There is alot of buzz in the blogosphere regarding Forbes magazine recent special report on Books.
The first thing to note is that one of the worlds leading business magazines is devoting an entire special issue to books. This wouldn’t happen unless there is still a large demand and a ton of money to be made.
The report features numerous articles on the state of the book, including a Q & A with some literary heavyweights- The question: “To me, books are…”
A couple of enticing and encouraging snippets:
From Cory Doctorow’s“Giving It Away”. Doctorow is one of the blog gods from boing boing.
a much larger minority treat the e-book as an enticement to buy the printed book. They’re gained sales.
From Ben Vershbow of Institute for the Future of the Book fame “The Networked Book”
The individual author will be needed more than ever as a guide through the info-glutted landscape. But writers’ relationship with their readers will change as writing moves from the solitary desk to the collaborative network.
And my favorite – Jonathan Enfield’s “Stop Worrying About Copyrights”- where he talks with University of Iowa library conservator Gary Frost who says
“The only meaningful decrease in printed books, Frost says, is nothing bibliophiles should lament. Gone are the books of airline and train schedules while novels, nonfiction and poetry books flourish.”
The epic battle between the printed book and the e-book continues. Remember when the e-book arrived and it was touted as the death of the printed book. Well the fight has gone the first few rounds and the printed book is doing just fine.
Thanks to Philobiblos for the lead.
And in case you have ever wondered what the inside of of an e-book looks like.