In Rhetoric, a straw man argument is where you create an opponent (or an idea) which is then deconstructed and denounced…This link from the Atlantic Monthly’s website is not a straw man argument, but one can see where it is very close… Since I first became aware of eReaders (about 8-10 years ago), and even since the advance of the latest eReader platforms (e.g. the Nook, Kindle, and others) I haven’t heard much (actually nothing) about the demise of books…at least this idea expressed explicitly.
Of course, I suppose you could parse this idea…is the LP record dead? I know lots of people who still listen to music with a turntable. The fact is that there are all kinds of technologies out there which are considered to be obsolete…yet still are actively used…
Taking this thought into consideration…how can you define what it is for a technology to be dead?
I imagine that this article (see link below) is merely using this term as a form of shorthand…to be used to define the sense that books may not always be the primary format for consuming long form text based information…
That doesn’t sound very interesting…especially when compared to the notion that book may indeed be dead!
Of course, there are subsidiary topics which are more interesting, such as to look past the idea of books and to examine the publishing industry (soon to be in the throes of transformation…just like most other media industries…).
Within the bounds of this premise, I would be interested in getting a sense as to whether the publishing industry is intending to adapt to the change wrought by eBooks or to take a fall back (dead ender) position akin to the recording and music industries (regarding…in turn: Cassettes, CD’s, MP3’s, online sharing, and so on…).
At least with regard to books…as used in schools (i.e. textbooks) I wrote yesterday about the growing sense that eReaders are not a perfect replacement for the traditional textbook. This is only one of the bumps in the road to some sort of eReader global dominance…and if only within this sense, I suspect that books will become more used that LP’s…
‘The Book Is Dead’? Let That Myth Rest in Peace
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/05/the-book-is-dead-let-that-myth-rest-in-peace/238241/?=
The E-Book Surge
In February, the Association of American Publishers reported that sales of e-books had risen to $90.3 million for the month, which represented 20.4 percent of total revenues for book sales. This was the highest percentage of any category of books and is especially notable because the sale of hardcover and mass market books showed a significant drop. As explained in the industry newsletter Shelf Awareness, "the AAP attributed the gain primarily to buying by consumers who had received e-readers as gifts and noted that e-sales of backlist titles has grown substantially. ‘ Many publishers report that e-book readers who enjoy a newly released book will frequently buy an author’s full backlist.’" This dramatic increase in e-book sales across a range of e-readers, tablets, and mobile devices such as the iPhone did not, however, offset an overall decline in revenue for book sales among publishers through February of about 5 percent.
The Myth that "The Book is dead"
Robert Darnton, the Harvard librarian and our preeminent writer about books from the perspective of history, has a fascinating piece in the current issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education that, among other observations, demolishes the notion that books overall are in inexorable decline. Darnton quotes 2009 numbers provided by Bowker, the data agency for publishing, which records 288,355 new and reissued titles and speculates that the numbers for 2010 and 2011 will show continuing increases; a further 764,448 titles in 2009 fell into a "nontraditional" category of self-published, micro-niche, and print-on-demand books, according to Bowker. "However it is measured," Darnton wrote, "the population of books is increasing, not decreasing and certainly not dying." Not surprisingly, Darnton’s optimistic judgment is criticized by those who contend that book reading is in decline. My view is that books are being read, but the means of delivery are changing.
The Bricks-and-Mortar Challenge
The bankruptcy of Borders is still playing out and the indicators for the chain’s recovery have not improved. More than a third of Borders 600 superstores are already closed or in the final stages of liquidation. A Bloomberg News report said that the chain is "seeking at least $50 million in additional financing as sales trail expectations and publishers demand cash in advance." Borders already has a $505 million "debtor-in-possession" loan, which apparently will not be enough to cover costs unless a credible recovery plan emerges before that money runs out.
