Future of Books.

I've always been a little interested in wondering what sort of effect those electronic reading devices will have on paperback/hardcover books. Here's a blog that has a look at just that, with a specific reference to Amazon's kindle reader.

e-readers and the future of books

Article wrote:One of the objection points [to Amazon trying to market the kindle as more of a book than a computer] was that it will be hard to get people to adopt e-books instead of paper books because of getting over the issue of the emotional attachment with, and experience of, reading a paper book.

As I see it, it’s just like Henry Ford said “If I asked people what they wanted they would have said a faster horse”. Same with e-books. People think they want portable books that act like books, because they’re used to books. But they don’t actually want that. Likewise people think they don’t want e-readers because they will be like reading on your PC. It won’t be.

It’s quite an interesting ‘blog article’ about, as this guy sees it, the inevitable demise of the paper-paged book. Some of his ‘predictions’ may be a little off the mark (maybe not), but some of them I think are spot on. Like this one:

Article wrote:The initial shift in trend will be at universities and schools, who can have the student buy one reader and then download their books into the device. New edition out? Just download the update (for a small charge, of course). [...] Books will go ‘Cloud’, with the reader acting as a cache system. It’ll effectively become nothing more than another variation on the internet.

So, this coincides with the release of Amazon’s new Kindle 2, which, although not without faults (obviously), looks pretty fantastic. If they only had more books available in digital format, then I’d even probably be able to overlook the hefty price of ~$360 ($US, I assume).

Here’s one review of the device. http://www.abcnews.go.com/Technology/GadgetGuide/Story?id=6944166&page=1

And here's a very brief video review
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJLt2gr3jyc&NR=1

Are you trying to sell me something?

No. Why would I try to sell you anything?? Geez.

I would if I could somehow make money from selling you stuff.

There goes Nick again- always thinking with his wallet! *pauses for studio applause*

That's our Nick!

Money!

Fine, I'm moving this to the crud bucket... jerks.

Where it belongs!

and how!

Yeah, well, who do you think will be laughing when these futuristic books start becoming super-intelligent, and start taking over the world? Huh? I will.

The books will I guess.

I still think the paperclip in Microsoft word is becoming self-aware... beady little eyes, watching me for mistakes, cataloging them. Jerk.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,28124,25122653-36418,00.html

eReaders aren't really available in Australia yet?? Wtf? That sucks. Hugely!

Article wrote:As other media make the transition to the digital world, first through the internet and increasingly through 3G phones, just why books have failed to follow the same path is open to debate.

Google is one company that has tried to forge the path with its Google Book Search -- digitising hundreds of thousands of books for download.

But Google hit a snag when it first baulked at paying authors of books now out of print for their wares. The move resulted in a long battle before Google agreed to terms late last year, promising $US125 million to pay authors, or $US60 for each book digitised. "It's a big step," says Jeremy Fisher, a spokesman for the Australian Society of Authors.

Had to pay for out-of-print books? Lame.