I started writing a response to Chad’s comment on my post E-books and illegal file sharing, but halfway through I realized my response was longer than some of my actual blog posts. So I’m just gonna put it out here on its own. More after the jump.
Certainly his points are valid - they are the constant refrain of the ebook advocates. Ebooks (and ebook readers) are easy, portable, and have lots of features impossible to replicate in a physical book - the instant content, the instant dictionary.
Books have different advantages. They are technologically agnostic - you can read them with sunlight, firelight, neon light, and store them on whatever kind of shelves (or floor) you have handy. You don’t need to be able to afford $130 out of the gate and an upgrade every 3-5 years, or to have internet access where you live, or even to count on reliable electricity in your home. Books production is rather less toxic than modern electronics, and, well-kept, books last generations (even badly kept, they are still recyclable). Their usage rights don’t get retroactively revised, and you can cite them reliably in academic papers.
No new technology completely replaces the past. To quote Bruce Sterling, “The future composts the past.” As you say, books “will never be completely forgotten, but will be more like a play/opera.”
Like plays, bookstores have a purely physical appeal - places organized around a common interest and even nostalgia. Unlike plays, which are discrete events, bookstores can capitalize on that physicality to make a place feel like a community. You can sit alone in your house and read a great book and discuss it in a forum post - but does that make you glad to live in your town? Does it make your town a better place to raise your children? This is where libraries and bookstores “fit in a digital world.” We are not digital.
Last but not least, twice as much of the money you spend in a local business stays in the community. When you buy an ebook, you send your money to California. Every dollar you spend is, in a very literal way, a vote for what kind of business you want around in the future. Do you like big-box stores where everything is very cheap? Wal-Mart or Target are your best bets. Do you like online stores that will deliver to your door so you never have to leave? Try eBay or amazon.com. I don’t dispute their virtues. But I like it here.
For the record, I agree with everything you say. Obviously there are two very valid sides to this discussion and both are right (I know that’s an odd premise in our society).
Some thoughts:
- What makes me glad to live in a city/neighborhood isn’t a business that sells books. It’s that there is a place where people can openly discuss anything about those books freely. They can enrich each others thought and learn from their peers and neighbors. Originally books were only owned by the extremely wealthy. Then, libraries came about to distribute knowledge to the masses (with the help of the printing press). Then bookstores came along to make profit on this proliferation of knowledge/literature. My larger point being that the widespread availability of the content within books is what is important - no matter where that exists. And I think bookstores (like yours) are more important in the encouragement of thought and challenging ideas.
- Why did you decide to make a blog post about this and not send out a newsletter with a custom typeface and logo to your patrons? I’m assuming you wanted to distribute to the maximum number of readers as possible. This is the beauty of web based deliverables. Its true that we need to rely on electricity for this but even so, books are getting into more hands then every before by this method. This is wonderful - very similar to the advent of public libraries. The more information we can get to more people the better. Perhaps your store has a Facebook account for this very reason.
- While true the manufacture of electronics is more toxic than books I am also using a lot less paper. I have hundreds of books on my kindle that required no more manufacturing then my original purchase of the kindle. And as technology moves along we’ll get better and better at making and recycling these items. Something similar of note is if you already have a computer or smartphone you can read these books without even getting an e-reader although its not very convenient.
- Books are also easily perishable. A house fire/flood/tornado can wipe out your entire collection. My collection is backed up on two computers/a phone/kindle and amazon’s servers. Easily replaceable and does not require me purchasing new physical goods to replace what I once had.
I don’t mean to seem like I want to try and refute everything you say but simply show there are two very valid views to the discussion between physical/digital books. I have both kinds in my house. I like to think about how I would read books at night before bed in the glow of the moonlight - I had to keep the lights off so my mother wouldn’t tell me to go to sleep. Can’t do that with a kindle (maybe an iPad though ; ) ). That sense of nostalgia is a great feeling but nostalgia is a dangerous thing because it means something different to everybody. Who’s nostalgia should we settle on and will this prohibit us from moving forward?
I am digressing into larger questions outside of physical books/digital books so I will stop. Great points and thank you for the discussion! This is what makes me happy to live in this area.