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With the rampant growth of e-readers and all other forms of digital technology, I keep telling my family members that books will soon become obsolete. Even Barnes and Noble is on the verge of bankruptcy and will soon have to close. However, my siblings insist that books will never become obsolete since some people just prefer reading from an actual book. In response,I believe that once people start reading with e-readers they will gradually adjust and realize its more convenient and less expensive.
What do you think?
Its a generation thing
The older generation will not give up books, but younger people are more apt to use ebooks
In one (big-ideas) speech Gingrich suggested that in the future students would use kindle-like devices instead of textbooks, and that this would save schools money.
I think that people are making too much of a to-do about this. Papyrus and stone tablets also went out. Printing itself rendered the bard obsolete. Printed books are very significant, but it’s just trifling to think of them as the be-all and end-all of reading and language as we know it
How many newspapers have closed since internet news has become popular? Not too many.
Um….what’s a book?
Shticky: A LOT of newspapers across the US have gone bankrupt in the last 10 years. Readership has plummeted across the nation.
On the cd Journeys 3, abie rotenberg sings that “music will always be remembered on audio cassette and compact disc.” Now it’s 20 years later, tapes are obsolete and cds might go that way too if everyone buys downloads. It’s possible that books will go obsolete and bookstores can go bankrupt, but it would take some time. It’s definitely possible but hopefully it won’t happen for a long time.
I read books. Specifically books. Obvious advantage is for shabbos / yom tov, second advantage is they’re much easier on the eye. I just cannot get used to reading books on a screen. Even a Kindle screen.
IMO the more common Seferim will remain in book form due to Shabbos/Yom Tov issues. (Like Shas, S”A, Chumash etc)..And Even Shas, the more Common Meschtas will be in Book (Like Gitten, Baba Metzia), but some of the Zeraim or Taharot which are rarely learned would benefit from ebooks
however the secondary Seforim will be more on eBook formats especially with higher printing costs and frankly space issues.
Probably 90% of Learning is done from 10% of Seforim.
Also, I think the technology needs to improve before it will have even a chance of supplanting print. I have a Kindle, and sometimes the issues with tzuras hadaf (so to speak) and other essentials are too much to look past. I generally only use it while traveling/commuting – otherwise, I prefer print books when I can get them.
About textbooks – everyone thinks that I buy all my textbooks on Kindle. I bought one, once (under duress, I might add), and it’s HORRIBLE. It was about half the retail price, but exponentially more than the used textbook price – and I can’t even resell it. And that’s the least of it. The pagination and graphics were a MAJOR issue – that it and of itself was a dealbreaker. I suspect it’s better on the iPad/Kindle Fire/Nook/whatever, but then you have all the drawbacks of the LCD…you get the picture.
So no, I don’t think that ebook technology really is in danger of supplanting print. At least not yet. But it really isn’t something to worry about, anyway. 😛
Can’t read my Kindle on Shabbos. So at least 1/7th of the time, I’m reading actual books with paper.
One thing is forsure. Sefarim will never be obsolete. There would be a problem of shabbos and yom tov. However there are sefarim that are hard to get and are available on databases. There was a sefer I was once looking for that I went to a several bookstores to look for that wasn’t well known and none of them had it, but I found out that Otzar Hachochma had it.
ZosHaTorah- don’t forget Yom Tov too.
Are the makers of the Shabbos Lamp and Shabbos Alarm Clock working on a Shabbos e-reader yet?
I just saw a bus driver in the bus stop (out of service) she was reading a book – not on a kindle – a real book! the kind you turn pages in! so no, i don’t think they will become obsolete.
I get headaches if I read too long from a screen. Nothing replaces the feel of a book, I love the smell, turning the pages,….
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