who do, share paperbacks and form book clubs during the ride. It's heartwarming to see.

Are we raising a generation of people who aren't going to have the attention span for a book? Who aren't going to want to look at anything that isn't powered by a battery? A generation of short attention span slackers?

I'm pretty sure every generation before mine, and every generation after, has had the same worry.

stormie · Jul 16, 2006

I just can't cozy-up with a laptop to read a novel. Not only that, my eyes go buggy after even just an hour of staring at the screen. Yet I can sit and read a book for hours.

I don't see books going the way of the wind anytime soon. They're easy to cart around, they can get wet or sandy or be dropped and survive. Paperbacks at least are affordable, too.

Cath · Jul 16, 2006

And have you ever tried to read from a laptop in the bath? The steam fogs up the screen.

veinglory · Jul 16, 2006

I write ebooks but I still get annoyed with the assumption everyone can afford ebook readers and snazzy laptops. I can barely afford books and only buy ones I can't live without--and the library isn't lending me a laptop.

Jamesaritchie · Jul 16, 2006

books

badducky said:
I don't think there's a future for books.

Global warming is going to kill us all here in a matter of months, and I suspect the ants that take over the world will not be particularly interested in my miserable scribblings.

And if global warming doesn't kill us, it will lead to an ice age, and that will kill us.

Soccer Mom · Jul 16, 2006

My little heathens, er, children actually prefer books too. My eight year old doesn't think he can go to sleep without reading time.

Wonder where he gets it.

I teach sunday school and the kids are always talking about this book or that book. They talk about tv and movies too. But kids still read.

I write ebooks but I still get annoyed with the assumption everyone can afford ebook readers and snazzy laptops. I can barely afford books and only buy ones I can't live without--and the library isn't lending me a laptop

I have a laptop that belongs to my workplace. I live in fear and dread that I'm going to break it.

MadScientistMatt · Jul 16, 2006

You guys are making me want to bring my old mil-spec laptop to the beach just to monkey with peoples' minds.

It's possible to build electronics that can take more of a beating than the usual commercial products out there. The results are often incredibly expensive; my magnesium monstrosity originally sold for around $4,000 (I bought it cheap from a surplus dealer). They've got a few other trade-offs that some people might not like, like their weight. I don't think I have any book on my shelf, including a dictionary and some college textbooks, that weight anywhere close to my laptop. And not only is it awkward, I often can't scroll a PDF on it nearly as fast as I can flip pages.

So I'd have to say that even a rugged and overbuilt computer doesn't have all the virtues of a book when it comes to packaging. The only reason I'd try reading an e-book on the beach with my laptop would be the shear shock value.

Carrie Ann Eggert · Jul 16, 2006

Think bigger!

Jamesaritchie said:
And if global warming doesn't kill us, it will lead to an ice age, and that will kill us.

You guys slay me! Global warming? Ice Age? No, my friends. Think bird flu pandemic. Worldwide forced quarantines. Famine. Waste.

Then the alien masterminds behind our own mortal fallacies shows up and laugh at us...repeatedly.

They might even write a universal bestseller about the whole thing and laugh some more.

Carrie-wearing a tshirt that says: Buy my book or it's the death-ray for you!

LeslieB · Jul 16, 2006

Books are just too *real* to go away. Words on a screen are fine, but people always want something they can take with them.

And if it means anything, I have been asked repeatedly by the readers of my fanfic if there is any way for them to get it in book form. Even though they can call up the entire saga with the click of a mouse, they still want to be able to hold it in their hands. The lure of books is too strong to ignore.

IThinkICan29 · Jul 16, 2006

Me...LOVE...book!--robble...robble

texttussi · Jul 17, 2006

Remember when everyone thought that computers would save paper and was talking about the paperless office? It just didn't happen.

And it's the same with books I think. I once talked to a publisher who put the text of every book he published onto his website for free (it is a publishing house for medical self-help books). And guess what? They sold even more because people started to read online and then decided the book was worth buying.

Whether younger people do or don't read is a question of what they are taught I think. If their parents and friends are avid readers chances are good that they will be, too. If the tv is running day in day out, then they will likely be watching it instead of reading. I am always amazed (in a negative way) when I am at people's homes and there are NO books. A friend on the other hand has no tv. His three kids are allowed one dvd a week and are taken to the library regularly. I think that is great! I would like to ban my tv but my husband would never consent. :shrug:

Julia

Jamesaritchie · Jul 17, 2006

Carrie Ann Eggert said:
You guys slay me! Global warming? Ice Age? No, my friends. Think bird flu pandemic. Worldwide forced quarantines. Famine. Waste.

Then the alien masterminds behind our own mortal fallacies shows up and laugh at us...repeatedly.

They might even write a universal bestseller about the whole thing and laugh some more.

Carrie-wearing a tshirt that says: Buy my book or it's the death-ray for you!

And don't forget asteroid or comet impacts, and super calderas. Wait, I know. A giant asteroid impact will strike right at the height of global warming. The impact will not only cause three super calderas to erupt, forcing so much crap in teh air that an immediate ice age begins, but people can only find infect birds to eat. Alien masterminds ponder saving teh last few humans, but after reading the latest Dan Brown novel, they have a laughing fit that delays the rescue mission, and the last human dies.

Then alien masterminds say, "Oops," and proceed to write their own novel about the whole thing. It goes on to become a bestseller in twenty-three galaxies.

No, wait, I think this is the next Michael Crichton novel.

RedWombat · Jul 17, 2006

Somewhat tangentially related--I do a webcomic, a story created, designed, and tailored to be on-line. You read it on the computer. That's its native turf.

The number one question for years has always been "When is the print volume coming out?" (Followed promptly by "When is volume two coming out?)

It's kinda funny, really--a whole medium devoted to comics on the web, distribution on the web, a fanbase on the web, interaction on the web, and you know that your webcomic is successful when the print version come out.

The money involved is wildly unequal, too--for $2.95 you can read the entire online archive of 300+ pages, and for $18.95 you get a print version of the first hundred pages. And yet people who won't shell out three bucks to read the whole thing will happily part with a twenty to read a third of the thing, because it's in a book!

People like print. Whether it's the physical heft or the readability or the sense of permanence, I have no idea, but I don't think books are going to saunter into that good night any time soon.

Is there much of a future for books????

Deleted member 42

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