'Is this the end for books?'

Wibble said:
I would like it to be known that under no circumstances whatsoever do I share eBooks or any other digital media with anyone else. Not even my wife. Or my son. Or his friends. Or my friends. Ever.
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:lol: I'm not exactly clued up on how the Kindle works, I assumed it was a file straight onto the Kindle itself, not a file on the computer that transfers ipod style to the device. Do you have a hard drive copy and device copy?
 
I don't have a kindle and at the moment I only read novels on my iPhone with a reader app which is of course a bit of a pain in the arse. My wife has begun to read stuff on her iPad whereas a year ago she hated the idea. Kindle doesn't support ePub format but you can convert them easily to a format a kindle reads. If you download from Amazon to you Kindle there are some proprietary formats that are restricted but if you sue the correct formats and upload them from your hard-drive to the kindle I think all is (or can be) good for sharing.
 
Don't believe I can go back to books after owning a Kindle. It has no disadvantage asides from the start up cost and a possibility that it's power will be drained.
The future of books will be the same as owning a painting. Something you put on a shelf that looks nice and is retro.

I do most of my reading in bed. The kindle is lighter, nicer to hold with one hand. Easier to turn the page. Easier to read off of. It automatically stores where you left off. You keep all your books in one place. The books are cheaper. If you're a student it's definitely worth it if you've got access to the books on an e-reader.
 
Will books, as we know them, come to an end?

Yes, absolutely, within 25 years the digital revolution will bring about the end of paper books. But more importantly, ebooks and e-publishing will mean the end of "the writer" as a profession. Ebooks, in the future, will be written by first-timers, by teams, by speciality subject enthusiasts and by those who were already established in the era of the paper book. The digital revolution will not emancipate writers or open up a new era of creativity, it will mean that writers offer up their work for next to nothing or for free. Writing, as a profession, will cease to exist.
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Are books dead, and can authors survive? | guardian.co.uk
 
Writing, as a profession, will cease to exist.
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This gets my "Pffffffffffffffffffffffffffttttttttttttttt of the Week."

Pffffffffffffffffffffffffffttttttttttttttt.
 
Obviously, this is an industry plot to stop me from producing tragically crap novels.
 
Lance Uppercut said:
Any on the horizon, Steve?
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I'm bloody useless, mate - it takes me an age to write anything novel-length. So, by the time I finish my next one, printed books will be a thing of the past; like Arsenal's title hopes.
 
I like having the computer books on my shelf looking good but with a HTC Flyer tablet + a reader on it you can easily read any book you want and store them all on the device and many many more. Same with DVD's and BLu ray film disks, how many of us actually watch the ones we have bought, on a regular basis compared to downloading or streaming etc?

Convenience is king, especially in technology!

Is this the end of books? No, but its coming.
 
TheHorse'sMouth said:
Never. A book will always be unrivalled compared to lifeless objects like e-books. I've never bought into the e-books concept anyway, a book has a life and path of it's own.
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That romantic notion of books is why I hope they are never replaced by technology but realistically these e-books look so handy and convenient it's probably inevitable
 
The thought of not being able to walk into a bookshop - old or new - 25 years from now depresses me greatly. Don't think its true, but its still a very distrurbing thought.
 
my missus' e-reader just broke the other day.

she panicked and took a number of books out of the library.
 
Wibble said:
My wife has begun to read stuff on her iPad whereas a year ago she hated the idea.
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The nice thing about the Kindle is that it uses that e-ink/e-paper technology, it almost does read like a book, far better on your eyes than any of the backlit or light emitting screens. Shit for web browsing and things like that as it can take about a second to go from one page to the next, but for traditional text books it's perfect, and the battery lasts forever because it doesn't need to feed the screen, only changes to it.
 
SteveJ said:
I'm bloody useless, mate - it takes me an age to write anything novel-length. So, by the time I finish my next one, printed books will be a thing of the past; like Arsenal's title hopes.
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You need a 10-year plan mate (and balls of steel like Wenger).
 
'Radical change is certainly producing some alarming symptoms – but much of the doomsayers' evidence is anecdotal, and it's possible to read a much happier story':

This time last year, I was metaphorically invited to the only party I've ever wanted to be seen at. My first novel was picked up by an agent, and then by a publisher. I've made it, I thought to myself as I clutched my invite to the most exclusive set of all. I'm going to be a published author.

So imagine my surprise - nay, dismay - to discover that publishing's streets were not paved with gold, but stalked by the anxious, the gloomy, the suicidal. "Publishing's dead!" shouted men in sackcloth on Bloomsbury street corners. I had arrived at the party, but the coats were being handed out, the drink had dried up and the hostess had collapsed...
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The death of books has been greatly exaggerated | guardian.co.uk
 
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