Are Books Needed In The Digital Age?

[Marxist]

Consider the last book you read (completely and no Literotica doesn't count). Now think about the last movie (DVD, theatre, HBO, etc...). Which did you enjoy more? And why?

 

[Angel]

I prefer reading books to anything else that you mentioned in the above post.

 

[Fly_On_Wall]

I'm not a good reader, but i have to admit when i actualy can read a full book i enjoy it. most books are better then movies, cuase each person see's it the way they want. and movies are limited by lenght

 

[Rubyfruit]

I love reading

When I'm on a roll, I can read two novels a week. My current book is The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant.

Although, I do enjoy reading stories online, nothing will replace the feel of a book in my hands.

Ruby

 

[juicylips]

Re: I love reading

When I'm on a roll, I can read two novels a week. My current book is The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant.

Although, I do enjoy reading stories online, nothing will replace the feel of a book in my hands.

Ruby

There is something about holding a book, I agree. Your imagination is limitless with a great book.

I have been wanting to read that book, Ruby. Let me know if you liked it.

Cassidy

 

[cymbidia]

I read a lot and *always* have a book going.

You question?
Nothing digital can possibly replace the sensual pleasure of holding a book, of turning the pages, of inhaling that oh-so-delicate book smell - you know the one i mean. Nothing digital can replace the unmitigated luxury of cruising bookstore shelves, kjust wandering, waiting for the right book to find you, your eyes caressing a wildly chaotic panorama of titles in all the colors of the rainbow. Nothing digital can possibly replace the heady sensation of being so drawn into a book that time stands still - and when you look up, it's four hours later and your house is cold and the dog REALLY needs to go out - but you've spent time in another world and are foggy-headed, still halfway an inhabitant of the book-place, and definitely enriched for the experience of having resided there for that bit of time.

I gotta have books.

 

[Marxist]

Hey guys, all that's great but if books are so wonderful, why do they take a backseat in our pop culture. When was the last time you saw a kid or adult with the latest author or book title on a t-shirt? Outside of a bookstore, when was the last time you saw an ad, like movies, for a novel?-------that was my devils' advocate voice.

 

[Shy Tall Guy]

I read a lot and *always* have a book going.

You question?
Nothing digital can possibly replace the sensual pleasure of holding a book, of turning the pages, of inhaling that oh-so-delicate book smell - you know the one i mean. Nothing digital can replace the unmitigated luxury of cruising bookstore shelves, kjust wandering, waiting for the right book to find you, your eyes caressing a wildly chaotic panorama of titles in all the colors of the rainbow. Nothing digital can possibly replace the heady sensation of being so drawn into a book that time stands still - and when you look up, it's four hours later and your house is cold and the dog REALLY needs to go out - but you've spent time in another world and are foggy-headed, still halfway an inhabitant of the book-place, and definitely enriched for the experience of having resided there for that bit of time.

I gotta have books.

Something digital will replace books, not tomorrow, maybe not even this decade, but eventually most books will be optionally available in a digital form, then only available in ditigtal form.

Having worked in the publication software business I have seen what is coming down the pike. Eventually there will be "electronic ink" and "digital paper" that is very much like the printed page, except that the text can and will change just by pressing a button. This is also the future of computer displays; the resolution (300-600 dpi) and almost the thickness of paper.

This is one of the reasons why those in the publication business are getting into other forms of printing (packaging software being the last product I worked on) and other forms of publication (Adobe saw this years ago when they came out with Acrobat and PDF. Xerox saw the writing on the wall and is now working on "electronic ink/digital paper".)

Yeah, books will be around for quite a while, but their digital equivalents are already here.

As for the original question; books will always be around, what form they are in may change from printing on paper to "electronic ink", but they will always be around. The book of the future will probably contain a mixture of video and audio though.

 

[Styphon]

Books are best - nothing else comes close.

I can read a book (or even two smallish ones) a day, and whenever I'm reading a really enjoyable book I am oblivious to anything else - people speaking to me, mealtimes, whatever.

I wouldn't mind using an e-book to store downloadable books, if I had to travel light, but I prefer the look, feel, convenience and even the smell of books Yes, I must be odd...

The best thing about reading a book is that the special effects are better

Styphon

 

[juicylips]

Hey guys, all that's great but if books are so wonderful, why do they take a backseat in our pop culture. When was the last time you saw a kid or adult with the latest author or book title on a t-shirt? Outside of a bookstore, when was the last time you saw an ad, like movies, for a novel?-------that was my devils' advocate voice.

We book freaks are a secret society and prefer to stick to others of like freakish nature.

We don't advertise on t-shirts. We post reviews and attend library poetry meetings.

Reading takes time and our culture wants everything now, now, now! They don't know what they are missing by slowing down and indulging their minds in page after page of wonderful words.

Cassidy,
who likes to spend a rainy day with a good book or a good man

 

[bluespoke]

Nothing changes. Pre cyber age you never saw t-shirts with book titles nor did you see books advertised in the brash way that films are/were.

we still read the books because we need the fantasy, the world we make up - not some mega rich Holywood director. A bool is a very personal thing, ten people will have ten different views on the characters, the plot etc. Books will always be with us thank God.

 

[Marxist]

Hey STG, we use more paper than ever because of the digital age don't we? What about cost? What about convenience? What about transportability?

 

[Rubyfruit]

Marxist,

I really don't know why more people don't read. My mother read constantly when I was a kid, and my brother and I both took it up voraciously as teenagers and haven't stopped since. I don't remember her talking to us about the joys of reading, however she did take us to the library with her every week.


Cassidy, The Red Tent has hooked me and I'm only maybe 100 pages into it.

Ruby

 

[Calamity Jane]

Hey guys, all that's great but if books are so wonderful, why do they take a backseat in our pop culture. When was the last time you saw a kid or adult with the latest author or book title on a t-shirt? Outside of a bookstore, when was the last time you saw an ad, like movies, for a novel?-------that was my devils' advocate voice.

Because those that are so entrenched in our pop culture that they feel the need to be walking billboards are idiots?

seriously, books don't NEED the same kind of manic advertisement that movies and all the rest do. books are a culture unto themselves.

and cym... ditto. you said what i was thinking. i have a first edition burns poetry book... it's brittle and crumbly, and possibly worth a fortune... but the smell of those pages whe i oh so gingerly open it...

 

[Marxist]

Marxist,

I really don't know why more people don't read. My mother read constantly when I was a kid, and my brother and I both took it up voraciously as teenagers and haven't stopped since. I don't remember her talking to us about the joys of reading, however she did take us to the library with her every week.

Ruby, please change your av. I can't read a fucking word that you write.

 

[Rubyfruit]

Ruby, please change your av. I can't read a fucking word that you write.

Ok, how's this? Better?

Ruby

 

[Shy Tall Guy]

Hey STG, we use more paper than ever because of the digital age don't we?

Yes, but that is going to change. It was changing at the company I worked at; most memos, documentation, etc. were not on paper anymore, but rather shared electronically.

It is the ease with which documents can be changed that causes the many revisions, which in turn causes more paper to be used. Paper is used because it has a much higher resolution (600 DPI vs. less than 100 DPI on a monitor) and is thus much easier to read. "Electronic ink"/"digital paper", which is paper with changeable text on it will eventually have the resolution paper does now. Do a web search on either of those two terms and you will see what I am talking about.

When the speed and RGB (color) capability matches that of a computer display, digital paper will replace CRTs/LCDs as our computer displays.

What about cost? What about convenience? What about transportability?

Cost will be much less than a CRT, probably less than $100 for an electronic book that you carry with you everywhere, and then the actual books that you download or buy to load on the book will probably cost less than half what a paper books costs - much of the cost of a paper book is the paper and binding.

Convenience will be the same as a paper book - in some ways better (searching for references will be much easier). Transportability will be much greater because you can carry a whole library around in something the size of one book.

The future is bright for e-books, but it will take time for them to come to market in a form that everybody accepts enough to replace paper books.

The internet and CDs already replace books to some degree; especially in my field where tech stuff can change from day to day. Most software does not come with printed manuals now - rather the software somes with the manuals on CDs. I do not buy near as many tech books as I used to - more current info is available for free on the web.

 

[lovetoread]

Consider the last book you read (completely and no Literotica doesn't count). Now think about the last movie (DVD, theatre, HBO, etc...). Which did you enjoy more? And why?

I enjoyed my book more. It was the last Resident Evil book, in case anyone is wondering. When you read, you paint your own picture of what is happening unlike watching a movie that comes from someone else.

 

[Pokerman]

I dont think books will ever disappear. Can you imagine sitting a child on your lap and reading to them from a computer? My son likes to hold the books while i read to him, i doubt i'd let him hold a piece of valuable electronic equipment.

Books need no batteries, no lights (except enough visible light to read) and no electricity.

TV and Movies did not kill radio. Computers did not kill Newspapers. As much as I get my news from TV and the Internet, there's nothing like sitting down on a Sunday with the paper, dividing it up with my spouse and sitting there with a cup of coffee reading the paper.

No...I don't think we'll ever truly replace the printed word.

 

[sexy-girl]

i like to snuggle up in bed with a hot cup of coffee and a good book to read ... once i finish reading the book i like to have them on my book shelf only the "good" books go on the shelf naff ones in the draw

i love books and i dont think they can be replaced because they've become more then the sum of thier parts as it were

 

[Vi]

Books/Sex

Perhaps the best way to explain a good book is to compare it to good sex. Wouldn't you rather feel the experience and touch the object.....or do you just want to see what happened on a screen?
Besides, how many CD's do you have to pile on a chair to get a child high enough to reach the table?

 

[Marxist]

Nothing changes. Pre cyber age you never saw t-shirts with book titles nor did you see books advertised in the brash way that films are/were.

Books as cult collectives are a pretty new idea. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" changed the way world looked at slavery and was promoted as such. The novel was considered the pre-eminent story telling form up until the 1960's. Almost all serious movies had / have their origins in books. Trash novels and real writers like Capote or Jaqueline Susan came on talk shows and the cover of magazines. What changed? Would Leno bring Pynchon or Toni Morrison on his show (provided Thomas would show)? Would anyone know who they are or care?

 

[Shy Tall Guy]

I dont think books will ever disappear.

They won't disappear, but they will change form.

Can you imagine sitting a child on your lap and reading to them from a computer? My son likes to hold the books while i read to him, i doubt i'd let him hold a piece of valuable electronic equipment.

The equipment will be so inexpensive and so durable that it will be cheaper in the long run than books are now. I have quite a number of books that cost me more than $100 that I wouldn't just hand off to a kid, but I would hand a kid an inexpensive and durable e-book.

Books need no batteries, no lights (except enough visible light to read) and no electricity.

Electronic ink needs very little power, and batteries would last for days of continuous use. Most of the power for a portable computer currently goes to the display. E-ink only needs power when it changes, not all the time like an LCD or CRT.

TV and Movies did not kill radio. Computers did not kill Newspapers.

They did for me; I never listen to the radio anymore; I have quite a few digital CD quality music channels coming to me via satellite, or I listen to CDs, or I evnetually will get my music on demand from the web. As for nespapers; almost all of them are available to me on the web, for free. The only one I read on paper is the WSJ, and that is because it is usually free at work.

No...I don't think we'll ever truly replace the printed word.

Give it time - there are some really cool things coming down the pike. It will still be printed on "paper" but the word will change with the press of a button.

 

[juicylips]

Books as cult collectives are a pretty new idea. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" changed the way world looked at slavery and was promoted as such. The novel was considered the pre-eminent story telling form up until the 1960's. Almost all serious movies had / have their origins in books. Trash novels and real writers like Capote or Jaqueline Susan came on talk shows and the cover of magazines. What changed? Would Leno bring Pynchon or Toni Morrison on his show (provided Thomas would show)? Would anyone know who they are or care?

Uncle Tom's Cabin is a good example of what was wrong with the country at that time. Do authors still address such issues and in a way that grabs the attention of the nation as that one did?

Yes, I believe people are looking to other mediums to express their ideas. You see more singers, actors, etc. on Leno than authors. Not many authors make the late night circuit, you are right.

Cassidy

 

[ohiobbw]

When was the last time you saw a kid or adult with the latest author or book title on a t-shirt? Outside of a bookstore, when was the last time you saw an ad, like movies, for a novel?[/i]

I see kids with book titles on their shirts all of the time. Ever hear of Harry Potter?? I also see Captain Underpants shirts all of the time too.

I see ads for books in magazines all of the time too.