Adam Palmer
There are now enough e-readers’ on the market for everyone in your family tree to have a different brand. With all the hoopla surrounding the new crop of e-reader’s and tablets at this year’s CES, it is a breath of fresh air (and a relief) to read Knute Berger’s piece at Crosscut “Will the book survive?“
Berger’s piece is littered with sanity and hope for the book and, as importantly, the bookshop.
Here are a few nuggets:
“Kindle and products like it are a boon for readers, and I don’t object to them. In fact, I was pleased to learn that my book Pugetopolis was Kindled last year because, as an author, I was happy to have it be available in any format. Avid readers want material in whatever form, and in fact various outlets seem to feed each other.”
“The idea that the book itself will go away entirely is absurd, and hardly something to wish for. For one thing, even if every publisher abandoned ink-on-paper tomorrow, the antiquarian trade would continue.”
“Printed books might become more specialized, they might change, but there is something in their durable simplicity…A book is more likely to last a thousand years than an e-book and the Kindle to read it on”
“Part of the elegance of books is that they make physical what is not physical: ideas and imagination.”
“While Jeff Bezos might dream of a world in which he will never have to touch the printed page again, to me that world would be empty”
“Bookshops that feature strong personalities (and they still exist, especially among used-books dealers) are a bit like blogs in three dimensions. The bookmen (or women) assert a set of opinions and priorities with their stock, they offer books, but also make statements. They are portals to the world of ideas and life of the mind, but they are no less a creative expression, the best of them make bookselling an art form.”
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E-books and e-reader’s are at best complementary to the book, they are not replacements. Just as I now buy books from bookstores and online I now also read books both in hand and digitally. Oh, and I still listen to the radio, watch television and go to the movies.
The end is not near.
Image by Adam Palmer via