Bob W wrote:
Everything Bob Walkden said about the pleasures of books is and will
continue to be true. It's also beside the point: It won't stop the
advancement of electronic books any more than the pleasures of film
stopped digital cameras.
It's a false analogy.
It's not a false analogy, because the forces that *really* killed film
were economic.
In a couple of decades the average person will no more be able to afford
a printed book than they'll be able afford to stable a horse. It'll be a
nice hobby for the affluent few.
Try to buy a real letterpress printed book (as opposed to one made by
offset printing) now. I bought one last year. Fabulous. Real metal type
not only makes a finer *looking* printed word, you can actually run your
fingers over the words and feel the impressions. It's especially
satisfying when the book is printed on fine quality paper (which is now
always the case when anyone goes to the trouble and expense of printing
from metal type). There are some books still made this way, but they're
very expensive. A niche, like the "Ansel Adams, Sierra Nevada: The John
Muir Trail" book I bought.
The transition from printed books to electronic books will be exactly
like the transition from traditional printing to offset. One will start
to become more expensive as the other gets less expensive. When the
lines on the graph cross the game's over. And *everyone* agrees that the
old way was in many ways superior to the new. It just can't compete with
tidal economic forces.
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