I just came across this article, The Future of Reading, and I must say, I'm both incredibly intrigued and a little frightened at the same time.
Some background:
The basic idea behind this story is that books can now be downloaded through Amazon, onto a device, about the size of a ‘normal’ paperback, called a Kindle. The user either downloads a book (costing around ten bucks) directly to the Kindle via wireless signals, or to a home computer and then to the Kindle. Interesting premise. Now, I must say, I’m both incredibly intrigued and a little frightened at the same time.
Now, let's start with the fright:
New books may well disappear from the face of the earth as I know it. Granted this is going to take a while – but I can honestly see a day now when books (at least paperbacks) would no longer be produced. The ideas of Epic 2014 might not be that far off. Truly scary!
And the intrigue:
It would be amazing to carry multiple copies of books at once! And research would be a breeze! Where was this thing five years ago when I started my undergrad? Who needs to actually read a book now when you can just search for a key word!? Arguably the index based searching so beloved in my early undergrad years was more or less the same thing, but this Kindle would make it way easier.
Plus – I’m curious as to the environmental impacts of the Kindle versus the publishing of multiple copies of paperbacks. It might be better to have a chunk of plastic than to cut down all those trees for books. Time will tell I’m sure!
A combination of fright and intrigue:
What about copyright? Would I be able to share a downloaded version of a book with my dad in the same way that we share paperbacks now? The cost of buying a book now is essentially cut in half for me, given that I know it’ll get at least two reads out of it (this rationalization allows me to buy more books – maybe it’s not sound rationalization, but it works for me.) Perhaps instead of sharing the digital copy of a book I’d actually have to lend my dad my Kindle… which raises a whole new set of problems.
Hmm… Much to ponder!
4 years ago
2 comments:
If the music industry can't prevent people from sharing music, I can't see the publishing industry doing any better. Book people are polite, quiet types, after all.
I looked up some of the details of the Amazon Kindle after reading your blog. It includes couple of neat features such as the ability: to allow users to bookmark, highlight, look up content, and mark pages for future reference. Also the prices of downloading a book are considerably cheaper than actually pushing a hard copy. I'm not sure I would voluntarily give up my book collection for Kindle, but I think the accessibility and digital aspect that Kindle is based on it definitely something that appeals to me.
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