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The new economy of book publishing

Paper maps too though i would love if someone could find an easier way to fold them back.I always make a mess out of it.
 
Do you remember the classroom maps? They were large and pulled down like a window shade. No folding problems whatsoever, but the wrong size and shape for use in a car.
 
I use paper maps also, but if a cheap and easy GPS were to come out I'd give it a try.

I also recently took the iPod plunge. Disbelief has followed me ever since. I love it and cannot imagine going back to CDs, records, tapes, 8-tracks, or whatever other medium the industry tries to toss our way. A tablet the size of a credit card holds my entire CD collection. Of course I've backed it all up at home on DVDs.

When an iPod e-book equivalent appears then the industry will change. Trust me, I love paper books as much as anyone else here (I even own a few 18th century books and papers). But once a viable e-reader comes to the marketplace I'll take the plunge (the Kindle doesn't quite do it for me). To have a library on a tablet with the ability to search, categorize, and link books (via footnotes, etc.) will trump my heavy dusty shelves. And of course I'll need backups. It will be an absolute boon to those who do text research.

Regardless, paper books will stick around for a while as long as people continue to buy them. But it seems inevitable that their numbers will diminish.
 
I think there is still a under-estimation of the amount of people who have iPods that still buy CDs, vinyl, etc. We're not all dead yet!
 
I like books, too. What interests me is that so many of those that have contributed to the thread seem unwilling to even give it a try. Where is the sense of adventure?
 
Robert said:
I like books, too. What interests me is that so many of those that have contributed to the thread seem unwilling to even give it a try. Where is the sense of adventure?
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My sense of adventure is a tightwad in this realm of life. The whole ebook scene would have to get as cheap as garage sale prices for me to get excited enough to get in the game. Even then believe I would prefer paper books and maps.
 
I'll take this prediction with as big a pinch of salt as Steve Jobs's claim that reading itself is dead. Or that newspapers will die with the development of the internet. Or that TV will kill cinema.

The iPod illustration is a good one. I have one – and I still buy CDs and listen to those on a CD player at home.

And I can see absolutely no instance at which I would be likely to want to read a book (note that lovely word) on some sort of a miniature computer. I've seen and handled one – and nah.
 
beer good said:
How many still eat full meals rather than concentrated freeze-dried astronaut food?
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Touche!

But to answer Robert's question: when my friends and I went to drive round Ireland back in April, we used both, maps and GPS. For the most part, the maps were more effective because we could plot our route, whereas the SatNav was telling us to turn left onto one way streets and all other sorts of mistakes.
 
It's worrisome that people will become so dependent on GPS navigation that they won't know how to read a map.
 
I know people who can't make a fire.
A guy putting a glossy magazine under a big log and trying to light it.

I use map for trecking,not for driving.There usualy is someone around to ask directions.Even in the most deserted places,there's always someone after a few minute.And i usualy don't travel at night.
 
saliotthomas said:
I know people who can't make a fire.
A guy putting a glossy magazine under a big log and trying to light it.
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Great point.

I believe that books will eventually fall by the wayside. It probably won't happen for a few generations, but eventually it will happen. Books are still a relatively new thing to the human race, people used to pass on stories by word of mouth. And even after reading and writing was developed by different civilizations, only the elite were taught.

I think it's only a matter of time before books go out of style. I know quite a few people who are proudthat they've never read a book in their life. Sad.
 
dele said:
I think it's only a matter of time before books go out of style. I know quite a few people who are proudthat they've never read a book in their life. Sad.
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Sadder, perhaps, is that some of them have probably done quite well in life.:sick:
 
sparkchaser said:
It's worrisome that people will become so dependent on GPS navigation that they won't know how to read a map.
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I know a few people that can't read a map now.

Anyway, a good GPS will help you find a restaurant when you're somewhere that you're not familiar with and if you have the service, it will warn you about traffic problems.
 
*louspeaker sqeak*

In this corner... weighing 5 pounds, three ounces... the stalwart pillar of traditional publishing, hardbound with approximately 320 pages, re-enforced with glue, taking up anywhere from 1/2 an inch to four inches of bookshelf space... the defending champion... The Paper Book!

And in this corner, the cheeky challenger... weighing nothing at all, taking up minimal space on a hard drive, able to be shipped anywhere in the world instantaneously... able to be edited, corrected and re-published in mere seconds... Ebook!
 
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