What if a book isn't like a record?
Commentators outside the book business usually pose the issue in the reverse. Books, they claim, are just like music records and CDs. And since information in a book can be downloaded into an e-book in the same way that music can be loaded onto an iPod, books and records must share the same fate. Although e-books are now probably no more than about 15% of all books published, these commentators would have you believe that the printed book is in dire straits.
Some within the digerati class have written off the printed book entirely. Take John Biggs, who writes a blog called TechnoCrunch.com. He seems absolutely certain that by the year 2025 books will be "at best, an artifact and at worst a nuisance." That's not a result he seems to lament, but he concedes that this development might be upsetting "if you're currently in the book sales racket" (Sept. 27, 2011). We probably need a generic name for people who espouse this viewpoint. I suggest "techno-twit."
Not so fast with the obituaries.
Books printed on movable type have been around for 573 years ever since Gutenberg printed his famous bible. Arguably, the invention of printed books is the most important invention in history. So anyone who claims that the demise of records points inevitably to the end of books needs to take into consideration the countless ways that books have woven their way into the heart of our culture. When technological newcomers - like vinyl records, tapes, CDs - were forced to give way to succeeding technologies, it was usually because the new technology was able to recreate the exact same experience as the one it replaced (well, maybe not entirely. Some - including my son - claim they can still hear the difference in vinyl records). But not all technological change swallows its forbears. The death of radio was predicted many times, but it is still a lively medium because it fills a role that other technologies, like television, haven't able to fill. That same viability is true of books. A sober look at the history of books shows that they have a myriad of roles in our culture that would be very difficult to replicate.
It's time to downplay the similarity between books and records and find some better comparisons.
Full story at Huff Post.
William Petrocelli is an author, a bookseller, and a former attorney.He spent a few years as a Deputy Attorney General for the State of California and then as a poverty lawyer in Oakland, California, before going into private practice. For the past thirty years or so he has been the co-owner with his wife Elaine of Book Passage, a retail bookstore in San Francisco and Corte Madera, California.
Some within the digerati class have written off the printed book entirely. Take John Biggs, who writes a blog called TechnoCrunch.com. He seems absolutely certain that by the year 2025 books will be "at best, an artifact and at worst a nuisance." That's not a result he seems to lament, but he concedes that this development might be upsetting "if you're currently in the book sales racket" (Sept. 27, 2011). We probably need a generic name for people who espouse this viewpoint. I suggest "techno-twit."
Not so fast with the obituaries.
Books printed on movable type have been around for 573 years ever since Gutenberg printed his famous bible. Arguably, the invention of printed books is the most important invention in history. So anyone who claims that the demise of records points inevitably to the end of books needs to take into consideration the countless ways that books have woven their way into the heart of our culture. When technological newcomers - like vinyl records, tapes, CDs - were forced to give way to succeeding technologies, it was usually because the new technology was able to recreate the exact same experience as the one it replaced (well, maybe not entirely. Some - including my son - claim they can still hear the difference in vinyl records). But not all technological change swallows its forbears. The death of radio was predicted many times, but it is still a lively medium because it fills a role that other technologies, like television, haven't able to fill. That same viability is true of books. A sober look at the history of books shows that they have a myriad of roles in our culture that would be very difficult to replicate.
It's time to downplay the similarity between books and records and find some better comparisons.
Full story at Huff Post.
William Petrocelli is an author, a bookseller, and a former attorney.He spent a few years as a Deputy Attorney General for the State of California and then as a poverty lawyer in Oakland, California, before going into private practice. For the past thirty years or so he has been the co-owner with his wife Elaine of Book Passage, a retail bookstore in San Francisco and Corte Madera, California.
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