.
I read on someone's blog a lament about the problems facing indie book-sellers in today's world.
Thinking about that led me to a bunch of thoughts................
1) Borders is my local bookstore (it was born and raised right here in Ann Arbor). I know it doesn't really belong to us any more, but I've always been conflicted about considering it part of the "big-business bad guys" group......
Very sad that it is in so much trouble these days.................
And sadder yet that my still-local, still-indie bookstore is apparently in almost as much trouble. They used to have a pretty good craft section. (Not as good as Borders used to have, but still.) Now they've got ... not much at all. I stop in there from time to time and buy a bunch of art/craft magazines, mostly to help them out.......
I think the days of hard-copy print media are numbered. The aging population is going to need to adjust the print size, I think.......... I can't read magazines at night any more. Even with relatively good light, the print is just too small..........
2) When you think about it, the span of time that ordinary people have had multitudes of books in their homes is very short. 150 years ago, people might have a bible and a few other books....... (Thinking about Laura Ingalls Wilder and her LIttle House books.....) Only very recently have all of us been able to have dozens or hundreds of books...... I suspect that once the ereaders get the whole color thing down, and the price of "buying" books/mags comes down a bit more, that will be the death knell for paper books/mags.........
3) I think it's sad, but then I don't have an ereader. Maybe once I get one, I won't be sad any more; maybe they are so excellent that I won't mind.
I know that when I was packing guidebooks for my trip to France last year, I wouldn't have minded having all of that info in one ereader instead having to carry multiple (fat, heavy) books............
I love books. LOVE books. But will I mind if (when) those books are in my ereader rather than on paper? I don't know yet. I know I'll be glad to be able to make the print be any size (font!) I like. I know I'll be glad to embiggen the pics (just as I often can on the web). I know I'll be thrilled to take a dozen books on vacation for the weight/size of one (or less than one).
The other day I saw something that talked about the possibilities for embedding sound and/or video in books/mags. Whoa. Obvious. but I never thought of it. Embedded tutorials (/interviews/music/whatever!), right in my magazines (or books)???
Excellent...................
Not a totally bad thing, the future............
:-)
If you love books, and love your ereader, please tell me about it in the comments. I would love to hear your perspective.
.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
I WON a kindle last September and I really like it. I can increase the font so that reading while riding in the car is easier. The size and weight is just about the same as a medium-sized trade paperback. I carry it in my handbag for a quick peek while waiting for the dentist, etc. I still get most books from my public library, and Amazon has made Kindle proprietary so that I cannot get the library's ebooks. That's a bummer. But MDH gave me a nice gift card to Amazon to help assuage my guilt. The very best part is vacationing with an ebook reader. One slim gadget and you can carry everything you need, even for a very long trip!
Thanks for sharing your perspective!
I'm thinking that proprietary-format ebooks will go the way of print media pretty soon.
Hope so, anyway.
Our library has ebooks, too, but I haven't looked into them.
I was fantasizing about moving to the beach, and telling my better half that I hoped we could walk to a grocery, etc, and he said "LIBRARY!"
I breezily told him that, by then, there would be so many ebooks available from the library that we wouldn't mind not having an excellent close-by bricks&mortar library..............
I hope it's true. :-)
The only ereader I have handled belonged to someone sitting next to me on an airplane. He showed it to me and the woman on the other side of him. He traveled a lot for work, and thought his ereader (I think it was a Kindle) was the best thing since sliced bread. He always had (or could get) something to read, and didn't have to carry a lot of weight/bulk......
If I'd had more lead time before going to France, I bet I'd have looked into getting an ereader and packing the guidebooks on it, instead of carrying paper!
Happened across this -- interactive books are out there now (not a surprise, but *I* didn't know....).
The Pioneer Woman likes Nook Color.
It depends on what kind of a vacation for my e-reader! A two week jaunt at the beach that I'm driving to? I'll be bringing a stack of books, lovingly selected - a box just for books - sheer joy. Air travel and work travel: I'll bring my e-reader.
So right. All rules out the window when you have a car!
:-)
Post a Comment