Will ebooks replace the real thing?

This was my response to a semi rhetorical question from regular reader and fellow blogger Gary on his Musings Cafe blog. I reproduce it here for my readers.

The question was, in short, will ebooks replace their paper ancestors?

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Hmm, I wasn't alive during the vinyl era, but it's a comparison I'd have used as well.

Unlike vinyl though, I would say that the survival of books in their current form is certain.

The difference is in the way you interact with them. A book is experienced through the eyes, not the ears - which makes a big difference, and as anyone who has stared at any screen for a length of time will attest, using your eyes to read text on a screen for four hours is actually quite painful.

The difference between this and digital movie formats is the requirement viewing detail - individual words read at arms length have a different effect to a movie or tv show on a screen two or three metres away, since you are not scanning line after line of text.

In addition, the move to DvDs was uncontroversially a huge improvement to the home movie experience - unlike with Vinyl you never hear people say that VHS had a "warmer picture"

The improvements in musical formats have been to its portability - enabling everyone to experience outrageous levels of variety in a single commute.

Unlike music, books are read over many hours, not three to five minute bites - and enabling someone to pack 1000 books with them in something the size of a single book does not, to my mind as someone who only reads one book at a time, make any discernible improvements to the experience.

In their current form, I can't see eBooks catching on like CDs, MP3s and DVDs. It'll be used by some folk, but universal appeal will escape them.

IMHO, of course - I have been wrong before.

A

Especially for Gary

I believe in keeping my reader happy, so especially for you Gaz, me old mucker, here are a pile of kitty pics (apologies for the eye watering cushion!) They will five weeks old on Tuesday.


Bootsy asleep - the only time he's quiet!

We have spent a lot of time worrying about The Bandit, but here he looks alert and happy. All that handfeeding is finally paying off!


Bootsy again. The throw behind him is his favourite climbing frame. Shame he hasn't quite learned landing from height...

More later.

A

Getting started...

Your faithful movie reporter, myself, Algo has separated his personal life from the movies to simplify the reading experience.

This is now the repository for all off topic nonsense as it comes up.

Expect it to become better populated soon!

A