That NY Times article about the demise of picture books has made the discussion of the future of books go to warp speed, so I thought I would throw in my 2 cents about why I think books will LIVE.
(but in a different form, maybe)
- A) Storytelling is a fundamental human instinct. They drew narratives on the cave walls. Are you telling me when they went and built houses they worried there would be no more stories? The delivery system might change, but stories are forever.
- B) Google, Amazon’s Kindle, the ipad, the Barnes & Nobles Nook—they are all fighting over what? They want a share of the BOOK market! They must think there is something worth fighting for, or they wouldn’t bother.
- C)Farhad Manjoo writing in Slate magazine said, “All of our books, our movies, and our tunes will soon live on servers far away from home, allowing us to read, watch, and listen whenever and wherever we want.”
So, books will be in electronic form instead of paper. So music is now a clickable download instead if on a spinning disc of plastic. Does it really matter?
I think the biggest problem is…Books will be Muktzah, and not usable on Shabbat for Orthodox folks! We will have to go to the Judaica store to pick up our specially Made-for-Shabbat books.
What do you think about the future of books?
Ann, I had not thought about the digitization of reading turning it into a non-Shabbat activity! That’s a very good point. But I don’t think ereading will replace traditional reading for a long time, I think it will just become one of many alternatives. After all, movies and tv did not kill radio. We just have additional choices now.