Ordered a couple titles off Amazon today - “First Day On The Somme” and “Verdun 1916: The Price Of Glory” (both World War I topics, obviously). These were in the old-fashioned print format.
With the advent of Kindle, Nook, and the Internet, do you think the familiar printed book’s days are numbered or will there still be a place for it in an electronic world?
I think there were always be a place for hard copy books. Some people, like myself, enjoy the process of turning actual pages.
I am comfortable with my Nook, but for recreational reading at home I prefer a book.
**** that noise. I don’t even own a “smart phone”. Hasn’t e-reader sales slumped over the last few years? The Kindle and Nook where all the rage when they came out, much like the iPOD. With tablets and smart phones I think their days are numbered.
There is a huge market for first editions and the sort, bibliophiles aka book collectors are not going away anytime soon.
I don’t want to have to start my device in order to look something up real quick.
I also don’t want to have to stop reading because my battery is low. Devices and technology are fine, but I’ll always have printed media. The best thing about Kindle is a lot of rare, hard to find books are now available and affordable. I’ve grabbed some decent hardbound first editions of books I’d only had in paperback for decades.
And if my drive crashes, my library doesn’t disappear.
Depends what your definition of “soon” is.
Would you have said the same thing about the radio 2 years after the television was introduced? Now, does anyone listen to AM/FM outside of their car - ever?
Irrespective of the media they are written on, will you please let me know what you think of those books Slater? I first read The guns of August about 4 years ago and I have been hooked on WWI books ever since. So much fail on both sides…
Both have their place.
Here at Rancho Serious, I have a library with 16 bookshelves in it - I had to go count. I have a lot of hardbacks, and do enjoy the page turning others mention. I’m going to retire in a few years, and will probably work on a PhD in history. So I’m already collecting my materials.
I also have the Kindle app installed every tablet, smartphone, laptop, and computer I own/am issued. I looked in my Amazon account, and that’s 14 devices. I buy all my computer/technical books in Kindle format. I can look them up at work, at a conference seminar, in a war room working a critical problem, anywhere that I need to verify something. The search and highliter capabilities for that are extremely useful.
Both are excellent. I love print books for enjoyment, and electronic ink for putting out fires at work. Neither exclude each other.
I, for one, like having an e-reader for travel. (For short trips, I’ll just throw an ink and paper book in my bag, though.)
But so long as I’m not living out of a duffle bag, I will always have a large collection of ink and paper books and when I want to read something, they will be the first things I reach for.
Podcasts, streaming radio stations, Pandora… radio is still alive and well inside the home and outside the automobile, it’s just coming to people in a different way.
Nope, TVs in the 50’s were uber expensive. Radios were inexpensive and way more people owned one, I bet there was more radio programming than there was TV at the time as well.
I do all the time, well AM anyway. I don’t have TV to watch cable/television on, I’ve got one but I only watch BluRays/DVDs on it.