A Bookless Future seems unlikely

[primsong]

I noticed a news article about a 'library' in New York that was entirely bookless - they just had displays of e-books and allowed checkout of readers loaded with five books apiece.  They were touting it as The Future, naturally.  Like The Future is always supposed to be a *good* thing, and we should all accept it will inevitably come.  Implication being that if we don't accept The Future we are backwards, knuckle-dragging 8-track listeners who still think digital watches are a pretty cool thing.

As for me, I see a phrase like "bookless library" and my entire inner being goes "Nope nope nope nope nope nope. Nuh-uh. Not gonna happen."

Too many strikes against the e-readers - like not being able to read with half of one eye open and the rest of your face buried in a pillow.  And your brain processes the information on a lit screen differently than when it is on a printed page.  Buying them for .25 at a garage sale. Reading an obscure story from the early 1900s that can't be found any other way. And then there's batteries (or lack thereof).  And the scent and feel of books.  And. And. And.

*hugs (paper) book*  Nope nope nope.

Comments

[lurkingcat]

Articles like that make me cross. Physical books are not bad and there is a pleasure to holding and reading one that is not a thing that an e-reader can replicate. That said I belong to the school of thought that says that there are uses for both physical and e-books. No one seems to want to write articles about that though...

I grew up in a family where every time we moved the first thing that went up in the new house were the bookshelves and the book crates got unpacked straight after the kettle and the mugs. battlehamster grew up in a house where the bookshelves are packed two and sometimes three deep with paperbacks and an expedition to get at the books at the back of the study may require assistance from Indianna Jones. Now both of us live in a house with two cats, my comics collection, his live roleplay kit and all the books... We are running out of space for more books. There is a bookshelf on the stairs. Most of the comics have to live in the attic. The graphic novels take up almost an entire wall of the dining room. I bought the shelves in the hallway because they could be stacked two deep with books. Bags and bags of books have gone to charity shops* over the years and yet the house just keeps filling up with more books.

And then there's the library in my rucksack... That's the collection on the -reader. I spend about three hours a day on public transport and I get through it by reading. I am never going to run out of something to read on a bus again. No, the e-reader is not in any way perfect and there are many things about it that I would like to see improved. But it's portable and the books that live on it do not take up any space (and quite a few of them were free thanks to Project Gutenberg) and all of those things are important to me too. It doesn't smell or feel like a book but the E-ink technology does at least get round the backlit screen issue even if it's not quite the same as an actual book. It's heavier than an average paperback but it's lighter than a hardback and mine only needs recharging about once every three weeks which means that I can charge it up before I go on holiday and not worry about yet another set of cables. I've got one elderly relative who's a convert because she needs large print books and the things she wants to read aren't always available in large print when they're newly released but on an e-reader she can buy it straight away and just increase the text size.

I still find it harder to navigate through an e-book if I'm looking for a particular reference. I've yet to find a way of sorting e-books properly on the thing - or at least not a system that makes sense to my particular brain. So absolutely not a perfect solution for me. But it's a solution for some of the time and that will do me nicely.

*I think the US equivalent is Goodwill? Maybe? But it is very late and possibly I shouldn't be leaving essays on other people's blogs when I can't even manage a cultural translation.

[primsong]

It's hard to believe there can be such a thing as too many books, but I must admit a body does need to be able to still walk through their house. ;-) I relate! It's so hard to let go of them too, though I manage to fill a small sack now and then. There have been times when I've wondered how people's houses could look so neat and clean and then realized that there was no reading materials anywhere...perhaps this will be the natural habitat of the e-reader, among neatniks who always wished they could read but books are too messy?

I see the advantages in having a tool that allows you to take an entire library with you on a bus trip, or magnifies things for those of failing sight, but to have that niche completely replace the classic paperback? Nah. Nope. Never.

[primsong]

Oh! And yes, we have a variety of charity shops here too, Goodwill is the best known (and most corporate), we prefer giving to Salvation Army ourselves since all the proceeds go to their programs instead of to the CEO. :-p

[archersangel]

i agree.

[primsong]

Amen!

[justice_turtle]

I don't think e-readers are ever going to replace paper books. It's not the same as CDs versus cassette tapes or whatever the other supposed parallels are, because the advantages and disadvantages are so different -- you mustn't drop an e-reader in the bath, for instance.

Me, I prefer e-readers because they're not bulky, they lie flat, have a built-in dictionary to look up new words (I've been reading a lot of paper books lately and I keep trying to click on words in them... ;P), and you can change the text size... but it is way harder to skim them because so little text shows at a time, the book selection is limited, and there are only two price points: "free, thank you Project Gutenberg" and "ouch ouch ouch". I'll never be able to find a used e-Silmarillion at the thrift store for 25 cents like I did my paper copy. Also, batteries. :P

(I mean, I get that you and a lot of other people have a connection to "the scent and feel of books" that I don't have. Which is another reason I don't think physical books will ever disappear or even become a lower-class-only option -- people like holding a physical embodiment of a good story. Flexible screens may eventually start to replace paper, but it'll be a long time.)

One thing I'm not really following, though: "not being able to read with half of one eye open and the rest of your face buried in a pillow." How do you mean? I like my e-reader because it's easier to do that -- I don't have to have my arm up holding the spine of the book and keeping the pages from flopping in front of my nose. Is there some physical mistranslation going on here?

[primsong]

The ones I've encountered required the person to keep it at a particular angle to be able to really see the text, which wasn't conducive to weird angles in bed where I'm sometimes reading sideways across a plane. ;-) Also if I fall asleep and drool on it, at least I won't fry anything, hah!

[kerravonsen]

I haven't noticed a problem with the angle I've used my e-reader, no. As I said below, I am amazed at how sharp and clear E-ink is.

And since I've never fallen asleep and drooled on a physical book, I doubt very much that I would fall asleep and drool on an e-reader either! 8-P

[linaewen]

I've been doing some reading on a hand-me down tablet from my hubby. It's got merit, but among other things, I find myself very frustrated by how awkward it is to look ahead to read the end of the "book." I love peeking at the end first and then going back to read how it arrives there, and it's so much more satisfying and easy to do with a real book in your hands! Definitely don't want a future that has no real books in it.

[primsong]

Yes! I like how I can riffle back and forth through a real book and sort of hone in on it like a butterfly scenting a flower rather than having to be so precise.

[kerravonsen]

I find myself very frustrated by how awkward it is to look ahead to read the end of the "book."

Hmmmm. I think that depends on the software of the particular e-reader. Good ones have a slider-bar with your current position, which means you can jump to any place in the book you like, including the end.

What can be disconcerting with reading an e-book, though, is that one doesn't have the subconcious indicator of the thickness of the book to enable you to feel, without thinking, how far along in the book you are, and how much further there is to go before the end.

[kerravonsen]

If the death of printed books is The Future, then I will fight tooth and nail against it. Not because I would miss the scent and feel of printed books, but because the alternative is e-books locked with DRM (officially "Digital Rights Management", but really "Digital Restriction Management") and DRM is EVIL. I will NEVER EVER give money to someone for a DRMed book. Never. Oh, I have bought ebooks as well as collected free ones, but the ones I bought were all sold without DRM. It's a pity Fictionwise is gone; now the only ebook sellers I know of who are DRM-free are Baen and Smashwords.

That being said, the bright side of e-readers is that in some ways, they are a book-lover's dream. Because, hey, a real book-lover wants more books, yes? And what is more fabulous than being able to carry an entire library in your pocket?

not being able to read with half of one eye open and the rest of your face buried in a pillow.

This I do not understand. I have been doing just that with my e-reader over the past week. Much more easily than I would with a trade paperback or hardback, because they are so heavy, my arms get tired holding them up.

And your brain processes the information on a lit screen differently than when it is on a printed page.

True, but E-ink is really very impressive; it isn't a lit screen, really. I love how sharp E-ink is; so much sharper than a colour screen.

And the newer "glow" e-readers give you the best of both worlds, IMHO. Reading clearly in daylight like a book, and being able to read in the dark (by turning on the glow-light) without having to hold up a torch or turn on a bright light. I used this feature in my new e-reader only yesterday, when I and my nieces were visiting Scienceworks, and my feet had grown weary, so I sat down on a seat and read in the dark. Because we were in a section of the museum where everything was dimly lit, too dark to read a physical book without an external light source. I also find it useful for reading at the bus stop in winter when it's dark and I'm waiting for a bus. Or even reading on the bus itself, if it so happens that I get a bus driver who dislikes turning on all the lights.

Buying them for .25 at a garage sale.

True.

Reading an obscure story from the early 1900s that can't be found any other way.

Well... I've actually read more out-of-print books from Project Gutenberg than I have found physical copies of, so I feel it's more the opposite.

And then there's batteries (or lack thereof).

True. This is another reason why I would fight tooth and nail to prevent The Future; it makes me feel insecure for our access to knowledge to be completely dependent on electricity.

And the scent and feel of books.

This, I would not miss. But I would miss fabulous colourful book-covers.