Diary of a Mad Editor

Archive for April 23rd, 2008

Do Electronic Books Dream of Android Readers?

Once upon a time, there was the book. That post-papyrus, bound technological wonder whose very existance is thanks largely to the genius of Guttenburg and made popular over the centuries by many famous and long-forgotten writers. Yes, books had their salad days. Then, thanks to the advent of the Digital Age and a widening gap between readers and non-readers, it seemed like the book was doomed. Along comes the Electronic Book or, “E-Book” which signaled both the demise of books and, potentially, their salvation. The e-book lobby shouted, “Death to the Book — long live the e-book!” The anti-e-book set cried “heresy,” and dismissed e-books as a dangerous fad.

Throughout the 1990’s and up to the present, early 2000s, it’s become clear that both factions were dead wrong. Although, with the invention of new, improved reading devices like the Amazon Kindle and more modest pricing, e-books have carved out a market — it remains a niche market, much like downloadable audio books. E-books have not replaced real hardcopy, bound books and, dare I say it without being tarred and feathered — that I don’t believe e-books ever will replace real books. At least, not anytime in the near future. On the other hand, one cannot deny that e-books and electronic media in general, have a destinct advantage over regular books for delivering certain kinds of information. It’s true e-books are probably not the best way to enjoy genres such as fiction and poetry. But what about reference books and instructional textbooks? Most reference books are expensive and already out-of-date by the time they are published and released into the market, whereas electronic media has the advantage of timeliness, and is inexpensive to produce and update. Already, we are seeing e-books being used as an option on college campuses in place of traditional textbooks. Not to mention that newspapers are turning to various forms of e-media to offset loses from their print publishing. While I don’t think e-books, will ever completely replace all traditional books, the digital genie is out of the bottle and the naysayers can no longer dismiss ebooks as a fad — dangerous or otherwise.