A Kindle is a very nice thing, but still I think (or better: hope!) that traditional books will survive. Nothing is better than to turn around pages, smell a book, look at a book. Own a good book as "real book".
A Kindle in a bookshelf is not as impressive as 100 traditional books, right?
I'm quite sure there will be both.
I use my Kindle only for fanfiction at the moment, but still want to buy a real book if it's available.

Something else just struck my mind: it's better when kids start reading on a Kindle or their smartphones than not at all....? At least they READ.

Last edited by Mattlocked (April 3, 2013 3:20 pm)

We got a tolino today and can get ebooks via our local bookseller. She will get a share from our online purchase (20% at the moment).
ebuch.de plus bookstore code. But we will buy most of our books in her store, though 

Last edited by Harriet (April 3, 2013 3:46 pm)

I live in the town where Borders was born, and I still have a lot of connections to it. Very sad to see the stores close and all those people lose their jobs besides.

I have a Kindle, which I love, but still buy paper books occasionally. I can read the Kindle while exercising, but it is not very convenient at book club meetings.

I'm a bit of a purist and refuse to get a kindle. My book collection is my pride and joy. I'm proud to say that after I've finished reading a book it still looks brand new. Cracked spines are my nightmare.
I've seen a lot of bookstores close in recent years. I will admit that I do buy my fair share of books online but I do shop at the bookstore on a fairly regular basis. My lovely husband is happy to stand outside the shop while I shop away.
I was having the e-book vs real book debate with a guy at work the other day and he thinks that they'll stop printing books in the next decade and our only option will be to get a kindle. I very much hope he is wrong.
It's sad to see stores close and the options become limited. How can people complain that not enough kids/people in general read then no one buys books.

saturnR wrote:

Michele wrote:

I was having the e-book vs real book debate with a guy at work the other day and he thinks that they'll stop printing books in the next decade and our only option will be to get a kindle. I very much hope he is wrong.

They said the same thing when music went online (itunes/limewire/etc...) but people still buy CDs. If anything the online/digitisation of culture/popular culture has opened up more doors for amateur content producers. Comedians are using Youtube, musicians are using myspace & amateur authors are turning to self-publishing. There is a lot of junk in the era of everyone do your own thing but there are also a lot of gems, a lot of truths that would not otherwise have an outlet. 

The people suffering the most from digitisation are the publishers - the very people who were gatekeepers & vanguards of "art" & "culture" as they saw it. Books/CDs/DVDs/etc... are expensive because more than 80% of the $$$ goes to the publishers/producers. It's those people who are crying foul play. The actual content writers/producers aren't that fussed. 

Re: books dying out. They will not. Textbooks will always be part of the school curriculum no matter how much the kids complain that it's breaking their back. In terms of fiction, it will survive. Already many "amatuer/self-published works on amazon are being picked up for publication by major publishers because they can see that they cannot ignore the current trends of the market.
 

I very much hope you are correct. He did say that textbooks would always be made but was referring more to general novels. I guess the best arguement for books not being made anymore is that bookstores are closing and people just don't read as much anymore. I sincerly hope that are always made. I said if that happens I'll just get a kindle then print the books from there so I still have a hard copy.

This basically sums me up.