Smelling a tablet just tells you it's electronic. There's a certain smell of paper, ink, glue in a physical book.
Smelling a tablet just tells you it's electronic. There's a certain smell of paper, ink, glue in a physical book.
I doubt that will happen soon. They'll coexist, books for reading, ebooks for reference. Ebooks still have a lot to improve to replace books.
That's how I felt about these.
I'm certain that books will survive in some fashion, just as radio and cinema are still around, but with a very different place and purpose in the overall media landscape.
Stats seem to support my opinion that eBooks were a fad. Physical books just feel better to me and many others.
It disturbs me that kids will never know the thrill of getting a scroll down and unrolling it, or of writing with a quill and ink pot. And don't get me started on buggy whips.
Physical books have been holding their own lately in sales. eBooks and eReaders sales have been going down in the past few years (at least the expensive ones from traditional publishers). https://www.geekwire.com/2018/traditional-publishers-ebook-sales-drop-indie-authors-amazon-take-off/
Audiobooks have been the big winner lately. Sales have jumped 20% each of the past few years.
Print books will continue to exist even if it is just to cater to collectors like music=vinyl. I love physical myself, but I read about 90% of my books on my Kindle because it is easier with regards to light (I can read in the dark while the wife sleeps) and most of the books I've been reading lately are classics that the copyright has expired so you can download them for free.