The iPad, the Kindle, and the Future of Books article ties in nicely with my blog about Borders closing. Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos boldly declared that, “the physical book and bookstores are dead” (Bezos ¶ 16). Yikes! I certainly hope not. But, as they say, numbers don't lie, according to the article eBooks, "account for only an estimated three to five per cent of the market, their sales increased a hundred and seventy-seven per cent in 2009, and it was projected that they would eventually account for between twenty-five and fifty per cent of all books sold" (Auletta ¶ 3). So, what makes digital books so popular? Obviously convenience comes into play; the Kindle boasts that it can download a book in 60 seconds (Auletta ¶ 16). Another positive of digital books is the relatively low price. When digital books started becoming popular, Amazon sold the books for $9.99 (Auletta ¶ 3). An actual paper, hard-cover book bought at a bookstore can cost up to $40.00; so digital books have that going for them. Convenience and price are gouging the bookstores, "Roxanne Coady, who owns R. J. Julia Booksellers, an independent bookstore in Madison, Connecticut, said, 'Bookselling is an eight-inch pie that keeps getting more forks coming into it. For us, the first fork was the chains. The second fork was people reading less. The third fork was Amazon. Now it’s digital downloads'" (Coady ¶ 22).
So what do regular bookstores have going for them? I'd say the strongest thing is the actual experience associated with buying a book at the bookstore. I got to Lewis Buzbee's book "The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop" to prove my point, "Elias Canetti has described cafes as places we go to be 'along among others,' and I've always felt this was true of the bookstores, too. It's a lovely combination, this solitude and gathering, almost as if the bookstores were an antidote for what is sold" (Buzbee 6). Anyone who loves bookstores understands this wonderful feeling of being "along among others"; of browsing for a book and feeling, smelling, and seeing the bookstore experience. “In a bookstore, there’s a serendipitous element involved in browsing,” Jonathan Burnham, the senior vice-president and publisher of HarperCollins, says. “Independent bookstores are like a community center. We walk in and know the people who work there and like to hear their reading recommendations.” (Burnham ¶ 24).
What is the future of books? From Steve Job's or Jeff Bezo's point of view technology is the only possible future. I feel that though digital books are popular and useful and to some degree really great, paper books and bookstores will never be completely destroyed. I hope the future of books is a future where digital books and regular paper books coincide and consumers will always have the opportunity to choose which they prefer. As for me, I'll stick with the paper books and my beloved book stores.
No comments:
Post a Comment