Since you, Dear Internet, are in fact the Internet, you are probably aware of these things called e-book readers. They store lots of reading material, not to mention connect the reader to other stuff she’d like, from videos to websites to the authors themselves.
Nifty.
But in the meantime, lots of folks are wondering (and worrying):
What will happen to the books?
I have no experience in publishing, writing sales, or crystal-ball reading. Therefore I am perfectly credentialed to predict the future of books. And it will be like this:
E-readers, while able to store tons and tons and tons of books, cannot share a single one. The electronic file holding that blockbuster book can’t legally be passed along from Friend to Friend.
But physical books can.
Books will become tools of connection, ways for us to show how much we like each other. As books get passed from reader to reader to reader, each giver will imbue her own bit of self into the book. Each Recipient will gain the goodwill of his direct Giver, and every other Giver before him. The book will still be a neatly-bound sheaf of papers, but that physical object will embody the emotional connections among friends.
The price of books will rise. Partly from increase in manufacturing cost: a book will need to be sturdier, more expensively constructed to withstand passing from person to person to person. But mostly from increase in willingness to pay: gifts represent how much the Giver values the Recipient. Paying more is a signal of how much more the Giver likes the Recipient. (An MBA POV: books won’t be able to compete on price with a zero-marginal-cost ebook. So they won’t. They’ll compete on quality instead.)
The electronic chip that stores the individually-purchased and -owned ebooks will be (as it is already) unthinkably small. The bookshelf that stores physical books will be far larger, but not like the bookshelves of a decade ago. Just a couple of shelves. Only enough space for the dozen or so Gifty Books that will reside next to the reader’s bedside for a few weeks, maybe even a few months, before being given on to the next reader.
As with any type of giving, book givers will not act in uniform ways. For many, giving books will be driven by the relationship between the Giver and the Recipient. But there will be Myopic givers too: folks who give books really just to signal how generous and well-off they are. The Myopics will buy the most expensive books, the ones that are hand-bound, inlaid with platinum, meant to be received with kowtowing gratitude, and never actually read.
And there will be those who remove these Gifts from circulation, who will keep whatever comes their way without passing it on. They will not understand that one does not have a large bookcase because books are not something to be kept. They will proudly display their several full cases to Gifty Readers, who will mask their pity with polite smiles. Gifty book readers will know that by permanently keeping it on one man’s shelf, the book will be just an object.
Much like the peace pipe in the British Museum, the owned book on one person’s shelf will have lost its spirit.
But the passed books will share more and more and more, until the bindings fall apart with goodwill.
So.
Shall we give it a try?
I received an excellent book, Hamlet’s Blackberry by William Powers, from Hank Steuver. Not only is this particular copy a Gifty Book that must be passed on, the wisdom on its pages should be shared far and wide, too.
That’s right. Giveaway Gimmick!
Leave a comment, please, and I’ll randomly pick the Recipient next week. Suggestions for comments: your favorite books, and whether or not you have an ereader.
(Yes, I’m nervous no one will comment. But if I’ve tried to learn anything through writing here, it’s that I have to give, even though I’m afraid of how it might turn out.
And now I’ll take that last bit, flip it around, put it in first-person plural and say it again, because it’s a pretty good summary of this website:
Even if we’re afraid of how it might turn out, we have to give.)
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Shana Ross // Aug 5, 2010 at 2:21 pm
I dunno. I give books to people all the time…but the best ones, I keep in my overflowing bookshelves because I want to give them to my kids and their kids. They’re not just objects if they’re loved and kept in the family. I just have to find all the books a good home before I die.
Devon Smith // Aug 5, 2010 at 4:54 pm
I’m so torn. On the one hand, it seems impossible that physical copies of any kind of media will last into the next 20 years. But I have a dozen or so books on my iphone, and quite possibly a thousand on my bookshelf. I like looking at my books, I like being able to lend them out to people who should read them, I like browsing indie bookstores for staff picks. But that’s exactly what someone my age would have said about CD’s 10 years ago. That cover artwork would matter, that liner notes were important, that a physical disk was meant to last forever. As history has played out–we get used to the digital copy, and its benefits outweigh the sentimental loss. But perhaps, as you seem to suggest, the few physical books we do keep will be only the most important ones.
Ty Unglebower // Aug 5, 2010 at 6:24 pm
Yes, I too tend to think of books as precious possessions in most cases. They have character, especially if bought used. My book shelf is a reflection of me in a way, and I like that.
But to each their own.
Naomi Okuyama // Aug 6, 2010 at 2:10 pm
The Browsing Problem. I was just listening to a story about how people no longer can tell your character by your bookshelves/record collection/CD shelves, just your medicine cabinet…I find that most of the books I used to keep I only did so because I wanted to remember their titles and authors so I could refer to them in the future, or I was trying to impress with a book that I didn’t actually like. Now that I keep track of most of the books I read online, the desire to physically have them has dissipated somewhat. Or perhaps it’s the moving…moving books from place to place, ending up keeping them in their boxes, is pretty tiring. How sad though that we will end up carrying boxes around with us, as e-readers and iPods and such, that can’t carry the smell and feel of the physical object. And will libraries only hold digital copies? Will used bookshops become antiquarian-only bookshops? The serendipitous juxtapositions and deep pleasure gained from browsing is being replaced by searchwords and algorithms, and it feels like a loss.
Brigid // Aug 6, 2010 at 2:58 pm
There is definitely a romantic feeling about a physical book… which I why I think they are great gifts.
Incidentally: children’s books are the very best gifts to give to expectant parents. (Onesies, not so much)
“Hamlet’s Blackberry” is such a great book to be giving in connection to this discussion, as it’s all about the upheavals we feel with technology, and how technology then settles into its new place in our lives. Powers mentions at one point how, when television arrived, some thought radio would go away. It didn’t of course, but became used in the place where the new technology wouldn’t work: cars. Now, substitute books & ebooks: some are projecting books to go away entirely, but they’ll more likely fall into a place where ebooks can’t work. The visceral feeling we get from holding a book may be one area. The fact that they can be passed along I think will be another.
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Tan (tan/green) // Aug 7, 2010 at 9:55 pm
I LOVE books. I cannot fathom that an eReader will replace books – though I accept that not EVERY book is a treasure. Lots are…but some are cheap thrills, easy reads, mind candy. Those are perfect for eReaders. But as you tell us the gift of a book is special. Sharing – lending – is a connection. The nook from Barnes and Noble will allow you to share you ebook files – but they expire in 14 days. It is a lot of pressure to read a book in 14 days. I feel like it is a red herring…”look! we let you lend! (But your friends will be bitter that they only read half of the book you raved about for months!)” Long live the Book! (In happy news the number of books printed in the last decade is much higher than the previous…saw that tidbit in Newsweek recently and it made me happy!)
Brigid // Aug 8, 2010 at 1:18 pm
Oo, I did not know that about the nook, that it let’s you share. Wonder how 14 days is compared to the average time to complete a book?