Isn’t the whole debate about learning to embrace new media to support traditional practices? It really isn’t a choice of books or ebooks/no books, is it; it is more like the issue of choosing to watch a film in a cinema or on a DVD.
They will still continue to produce films even though DVDs have some interesting developments. Film studios and cinemas have rethought their marketing strategies. Having the price of a cinema ticket be half the cost of a DVD is not acceptable to many film viewers anymore.
Why can’t publishers and bookstores just embrace new possibilities of bringing books to readers in all sorts of formats (e.g. print, audio, electronic) instead of making doomsday predictions about the demise of books?
Take in point the new independent bookstore, Crockattpowell & Powell Booksellers* in London. They obviously want to sell books in their store. To do this they have an attractive store in a good location and offer online services as well on their website. Yes, standard stuff, you are saying. Yet, look at their blog*, delightful. The blog is bound to be a great source of indirect advertising to sell some books.
If a good customer wishes for print material in another format (e.g. audio or electronic), they will do their best to serve them. They would still go on selling books, though, wouldn’t they?
There is also the fact that people seem to underestimate how part of the whole reading experience is simply the sensual pleasure of touching and smelling paper, as well as the visual pleasure of good print.
Nothing will replace the joys of reading a nicely printed book.
*Sadly, in 2023, as I was editing this post, it looks as if this bookstore does not exist anymore. It looks to have been well-loved.
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