Why books won’t die
I’m not that kind of paper books enthusiast. I’ve always loved reading stuff both on paper and digital media, but, notwithstanding my job, I never generated that sort of feticism for collecting loads of publications
Of course I’ve got my own collection of favorite books and magazines, but when I had to move home - four times in the last five years - I’ve noticed how expensive is a collection of stuff you want to bring with you, in terms of space and time. I ended up leaving a lot of books in my parents’ house as ‘archive’ and giving away the rest to my friends.
In the meantime I’ve bought an e-reader which seemed to be a solution to the problem of reading without occupying too much space.
Now, while the e-book is pretty readable and it will be a good option in the paid contents market, I’ve come to a few considerations on why the paper book, with its physical pages, will never completely die.
I guess a lot of things have been already said about this topic, but I’ll just try to sum up mine, briefly:
1. The book is autonomous
While every existing digital device needs a proper environment to get the contents from - an online store, a database, servers to create a cloud storage, etc.- the single book, once printed, is stand-alone.
It just won’t need anything else: you can bring it to the craziest places on Earth, you can give it to a friend or sell it and ship it to a stranger. It can travel in pockets, cars, airplanes and once it will be in the hands of any human being it will be ready to use, with no need for electricity or connections to bigger networks or systems, it’s simply independent.
2. The book is cheaper
Even if the digital content could be cheap or even free to the final reader now, it’s not sure that the total cost of publishing and mantaining a system that will provide new contents will be sustainable in the long term. The exact cost is not easy to be estimated, but you can imagine that paper is cheaper than microelectronics, and also recyclable in a bigger percentage, so a potential winner in the long term.
3. The book is non-trackable
Marketers will argue that is not a point of strength, but I’m not considering that from an economic point of view.
Let’s imagine a book like an animal species: it can travel, it can hide, it can pass from one hand to another without anyone knowing, it can stay in a single place for years without being read and then can be opened again, all of this thanks to its independence. Centuries of censorships, banning lists and dictatorships trying to burn them, but the books are still here, stronger than ever.
Are we sure any other media will be better resistant to the test of time?
This may seems stupid, but considering very extreme conditions - as natural disasters, war, desert areas, etc. - the book is just a stronger medium to keep information compared to digital interdependent devices.
4. The book is simpler
From a design point of view the book is minimalist while any other system is very complex. No interface, no boring transitions or buttons, no need to learn how to bookmark a page, no need to charge any battery, just simple pages, always readable in any condition.
If you have to design a single device for handing down contents you’ll design a paper book, not a system of electronic devices who pick contents from a cloud storage located in some far away servers. The internet will always have a series of advantages like connecting people, searching, sharing, and hundreds of possibilities yet to come, but the book will always be there, as the simplest existing storage device.
5. The book will never be obsolete
Just think about VHS cassettes, CD-Rom, DVD, Floppy Disks and all the other supports that has existed till now.
Can you read them?
Probably yes, some of them will need a proper player or just an old PC, but will you be able to read all of this in the future? And at what cost?
Now think of any paper book, can you read it?
Yes, of course, as long as you have it in your hands and you know the language in which is written.
You can still read a Bible from 1500 AD, but you will be very likely to encounter difficulties in reading a DVD or an e-book in the future.
A paper book can be old, historical, but never obsolete. On the contrary a lot of more recent devices will be outdated or forgotten in time - plus they are more difficult to be disposed, while paper is fully recyclable and/or biodegradable.
Conclusion
I’m not telling that digital media is crap. They’re all great tools.
I just wanted to point out that the good old book is here to stay, we won’t see other devices overtaking it, just the way we haven’t seen bicycles extinct when cars and airplanes were born.
A book
