E-Books Will Never Catch On
Oh, really? Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, has a provocative blog post challenging something all publishers hear whenever they talk about e-books. I’ve experienced it too. Whenever I put up a post on e-books, or talk about my Kindle 2, or how Concordia Publishing House is moving into e-books, sure enough, I receive a flurry of flustered comments from book-lovers who recite all the reasons they know, they just know, e-books will never really catch on and why books are better. Are books better? It depends. Do I love books? Huh? Is the Pope Catholic? Am I enjoying e-books? Yes, very much. I own and use a Kindle 2. I have downloaded to my iTouch iPod three of the “big players” in e-book readers, including: Stanza, eReader and the Kindle app for the iPhone/iTouch. I like each of them. Read Michael’s post and then tell me what you think. He has several related links to other articles he has written about e-books as well for you to check out. My thesis is this: if you enjoy reading, you will enjoy e-books. And, with all due respect to e-book detractors, I have yet to meet a vociferous anti-e-book person who actually has spent much time at all with an e-book reader, a modern one, not some clunky thing from the late 1990s.
I don't own a kindle for the same reason that I try not to buy things on iTunes – I'll waste all of my money on the instant gratification of my purchasing. Paper books I at least have to wait for.
But I think it will be interesting development in books (I also think the newspaper industry might be able to use this to help their slump).
in Christ,
jW
I find Amazon's "one click" ordering to be just as dangerous.
I know retired executives who once said they didn't see why an exec needed a personal computer on his desk when the "girls in the steno pool" can type their correspondence for them from shorthand. Yeah, some form of e-book is going to be the way of the future. No question. Imagine being able to carry your whole library with you. I already carry more books than I could tote on my laptop and have them all at my fingertips. This will be especially true for textbooks, which can be much more graphic and interactive than anything in traditional book form. I think there always will be a place for the printed book, just as there is still a place for the handwritten "snail mail" letter.
Thanks, Pr. C. I'm going to sound like an old guy here, but….when I came to work at the International Center, as a tender youth, I was provided a secretary, and she was called "secretary." Wonderful, wonderful lady, as were the others I've been fortunate to have over the years. At any rate, I was handed one of those handheld tape recorders, with the microtapes, and used it exclusively to draft responses to the voluminous amount of mail that the President of the Missouri Synod receives. I could move through a pile of letters in an hour or so. MUCH faster than doing it myself on the computer. She in turn put the tape in her machine and then typed out the letters, for Dr. Barry's review and eventually his signature. [He read every single letter we received, and often answered himself, or edited my drafts. We did not ignore a single letter or e-mail.] I bet I responded to over 100 letters a week this way. But those days are all gone.
Just yesterday I found myself preparing a real letter, on paper, to put in an envelope in response to an actual personal letter I recevied. That is a rarity! 95%+ of all letters now come in via e-mail or Facebook and now even Twitter.
"The times they are a changing."
[For you kids, that's from a song made famous by a guy named, "Bob Dylon" -- ask your parents].
You should read John Siracusa's great article on the topic (http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2009/02/the-o… One of my favorite parts from the article is the old horse/car anaolgy.
From the article:
"Books will never go away." True! Horses have not gone away either.
"Books have advantages over e-books that will never be overcome." True! Horses can travel over rough terrain that no car can navigate. Paved roads don't go everywhere, nor should they.
"Books provide sensory/sentimental/sensual experiences that e-books can't match." True! Cars just can't match the experience of caring for and riding a horse: the smells, the textures, the sensations, the companionship with another living being.
Lather, rinse, repeat. Did you ride a horse to work today? I didn't. I'm sure plenty of people swore they would never ride in or operate a "horseless carriage"—and they never did! And then they died.
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The whole article is actually pretty balanced, but I smile when I read that part, so I thought I would share. God bless.
Links are seemingly not handled properly. Here it is without any trailing punctuation:
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2009/02/the-o…
I haven't done the research…any e-book readers out there cheaper than, say, the Kindle2? I'd be happy to try to do some e-booking, but need some cheaper alternatives. Maybe I just need to wait a few years.
Just came across a link to the a "study" about Kindle owners. The largest group by decade are those in their fifties folowed by fourties then sixties. More 60 year olds report owning the device that any other age group. Not sure what it means but it is interesting.
http://kindleculture.blogspot.com/2009/04/kindle-…