Will BOOKS ever go out of style in the face of Internet Age?

[b|tcH_g0dd3sS]

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Do you think sometime in the very near future people would just read off from ebooks and not buy hardcopies?

And if this happens, will books soon become a thing of the past?

Why or Why not?

[diem]

[color=navy]As more and more people own, work on and spend time with their computers more and more material such as literature are being presented through e-books. In fact since 2004, e-book devices or readers are now becoming a fast growing item for people to buy.

Not that I think bound books and flipping pages will be out of style soon, but in time perhaps a half of a century from now or maybe even more, books may become extinct which I consider might be a good thing. One way of saving trees without killing the beavers.

[The_Child]

Sadly, i think that is the case, that books would fade away as a thing of the past. It is not a question of possibility but rather a question of when. Our age is driving towards Digitality. Everything would be seen and done in front of a screen.

[b|tcH_g0dd3sS]

books may become extinct which I consider might be a good thing. One way of saving trees without killing the beavers.

Oh my! Yes, sadly I have quite forgotten about trees to make paper to make books. How awful of me!

I thought to myself that I would still like to have the feel and smell of a book when I'm reading but your post totally changed my mind.

Will it not create more cases of dry eyes and eye strain?

[grss1982]

@b|tcH_g0dd3sS:
When I read this topic it made me remeber this news article that came out recently:

Doris Lessing Blames Internet for Decline in Reading
http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/art...n-book-reading

Anyways as to your questions:

I think ebooks will be the norm in the near future, and even someday make books obsolete. Advances in technolgy is to blame, I guess.

BTW just behind me here in our house is a book shelf filled with several volumes of The New Encyclopedia Britannica (Copyright 1992), its really sad to see them collecting dust. I read through them from time to time, but still, since I was introduced to the Internet I've never actually used this books for any school research.

As to why I think books will be eventually replaced by ebooks, recently my own little sister (a bonafide book worm I might add) bought a LifeDrive for reading ebooks of her favorite romance novels. I asked her why she made the switch, and she tells me that she likes the ability to carry around several titles while not carrying around the books themselves. So I guess what it boils down to is convinence.

[b|tcH_g0dd3sS]

thank you for the link grss1982!

Are you a bookworm too?

I'm going to miss reading from books when they will become obsolete. I also have a friend who's an umberto eco reader and she too just had a new Palm Tungsten T|X to store all the books she wanted to read.

Karma for you!

[grss1982]

@b|tcH_g0dd3sS:
Your Welcome. :mrgreen:

I do read my sister's romance novels, the ones that were'nt digitized ONLY. [Some might think that its not "manly," to be reading romance novels, but for me it really helped a lot in increasing my vocabulary of words.] Back in my high school (USC-BHS a.k.a. North Campus) days, the librarian new me on a first name basis, since that was my hangout. Also during college, I aslo made the library my hangout when i had "time to kill." The books I read were mostly history books especially about past conflicts like WW2, The Korean War, The Vietnam War, The Persian Guld War, etc. etc. Also read sci-fi and techno-thrillers.

So I guess you could consider me a book worm. :mrgreen:

OK ON TOPIC:

For all their convenience the one thing I really don't like about ebooks is the eye strain that results from reading them be it in a small screen like my sister's LifeDrive or through my 17" LG CRT monitor. That's why even in this modern age I still prefer books over ebooks. :mrgreen:

EDIT:

YAY!!!! Karma from b|tcH_g0dd3sS. I am not worthy of such a thing. [br]Posted on: February 29, 2008, 10:57:31 PM_________________________________________________I ts a bit of an old article, but.....

Another sign that books will soon be obsolete, perhaps?

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/21/te...gy/21book.html

[chaoscontrol]

Since people nowadays are always on the go and the technology is there to help them, they tend to go to audio-books and e-books but i still prefer to read the actual book. The feeling of flipping a page is just rewarding.

[b|tcH_g0dd3sS]

The feeling of flipping a page is just rewarding.

right on and we can't curl up with a computer hahahaha I was just playing with the thought of reading Albert Camus on a mac book.

[aya_diwata]

people tend to go for downloadable ebooks because they're free.. but books will never be "old school"
accdg to a character from buffy (his mentor, the librarian) - there really is something special about the books that computers cannot replace. It's the smell =)