Don't Burn Your Books—Print Is Here to Stay

[Hanna]

From the Wall St. Journal

By NICHOLAS CARR

(snip)

Ever since Amazon introduced its popular Kindle e-reader five years ago, pundits have assumed that the future of book publishing is digital. Opinions about the speed of the shift from page to screen have varied. But the consensus has been that digitization, having had its way with music and photographs and maps, would in due course have its way with books as well. By 2015, one media maven predicted a few years back, traditional books would be gone.

Half a decade into the e-book revolution, though, the prognosis for traditional books is suddenly looking brighter. Hardcover books are displaying surprising resiliency. The growth in e-book sales is slowing markedly. And purchases of e-readers are actually shrinking, as consumers opt instead for multipurpose tablets. It may be that e-books, rather than replacing printed books, will ultimately serve a role more like that of audio books—a complement to traditional reading, not a substitute.

How attached are Americans to old-fashioned books? Just look at the results of a Pew Research Center survey released last month. The report showed that the percentage of adults who have read an e-book rose modestly over the past year, from 16% to 23%. But it also revealed that fully 89% of regular book readers said that they had read at least one printed book during the preceding 12 months. Only 30% reported reading even a single e-book in the past year.

(snip)

From the start, e-book purchases have skewed disproportionately toward fiction, with novels representing close to two-thirds of sales. Digital best-seller lists are dominated in particular by genre novels, like thrillers and romances. Screen reading seems particularly well-suited to the kind of light entertainments that have traditionally been sold in supermarkets and airports as mass-market paperbacks.

These are, by design, the most disposable of books. We read them quickly and have no desire to hang onto them after we've turned the last page. We may even be a little embarrassed to be seen reading them, which makes anonymous digital versions all the more appealing. The "Fifty Shades of Grey" phenomenon probably wouldn't have happened if e-books didn't exist. Readers of weightier fare, including literary fiction and narrative nonfiction, have been less inclined to go digital. They seem to prefer the heft and durability, the tactile pleasures, of what we still call "real books"—the kind you can set on a shelf.

More..

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 97002.html

(If you cannot open from the link, copy and paste the title onto google)

[pattywannamack]

I always felt that e-books were overrated.

1) I like the tactile feel of books.
2) I like having a big collection of books that I can display whenever people come over
3) e-books, though great for novels cannot compare to the quality of "art" books or other books that rely strongly on photography or colors. To me there's a big difference between looking at a picture on screen and seeing/holding it in real life.
4) There's no real "need" for e-books in my opinion. E-books have a certain advantage in being lighter, having a backlight (which allows them to be read at night), and of course having instant access to a ton of literature at the press of a few buttons. But at the same time it's not like reading a book was a difficult prospect with inherent flaws that needed to be improved upon in order for the medium to survive or to reach its full potential.

I will also like to go on record and say that I STRONGLY disagree with Mater Dei, and any other school that touts iPads, laptops, or other tablets for their course material. I don't care how you want to justify it, transferring your textbooks into digital books does nothing to improve the educational quality of your courses. At the very best the only argument that can be made is saving money on books (though digital textbooks are pretty costly anyways) and saving kids from having to carry too many heavy books.

[sbayhills]

Very interesting read. Thanks Hanna

[Hanna]

I always felt that e-books were overrated.

1) I like the tactile feel of books.
2) I like having a big collection of books that I can display whenever people come over
3) e-books, though great for novels cannot compare to the quality of "art" books or other books that rely strongly on photography or colors. To me there's a big difference between looking at a picture on screen and seeing/holding it in real life.
4) There's no real "need" for e-books in my opinion. E-books have a certain advantage in being lighter, having a backlight (which allows them to be read at night)...

I agree with everything. My spouse has been using e-book and really like them. He also likes the ability to increase fonts - oh our aging eyes. It can also be good for people with bad eyesight since you can use it as an audio. And, yes, being able to read large books.

I like reading mysteries, which means that I would often reach back to find out: what did the butler say?

[Wabash]

I always felt that e-books were overrated.

I like e-books when I travel. That is the only time.

[not4u13]

I like eBooks but I also agree that they will not totally replace print.

eBooks are great for travel but they are also great for casual reading around the house, at work or at school. eBooks are not simply a replacement for print as there are additional features that simply are not possible with print that enhance the reading experience for many people.

1) backlighting for reading at night is available in many although not all ereaders. The original kindle does not have backlight.
2) increasing font size to make it easier to read, depending on circumstance.
3) integrated dictionary makes it very nice for casual reading but especially nice for students reading textbooks.
4) cloud services allow you to read an ebook on different devices without losing your place. the kindle reader is available on android, ipad and kindle devices. how often do students forget their books at home? give them a temporary reader and they have the books they were reading and the place they were at at teh time.
5) portability is exceptional. considering the increasing size of student backpacks, this make for a very nice alternative.
6) check out and return of books is something of a problem at schools with every year some quantity of text going missing, often with no or inadquate collections for replacements. Book condition is often an issue as well.
7) keeping current with the next edition of text is often a problem with print. eBooks can be updated much more easily to the latest editions.
Adaptable for students with special needs. Not only text size and background but also the ability to compliement with audio.

As for ipad use in schools, it might be a bit early but I have learned a great deal about what is possible with an ipad in the last few months and I have to say that I am very encouraged by the capability. It is simply amazing. Beyond eReader capability, the ability to create a truly interactive experience with content in a highly portable way is exactly what the tablet format has been trying to achieve for years. Teachers can go way beyond just creating a powerpoint deck and walking through it. They can integrate the ipad with the smart board. A student can take a note on their ipad and have it appear on the smart board that everyone is looking at, as a means of annotating the material. No more walking to the front of the class to solve that math problem.

Note taking can go to the next level. If the material is on PDF, you can highlight and annotate the PDF as you read it. You can take notes in evernote, onenote or other products that also save to the cloud, meaning notes are available wherever the student is. Students can also flag items for follow up when they have a note that they think might be on the test.

Now, for any of that to work, there has to be changes in a number of areas including how teachers use the tools, how students learn to use the tools and how the systems are set up for accessibility.

[SoMelo]

I agree with everything. My spouse has been using e-book and really like them. He also likes the ability to increase fonts - oh our aging eyes. It can also be good for people with bad eyesight since you can use it as an audio. And, yes, being able to read large books.

I like reading mysteries, which means that I would often reach back to find out: what did the butler say?

Lurch always said "You rang"

[AsIfYouKnew]

I am on my second Kindle. given that I travel quite a bit, I love being able to take along a lot of books, as I usually pop around a few books at a time.

As for the "feel" of a book, I think that is the easiest thing to get past. The harder part is when a book requires illustrations. I haven't seen any ereaders that handle those well.

[not4u13]

Not just books by the way. I have apps for a few different news sites. CNN, USA Today, OC Register and Long Beach Press Telegram. Also Engaget and I read online sites for cnet and Infoworld on a regular basis.

For a newspaper, I prefer the way the LB PT does their app. It is a replica of the paper but has a neat article feature that converts the PDF look of the paper to an eReader like text that automatically includes the page jumps in the text. The OC Register app is jus OK. I read the USA Today often. CNN is sort of a backup for an additional point of view.

Those are the app based sites. The online news sites also vary but I tend to view those from jumps or links from other articles or searches.

No way to do all that with print. Immediate access to multiple publications and sites from your eReader.

[Parrotpaul]

Harvard Medical School has launched a series of e-books.