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[sibyl]

Thomas H. Benton spends a lot of time discussing the expected demise of the book, but cites only one book in its defense.  I'd advise Benton, and other readers, to seek out So Many Books by Gabriel Zaid (2004), an optimistic assertion about how book culture has been strengthened, not weakened, by recent events.  Zaid admits that there are fewer books that can be said to have been read by "everyone," and that literacy may or may not be waning.  But the number of books -- not copies, but *books*, published works -- that has been published since 1980 (or so; I don't have it in front of me) exceeds the number published between 1980 and Gutenberg's invention of the press.  It is very easy to publish a book these days.  And isn't that the important thing -- that people get the opportunity to have their words read, and to read the words of others?  There are more books than anyone can read, and more libraries in existence today than have ever existed before.  I'm not especially worried about the death of the book, let alone the death of knowledge.

[born2late]

The Death of the Book is almost like "the sky is falling." I've been hearing it for years, usually from computer-tech types who watch too much Star-Trek. Unfortunately, some admin types in higher-ed are starting up the chant, thinking that spending on traditional libraries will go down as demand for books decreases. I see several problems with this:

1 - You can't spread out several computers at once to compare texts unless your rich or if you are willing to split the screen into different windows. The latter doesn't work very well unless your screen is the size of a bed sheet.

2 - There are already innumerable books on library shelves. While they could possibly digitized, it would takes several decades (if at all).

3 - Many of these books are fragile, and while digitizing them would make them more available, some are too fragile.

4 - A book has permanency. Any yahoo with net access and a pdf writer can make an authoritative looking document, regardless of truth.

5 - Once you digitized all the books, what would you do with them? Throw them away? Burn them? No, of course not. They'd be stored somewhere in what some people say will be a library's ultimate function, a museum of books.

6 - Good luck sitting down to read a good book if the power goes out.

Sorry for the length and if it is off-topic. It seemed like a good thing to say at the time.

[daurousseau]

There are barbarians at the gates. And they are in the control rooms of the gates. Our president has decided that we have to stop buying paper books when ebooks are available.

[renji]

"The sky is falling" sells papers.

Today's kids are more evolved than we are. They read in different ways. Ways, that most of us can not fathom and can not master. So, to prevent our egos from being bruised, we say the new ways of reading are inferior to the old ways. I don't buy it.

Today's youth are so much more literate than we were at their age.

My local Barnes and Noble and Borders are both packed with young people buying books.

And anytime a popular new young adult book is released, there are release parties at midnight and lines that go around the block.

That never happened when I was a kid.

Plus, while they are waiting in line, they are reading text messages or visiting Facebook on their phone. They read non-stop, from the first IM in the morning to the last MySpace post at night.

Reporting that the Twilight Series, a series written for young adults, sold 50 million copies worldwide isn't front page news, but the fantasy that the next generation is less literate makes us older folk feel superior and convinces us to buy newspapers/magazines.

[born2late]

I don't think the "new" ways are inferior. However, I don't think that books are going the way of the dodo either. While the technology exists to do stricly ebooks for everything that comes out, I think we're a long way from that format taking over libraries.

[goldenapple]

I'd advise Benton, and other readers, to seek out So Many Books by Gabriel Zaid (2004), an optimistic assertion about how book culture has been strengthened, not weakened, by recent events.

Hey I read that book -- it was wonderful! And published by a terrific little press:

"Sort of Books is an independent publishing venture by Mark Ellingham and Natania Jansz, founders of the Rough Guide travel series. We set the company up in 1999 mainly to help our friend Chris Stewart launch his debut book, Driving Over Lemons, a surprise UK bestseller. Fired by its success, we have hand-picked two or three titles each year since, ranging through popular science (Robert Kunzig's award-winning Mapping the Deep), graphic art (Peter Blegvad's unique Leviathan), fiction (Tom Bullough's A), children's books (Tove Jansson's illustrated Moomins), and travel (Kathleen Jamie's Among Muslims): in short, we publish the sort of books we like."
 
My question: why is it that so many people who say "I love books!" have so little interest (and often so much disdain) for book history? And don't even start with the literary theory people -- they think everything is a text and have trouble with the idea of books.

[sibyl]

I'd advise Benton, and other readers, to seek out So Many Books by Gabriel Zaid (2004)...

Hey I read that book -- it was wonderful! And published by a terrific little press:

"Sort of Books is an independent publishing venture by Mark Ellingham and Natania Jansz, founders of the Rough Guide travel series..."
 

In the US it's published by Paul Dry Books, which is also a (different) terrific little press.  The growth of little presses, springing up like mushrooms amid the giant predatory oaks of the Bertelsmanns and HarperCollinses, seems to me to bear out one of Zaid's theses: it's much easier now for an independent person to start a publishing house, especially if they care more about making a decent living publishing good books than making an exorbitant living publishing junk-food books.

[collegekidsmom]

I think books will remain extremely important in many disciplines, and ebooks will become more and more important in some of the sciences. Ebooks can unbundle content in the sciences so chapters can be included in indexes.
Textbooks will have to evolve somehow. The current system is not working for many disciplines, and many students.
Digitized books such as Google Books will make more books available to more people and that's a good thing.

Digitization of books is still dependent on copyright status, and of course huge numbers of books that readers desire are still within copyright protection, and many others are orphan works. So, people will be able to enjoy reading in many different ways. Recently, when I was sitting in an airport, the man across from me was reading something on a Kindle, the woman next to him was reading a paperback, and I was reading from an ebook on my laptop.
Book clubs are flourishing in my area, and Barnes and Noble in my area is doing well in terms of sales. So, I am not that worried about books-the only impediment many institutions will have in terms of acquiring any new books at all will be ongoing budget problems.