Will the e-Reader replace paper books?

Discussion in 'Discussion of Published Works' started by Pludovick, Oct 7, 2012.

  1. Fatback

    Fatback Banned

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    I'm not trying to come across as a jerk but take a look at society. The real question is at what point will illiteracy and disdain for self education swallow up mankind in his entirety? E-readers... Paper books... Most people can't construct a normal sentence and could care less... The movie idiocracy is our future. Brawndo does have electrolytes..
     
  2. Lemex

    Lemex That's Lord Lemex to you. Contributor

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    Strictly speaking this means they do care, at least a little bit, because they could care less.
    I think what you mean is they couldn't care less.
     
  3. Selbbin

    Selbbin The Moderating Cat Staff Contributor Contest Winner 2023

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    Yes, because the internet doesn't have words....
     
  4. Pheonix

    Pheonix A Singer of Space Operas and The Fourth Mod of RP Contributor

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    It seems like people are reading more than ever. Maybe not books, but the internet is filled with written information, (along with thousands of terabytes of cat videos, but hey, some of those have text overlays lol).

    It's simply can't happen in this world without a total shift in everyday life. General apathy will get you a long way, but there will always be a majority of people who appreciate education and literacy. And if we stop appreciating it here, then someone else will take us out in our weakened, cat video distracted stupor, and take over as then next world power. But that has nothing to do with E-readers.

    I think that they will become more prevalent, but not totally displace books... cuz books are awesome!
     
  5. evelon

    evelon Active Member

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    Coincidentally, I've just had programme from one of our local theatres. It includes a varied Christmas programme with adults, teens and children catered for. It's not cheap - seats from £12 to £25 and if you have a couple of children that can add up even with the incentives. However, this is quality stuff we're talking. Award winning productions in an award winning threatre. And not so cultural that it's out of the sphere of most of us. Yes, we have the usual 'he's behind you panomimes' at other theatres and the 'community threatres' in which plays are produced by local am dram groups - not the proffessional quality but an enjoyable night just the same.
    Our threatres are encouraging the young, providing workshops and drama groups and catering for those with disabilities - which wasn't always the case at one time.

    Cinema does attract more people - but then I think it always has. As a child, the only time I visited a theatre was with school. Shakespear at Stratford and Ludlow. Now my grandchildren have all been, most of them have taken part in school productions at the local theatres. Rather than being less accessible, theatre has become more accessible. And the cinemas are still going strong too. So are computer games, DS's and WIIs and TV.

    And I really think that 'proper' books (even though I love my Kindle, I still think of printed books as the real deal) will survive the onslaught of the e book. They may even come back even stronger.
     
  6. Mckk

    Mckk Member Supporter Contributor

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    Well I read a very interesting argument on this - that is, the book is the perfect form, like the wheel is - and all the later inventions are only additions but the basic concept can never be changed. And then the argument turned to the transience of technology - and should electricity ever fail us, we'd be left with unusable blocks of metal with no meaning whatsoever, and they mentioned a book that delved into a dystopian society where there was no more electricity and the man who could recite the times table was heralded as the most intelligent man on the planet - because we rely so much on computers that the moment the machines become closed to us, we become helpless.

    How today, we're always trying to preserve knowledge, and yet every year there's new technology claiming to store knowledge better, for longer, and instead what happens is we keep moving our knowledge because it turns out our previous medium of storage isn't very good after all. And in 10 years what we'd stored our knowledge on will become inaccessible to future generations, because it is stored in electronics that the future generation can no longer access (since there're new technologies etc) and therefore the knowledge will have died, unless we constantly, frantically transfer our knowledge from one device to the next continuously.

    But the book - we're still reading texts from even as far as the 5th century and older. The book alone has stood the passage of time, and should you store something in a book, there's no need to fuss or worry - as long as you preserve the book, it is guaranteed that the future generations will have it, and read it, and know it, and treasure it.

    I didn't express this very well I know, but I became convinced that the book will not go extinct. It is the perfect form, and thus it will remain because people will see that the book lasts - Kindles don't, and in 30 years time the new Kindles then will be unrecognisable to the ones we use today. I do believe that books and e-books will simply co-exist. It's like the wheel - we've got trams and trains and planes and tanks, but the wheel remains. Or theatre - we have TV and the cinema, but still the theatre remains. The most basic, perfect concept will always last. All the rest are good ideas, but they came out of something that was already IT.
     
  7. Selbbin

    Selbbin The Moderating Cat Staff Contributor Contest Winner 2023

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    Exactly. Ever since it's introduction, cinema took away most theatre audiences. Yes, theatre remains, but not as it once did pre-cinema.
     
  8. evelon

    evelon Active Member

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    That may be true - but wasn't theatre once where the elite hung out? Nowadays I think it's more accessible. In our city (which isn't a large one) we have two major theatres, two smaller ones and at least half a dozen local and community threatres. They cater for all tastes and are well supported. Close by, within an area of 20 miles, we can count a at least two more, and further afield, within 50 miles, the major venues of Manchester and Birmingham.

    It's a long time since the cinema arrived. There may have been some periods when theatres suffered. But, whether its a UK thing or worldwide, there seems to have been an upturn - certainly if you look at the London scene, there is no shortages of first class shows and first class venues.
     
  9. SuperVenom

    SuperVenom Senior Member

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    Well a book to me is more portable long term as if you are somewhere with no power points the battery will fail after a while. It has happened to me with lap tops, DS game boy, you name it.
     
  10. steve119

    steve119 New Member

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    simple answer is no the e reader will not replace paper books they will exist happily side by side because people that enjoy reading enjoy physical paper books. they some times have to travel where they can't take many books and this is where the e reader plays to it's strengths. they are both valid and always will be the Paper book is not going anywhere soon
     
  11. Lemex

    Lemex That's Lord Lemex to you. Contributor

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    No. During the Elizabethan era Shakespeare plays and the plays of Christopher Marlowe were The place to go. If you lived in London during this time the theater was a place to not only relax during the day, but was also a place to socialize and trade. It was a huge business, and it was the only place common people could get anywhere near politics without too much fear of reprisals from the state. Drama was born from religious rituals in Greece too; from the cult of Dionysus. Rituals celebrating life and feast is where we get Comedy, and rituals to appease the gods through animal sacrifice is where we get Tragedy.

    Drama was born from the community, and has always been 'of the people'. Don't think it's only for elitists because it was never intended to be so. Opera is another thing that is thought of to be snobbish and elitist, but to be honest if you are willing to try Opera can be wonderful.

    You get elitists in everything, is what I'm saying, and those jerks just love ruining things for others.
     
  12. Selbbin

    Selbbin The Moderating Cat Staff Contributor Contest Winner 2023

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    Not for most of it's life; even in Roman times it was mainly for the masses.
    oops. What Lemex wrote..
     
  13. shadowwalker

    shadowwalker Contributor Contributor

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    Of course, one also has to consider that you probably won't get conked over the head for your paperback copy of "David Copperfield", but that e-reader is going to look awfully tempting. :p
     
  14. steve119

    steve119 New Member

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    good point there shadowwalker the type of people that will steal your e reader or ipad prob don't even know what a book is lol
     
  15. BritInFrance

    BritInFrance Active Member

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    Somebody did steal a paperback I was half-way through reading from outside my house (I live in a part of France with almost zero crime). They could have had it when I had finished, but I hate not finishing a book (unless it is really awful).
     
  16. evelon

    evelon Active Member

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    Agree with you. That's why opera in the park was so popular and yet it was slated by those who thought that making it so accessible to the masses 'lowered the tone'.
     
  17. Fatback

    Fatback Banned

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    Then you had better contact the intellectual internet community and tell them to start reproducing fast... I'm just saying this because the rest of the world won't stop posting pictures of their twelve illegitimate tardo kids on facebook... Those E-readers and paper books aren't good weapons against piles and piles of stupid people.
     
  18. Fatback

    Fatback Banned

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    I said what I meant... Of course they care... It takes effort to abort the English language in such a profound way.... Sometimes I say "Swish" at the end of a sentence... It's my way of letting the person I'm talking to know that I just figuratively shot a high arching three over their impotent outstretched hand to sink the game winning shot all up in that persons down cast face.... So..... you know.... Swish.
     
  19. svartalfheim

    svartalfheim Member

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    Personally, I love my kindle. I travel a lot and its just to much baggage to carry around 2 or more books (depending on how long I'm going to be away) and obviously on your journey back you've brought more stuff. even more baggage and possibly even more money being spent on luggage allowance. The kindle allows me to have a vast library, I mean i have a lot of paper books, but they're the ones that I truly love. For example I have all the LOTR's books + the hobbit, skullduggery series, harry potter, etc. all the ones I think I want you to be paper and pretty! whereas The distant miles, Incubus and lesser known books I have on my kindle.
     
  20. steve119

    steve119 New Member

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    You will never get rid of stupid people there were stupid people before books existed and there will be stupid people after books become obsolete. I wouldn't get to worried about stupid people if I was you they are important to how the world works. After all we need people to serve us our Mochachinos and deliver our Pizzas after all. I think the kindle is a great idea it is perfect for people who travel a lot. for example I have a friend who is a Royal Engineer in the British Army and he love to read but he can't be taking 6 months worth of reading material in book form when he gets sent on a tour of duty so the kindle is perfect for him. That said when he is home he prefers to have a real book. So I don't think e readers will make books obsolete i think they just make life a bit easier for the people that enjoy reading.
     
  21. Thumpalumpacus

    Thumpalumpacus Alive in the Superunknown

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    When I have the time, I enjoy reading in a nice hot bath. If while reaching for my beer I drop my book, I've ruined one volume of my library. With an E-reader, however, there goes my library.
     
  22. idle

    idle Active Member

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    Nope, there goes your reader (and there might be waterproof covers to prevent this I think). Your library is still on your computer/your e-shop account/whatever you use for backup.
     
  23. Michael Collins

    Michael Collins Senior Member

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    Honestly, I didn't read the other posts. I just stumbled across the question asked as thread title, an my horrified, spontaneous answer was:

    "I really hope it won't."
     
  24. Selbbin

    Selbbin The Moderating Cat Staff Contributor Contest Winner 2023

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    This is why you need a private assistant to sit next to you and read it for you.
     
  25. Wickedstorm

    Wickedstorm New Member

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    Well as I am a big reader and I grew up with my mothers library of more then 30,000 books. I really hope not. I even have a talent for telling publishing years based off the smell of the book itself. But I digress. However I have a few points to make on the E reader the problems with some of them.

    First. They make protective covers and Glare removers for those of us who want to read in the bath or outside. Secondly there is actually some easy renewable sources of energy out there to help with those of us that are not near an outlet. Backpacks with solar pannels. They are also making huge advancements in using BTU's the human energy to power things though its still several generations off.

    I had a conversation with a friend about E-readers actually being a better medium for libraries but that a totally different argument. However I do think that E-reader will replace paper-backs and that hard copies will become far more expensive.
     

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