Coming at this from a somewhat oblique angle, but I still think it's relevant... The Guardian recently published an interview with web usability frontman Jakob Nielsen. Nielsen made the point that until the web is more usable (and digital book content is more usable) books are still more effective for educating people.

JN: There was a study done at the Open University [which] found that in elementary schools, for every £100 spent on books, students grades improved by 1.5% - and for every £100 spent on computers, grades improved by 0.7%. So books are twice as good as computers for this ... So it's not necessarily that I should study history by clicking on some web pages, but that we should teach about these electronic media forms and how to use them. The value of that education would be immense.

You can read the interview here: http://tinyurl.com/o33b5

I don`t know enough to argue on an information/education front - but so far as general books and fiction go, every single person I know who I would call a 'reader' is adamant that although they often use computers/digital for all manner of purposes, as I do, they could no more read a book either on line or in one of those new e-book readers than they could fly.. the point is that people love the physical book. It is more, far more, than the arguments put forward..you could say that great art shows up well on a screen - but people love canvas and paint and paper and pencil. So long as people love the book as book then the book as book will flourish.

Until there is a genuinely easy-to-use, portable and handy-sized reader interface available, the book is safe. After that, who really knows? I love books but have been brought up with them. I hear there are people out there who still love vinyl, but I believe they are in a minority now...

Are books dead?

That’s the question Richard Charkin (CEO Macmillan) poses today on his blog. To answer that question fairly, I believe you need to consider the ways in which we use books...

http://managetochange.typepad.com/main/2006/06/are_books_dead.html

A lot of the things that Jeff Jarvis considers flaws in books are exactly why I like them. I enjoy the fact that "They are frozen in time". Can you imagine if authors rewrote their books in the way that George Lucas digitally updated The Star Wars films? I like that they aren’t searchable and linkable, and thank heaven they "carry no conversation"! I don't want a book that answers back.

I am very much of the web generation. I download my music, I watch all my films and TV on my PC. I read vast amounts of the web. But I don't want the same things from the web as from a book. I think one of the problems with the whole web/book comparison is that people want different things from the web than from books. The fantastic thing about the web is its connectivity - the fact that from one point you can leap to a million other links in all form of multimedia. What I love about books is that they are self-contained. They are their own private universes. For that reason reading a book is alway far more magical and personal an experience than reading on the web.

Of course, the web challenges the way the public approaches books, but I think it's a mistake to assume that the web makes books obsolete.

Nobody claims that the web makes books obsolete. What it might do is siphon off some sales for information that is better dealt with electronically than in paper. The question is how many book sales will be affected and how can the industry, particularly the retailing end of the industry, adapt to survive and continue to offer excellent service.

By their very 'frozen' nature, books serve a multitude of important - no, essential - services to mankind. They represent both historical markers and way points in the evolution of humanity. I can read Charles Dickens and I am reading the words he wrote, at the time he wrote it. What was the Google website like five years ago (five minutes ago?). Is anyone writing this stuff down?

Books are like fire breaks in the increasing free-flow of information, and for that reason I don't believe they'll be dying anytime soon (at least, I bl**dy hope not with my bookshop opening in less than a month).

I have just been re-reading Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich in the bath. Aside from the obvious difficulties and risks of taking an electronic device into the bath, this is a book that captured the can-do, less complicated pioneering spirit of 30s America, and (personally) inspires me in current endeavours. I'm glad someone was around to 'freeze' that spirit, and occasionally I uncork it to take a snifter.

A future world, where all books exist in electronic format, where Google has indexed all manuscripts and can serve them up electronically anywhere, on any device, and then makes a few 'edits' to please the Chinese. I think people might be rushing back to paper at that point...

I prefer to have both electronic information *and* books of course. Who says they have to compete?

Richard, I had a really long comment on the whole "end of the book" discussion that's going around the net. I discovered your link via Tobias Buckell's site this morning. So not to clog up your blog with my five hundred word post, I added it as a trackback at mine.

Michael

I sort of agree with you:

The major factor, in my opinion, is that we don’t cultivate readers when they’re young. The book world can’t expect to develop readers from nowhere. If kids don’t like books they won’t read; then, they won’t read as adults. Children’s books are hot, and every A to B list celeb is pumping them out faster than press releases. Yet, as I walked the floor at BEA this year, it was amazing the lack of appropriate titles for that 11-19 age group. Sure, there were those “Junior Chic-Lit” books about dating, the prom, etcetera, but when I asked multiple publishers about what they had that would be good for teenage boys, the answer was either “Uh” or “Duh.” (Except graphic novels, of course.)

but developing young readers is already a very high priority for the book trade as a whole - and has been for decades. Believe me there is a ton of material for a not very receptive audience if the BEA stall minders didn't know about it!

Richard

Richard,

I think the fact that those manning the booths at BEA didn’t know too much about their YA offerings is indicative of the problem. This says to me that these titles sit taking up space on the backlist, while efforts are focused elsewhere. Publishing is a business, and hot titles support that business, but reaching out to the youngsters will ensure that there are readers around for those future “hot titles.”

I spoke with a lot of people besides publishers at BEA, and whether librarians, booksellers, or parents, the universal feeling was that there’s plenty for little kids, not so much for teenagers, especially boys. As has been true for generations, boys love heroic adventures with characters they can cheer for, and even want to be. This is one of the reasons why Harry Potter has been such a hit—he’s a strong, heroic character with whom boys (and girls) can identify.

I don’t know the situation in the U.K., but at least here in the states, schools seem to do their best to drive kids away from books, adding titles that are either centuries old, or rather push some agenda other than teaching the joy of reading. I speak, of course, from experience.

No matter where I go (conferences, libraries, association meetings, etc.) I hear the same comments about lack of appropriate titles for teenagers, and teenage boys. If the titles are out there, then there’s a disconnect between publishers and readers. These readers being kids, the schools may be a logical bridge to connect the gap.

I’ll be at the American Library Association conference later this month, so I’ll be able to talk to librarians of all types from all parts of the U.S. on the subject. Hopefully I can learn more about what the book world can do.

Thanks for the discussion!

Hardcover Books will always be a part of the culture. But there is no question that new technologies and communications will help to make books read even more than they have in the past. I should know, because we at bookyards have been doing this for the past 5 years. Just look at the proliferation of digital libraries on the web. Gutenberg alone has 2,000,000 ebooks downloads per onth. That is good news, and an indication that reading habits are changing.
For a good collection of these libraries, just go to Bookyards "Library Collections - E Books" at http://www.bookyards.com/links.html?type=links&category_id=1780
There are approximately 350 digital libraries seperated alphabetically and by category, with over 200,000 ebooks

Hi Richard,

Thanks for linking.
Yeah books will not get totally replaced by ebooks but internet will have significant impact on publishing business though.
And that is the main thing.

As you have rightly pointed out, developing young reader would be the key. And it is going to be difficult to lure a kid who lives at myspace and listens to ipod.

Thx
rajAT