Do you think books are becoming redundant?

Exquisite Mystery · Post by **Exquisite Mystery** » Sat Oct 25, 2003 2:04 am

I recently decided that it is perhaps possible that books as we know them are becoming redundant. I worry that if our society continues on its current path, we will have progressively less books.
Already, books have started coming out only in paperback, no more hardbounds. Also, with each successive price increase, consumers and libraries have less opportunity to buy books. What is also troublesome to me, is that libraries are becoming less able to buy books on esoteric subjects, leaving us with only the best-seller type of creations. I am worried.
I will grant that there has been an increase in online writings like blogs and fan fiction, but this internet culture so far has not seemed to be able to support any fulltime writers on a real monetary basis. Plus buying ebooks is more expensive in my experience. And with the increase in P2P monitoring, it may soon be impossible to "lend" someone the good ebook you just read. Grim, isn't it?
I would like to hear anyone's input or information about this subject.
~ Ex Mys

JaNell · Post by **JaNell** » Thu Oct 30, 2003 11:46 pm

E-books don't do well in the bath...

Malakelle · Post by **Malakelle** » Sat Nov 01, 2003 2:05 am

I agree on some level, I have noticed alot of the books I read for fun, and well to take up time at work are getting more and more alike, It might be just the simulaterys, in them? It seems hard to find a good new book were I cant guess what is about to happen.

Liriel · Post by **Liriel** » Tue Nov 04, 2003 3:20 am

I think it has a lot to do with supression of artistic expression.

No, really. I think a lot of these publishers try to steer authors in the directions they want to go, even if it's an original idea, sometimes by the time it gets to print, it's not exactly the same as the way the author intended it.

There are some good authors today who are keeping their ideas the way they want them, but if you want to read books with the most publishing freedom, I'd suggest finding books from smaller publishers.

Celestial Dung · Post by **Celestial Dung** » Wed Nov 05, 2003 3:02 pm

My estimated guess is that traditional books will be aquivlent to Vinel in fifty years. There will be some produced but it will be more of a niche market then a standard.

From the reader point of view I'm excited. Web Pages have already displayed a exciting new technique dubbed hyper linking. You can comare texts, listen to sounds, get defention of words, and see a visual with less fuss then a acutal book.

My favorite example would be the William Blake Archive.

http://www.blakearchive.org/main.html

I would gladly have that over a physical book. For one thing it's cheap (free) and for another I am more able to manipulate the texts to suite my needs. I can enlarge the texts if I have poor eyesight. I can zoom in on a picture to get detail. I can click on an annotation if I have no clue what Mr Blake was trying to say.

Plus there is the space issue. Right now I have over five hundred books in my apartment. There's another five hundred books somwhere in the danky woods of Parrottsville where my parents live. Some of you have book collections tht would shame my own. Consider the amount of space needed to store these books and to retrieve them effeciently.

When a electronic reader makes some headway into the culture I wont' mind. I will probably keep my books because I was born into their culture and thus sentimental. But hopefully I will be open minded enough to see the technology as a possible benefit.

From the writers point of view, it's scary. Copyright is no longer a defenite. If not by law then by practicality. What to do? I see two options.

A. Build a secure copright protection agent. That's nearly impossible. Second law of Computer mechanics: The Hacker's law. If I can be programmed it will be manipulated. unless something remarkable comes across the tech world I hold little faith in estabalishing a completely secure copyright protection.

B. Hope the consumers are honest and will give the artist money due to them. I don't see this as likely.

C. the artist must change. I don't like it. I will whine about it. But in a nutshell htere you have it. Find other ways of making money. How did creators make money before copyright? Writers would do lectures or readings.

For now I have to go with option C. I don't like it but I don't see no other way. The artistic community must endeaver to find other ways to have their work payed for.

"They let others take customers away from them because they assumed themselves to be in the railroad business rather than in the transportation business. The reason they defined their industry wrong was because they were railroad-oriented instead of transportation-oriented; they were product-oriented instead of customer-oriented."

-------------------------------------Theodore Levitt

Replace railroad with writer
Replace transportation with storytelling.

Lost Traveler · Post by **Lost Traveler** » Wed Nov 05, 2003 5:37 pm

I think just like film many will go to the digital realm but film will aways be. there has to be a physical copy and original print. Anything dealing with science, law, or history must have an original print or its open to be considered a forgery. In books there must be an original print that has the original form of the story. (okay where was I going with this?)

any way are books becoming redundant, yes but your second kidney and lung are redundant too. Do I see books being replaced no. Try reading lord of the rings on a long trip or while camping, the cost of batteries would be prohibative. Hyper linking is cool but then as in the example i believe thats already published material (not saying this one right what i mean is someone had to get paid to make the hyperlinking if hackers make it imposiple to make money then no hyperlinking)

I think people made money before copyrighting because the means or reproduction were controlled (first coping then printing stolen manuscripts would have been a massive effort to undertake with little chance of proffit) and well people probably just didnt steal stuff like books back then. (if you had to steal, better to steal money and food).

eh said nothing sorry.

JaNell · Post by **JaNell** » Thu Nov 06, 2003 9:03 am

There's a realness, a physicality to books, that e-books can never replace. A stack or file of ebooks lacks the physical presence, the smell, the comfortable weight in your hand, and the beauty of a filled shelf. There's a satisfaction in books that's beyond the words contained inside.

Celestial Dung · Post by **Celestial Dung** » Thu Nov 06, 2003 11:35 am

The Battery issue could be taken care of with more powerful batteries or another way of storing power. I'm not a techie by any means s o i won't really get into that sort of discussion. I do believe though that get enough techies dedicated to a project and they will achieve some sort of results. I imagine with time a e reader will be developed that can store power for long periods of time.

I actually have romantic notions about books too. I'm in the habit of smelling books when i get them convinced that their scent texture says something about them. Yes I'm weird like that. Question is, will future generations feel the same way about them? This is why I gave my prediction a good fifty years. Today's children are growing up with the internet. Will the be more used to reading online then a book? For now i see no reason why they wouldn't. Growing up in a different enviroment might give them different notions about knowledge then us.

I't's highly possible that the notions of wieght, smell, and space might not appeal to them as much as it does us. I heard a similar argument regarding digitial music vs. CD's/Vinyl. Right Now Digital Tracks are outselling singles. I don't think albums is too far behind.

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/11/05/143645.php

I don't see physicla books ever going away...at least not in my lifetime...but I do see them becoming less important in my lifetime. I believe that I will see the day when Electronic readers will have overtaken phyical books culturally and economically.

Lost Traveler · Post by **Lost Traveler** » Thu Nov 06, 2003 12:06 pm

yeah think they will become more prevelent (spell).

I also smell books :shock:

the ones from the 60's and early 70's have the best smell but then that could be due to aging paper.

keltora · Post by **keltora** » Wed Nov 19, 2003 4:10 pm

"Redundant" means exceeding what is necessary or normal, characterized by excess..

Which if you are talking about the _kinds_ of books, I would agree.

As the author of a couple of ebooks, I can tell you that they are not taking over the industry by any means. And yes, Big Press is getting more and more commercial (remember, bean counters run the publishing industry these days, not editors--they're part of the corporate babble, and corporation expects 25% profit out of an industry that has historically produced no more than 10% profit in a good year).

Small press is getting a good hold on the market of more esoteric stuff, but small press is being inundated with masses of manuscripts the way Big Press was in the 80s. A lot of them are closing their doors to submissions because they are getting more of the stuff commercial publishers consign to slush and reject because it's so awful...

Too many writers, not enough publishers (though I am tempted to say too may BAD writers...which is what has ruined the industry to a degree).

Laura J. Underwood