Books in a digital world, and when will books be obsolete?

[Dom]

BigMama--I haven't discounted it.  I've addressed it, twice.  This generation I agree will never give up their paper books entirely.  But a future generation probably won't care.

[Mickey Finn]

"because my vision is way past legally bling"

Yes, that was a typo, but it's funny enough that I'm leaving it.

[Dom]

Hey Mickey...when you said the editor left due to time concerns, was it personal, or did the site get enough slush or technoproblems that it became time consuming?

Just curious.

[Mickey Finn]

As far as I know, Ken's personal and professional life didn't leave him time for it. He started it when NASA was on hiatus (the government pause while the budget was hammered out), and between work and....IIRC...a new baby on the way, plus the horse shows he and his wife did, I think he ran out of hours in a day.

Plus, well, the money probably came in handy.

[Athanasia]

Again, I think you can't discount the emotional attachment folks have to the traditional written word. How many of you have books that you have kept from childhood? Musty, mildewed, beloved friends that your heirs will probably burn when you finally go to your reward (or maybe sell for a fortune).

Too few. When I moved out into my first appartment at 24, it was a small place and I had literally several thousand books starting with my childhood ones, so I had hard choices to make. I gave all the childhood books but for a handful 'special ones' to a school, in memory of the little girl I'd been, always hungering for a new read from the school library.

I mostly own pocket books. I don't mean the kind of 'pocket book' that is basically the same quality as a hard cover, for some collections. This is for two reasons. Price - at the rate I read, which is less than it used to be but still, buying hard covers is not something I would afford too often. Space - Hard covers are nicer to handle but they take a lot more shelf space, and I can't afford a bigger place just to have more shelves.

The downside of course is that pocket books are cheaper for a reason, that has nothing to do with the contents. The paper, the ink... they age VERY quickly and not very gracefully. But judging from what I see around, I think the same has come to many hard covers. Not all collections are meant to last or are 'luxury' prints.

And even pocket books can end up taking a lot of space if you pile up enough of them, lol...

So gradually my attachment has shifted to  the stories themselves, that used to make dream and shaped my imagination and vision of the universe. I would simply love to have these thousands of books back as ebooks, just to know they are at hand and to be able to look one up now and then. All I'm waiting for is the right offer (it's getting better but not everything is available) and the right reading support. I'm very patient on that one. After all, the future is waiting to happen.

I'm also very much looking forward to this because right now my books are stacked in three rows per shelf and gathering dust at a FTL speed. One of my friends has to pack them in the cellar, periodically he gets a box up and brings the previous ones down again to rotate them, lol...

I don't think anyone has mentioned it but there is this too. An e-library is like a MP3 collection and reader. It's very very easy to handle, see at one glance everything you have and pick up an item among a long list of others. I'm not even sure any longer of all the books I have and there's no way I'll spend hours on some software where I would have to keep a record by hand.

In one Star Trek movie, Captain Kirk gets offered an old copy of a Shakespeare play. I'm in that frame of mind. I'd love to own a few precious books of high quality content and print, aside from a terrific collection of all the books I love and have ever read - right at hand in a little data cube

--> Sorry for the length but 1) I'm long winded... and 2) My stand needed explanations.

Athanasia

[storytellersjem]

Until e-books are comparable in price to hardcovers and paperbacks, I don't think it will have a huge impact. I know of a small number of people who read on Ipods because they're techno geeks (i.e. I live in the Calif Bay Area).

That said, e publishing copyright laws will be the next thing which also means potentially more money for authors as I suspect the residual income will vary from publisher to publisher as it's a new thing.

SJEM

[Athanasia]

A possibly very geeky idea here... someone mentioned future technologies I'm thinking VR, beyong the stage where one would need a special room, enormous equipment and lots of cables.

All it would take would be a pair of gloves and glasses. You enter the VR library, browse among books - feeling them in your hands - pick up one and read. Some trick can probably avoid the eye getting tired from focusing too close all the time.

I've read a couple articles about special glasses used in conjonction with a portable phone, so it isn't too far fetched and would solve both questions - comfy reading support, and keeping the "feel" of the book as an object.

Athanasia

[The Corvidian]

I don't think that the printed word will ever go out of style, I just think that someday, you'll go to the bookstore, and they will print off a book for you when you buy it. Or you'll do it at home, on your computer, with a few use disc, or other computer medium that you buy at the store.

[WonderandAwe]

I tried ebooks, but for some reason they are hard on my eyes.  I got a head ache after finishing an ebook once.  Though I am a quick reader.  I can finish your average paper back in less than a day