Books
A teacher recently wrote that she didn’t think technology should replace books. Don’t get rid of the books! she silently cried aloud in her head.
I’ve run across many luddites and technophiles who, despite their comfort with technology, decry replacing paper books.
I had a long discussion at lunch today over this topic with a colleague. He collects books; he’s got an impressive library on many different topics.
“I have a connection with a book; it alone can tell a story…”
I cut him off. “My CDs I buy can tell a story too, they have little books, and sometimes, I leave the price stickers on–for used ones–and I could tell you where I bought each one…”
We both started at each other like old women recounting the achievements of their grandchildren.
I read books, and I like marking in them. But the futurists I read seem to be telling us a few things. My own thoughts:
- Kids in schools today will read the majority of text in their lives off screens via electricity.
- We have yet to replace books. But the benefits of non-books may soon outweigh book benefits.
- Electronic books (Kindle, computer, cell phone) offer us potential that books cannot, and that’s why I think their days are numbered.
Specifically, with electronic text, you can:
- Save it;
- Carry it (and a lot of it);
- Search it;
- Tag it;
- Hightlight it;
- Have it read to you;
- Have portions sent to others;
- Quote it, and
- Summarize it.
We say teens are saving time and all with abbreviations, l33tspeak, and “chat lingo.” Why write-out a word when the abbreviation is so much quicker?
Why read a whole book when the chips and software can help you digest it more quickly?
Readibility needs work; formats need attention, but I already see huge benefits with breaking-news type content: i.e., NY Times online, Google News, Digg, blogs, RSS, etc., etc.
My 2¢ before dreaming…
April 17th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
Start short selling the book publisher stock.
May 4th, 2008 at 9:40 am
[...] research I think I may be one of the book-loving technophiles that John Hendron wrote about in this post. In fact, I spent most of yesterday morning culling and organizing my books. There are two [...]
May 6th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
[...] bouncing around my head after reading two colleagues posts on this topic. The first post is from John Hendron about his conversation with a colleague about books. The second is from Karen Richardson’s [...]
May 8th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
[...] tradeoff: electronic vs. physical, reminds me of ideas I had posted on my other blog about books versus reading online. To [...]