Those that are regular readers will have, by now, become
used to my seemingly ambiguous article titles. Yes, the use of such titles is a
marketing ploy to attract more page views…. sneaky sneaky). But, this article is related
to death – not to the death of any individual but to a far more serious death –
the death of books, and booksellers (businesses not people).
Ok, I admit that such a death is not imminent but
traditional booksellers (brick & mortar stores) like many of the official
Unisa booksellers are perhaps making there way towards retirement – a phase
usually followed by incontinence
and obscurity. Books too in a sense will die – they will still exist but will
no longer be tangible they will likely crossover to the spirit world for books and become e-books. To contact such
books you will need a medium ( a Kindle, Smart Phone, or PC. ). Some might
argue that such devices are beyond the financial grasp of many Unisa students –
perhaps this is true – for now.
How will Unisa Booksellers adapt?
Probably what will happen is already happening – online
sales of real books will continue to increase as the internet becomes
ubiquitous. Then as connectivity improves (speed, data capacity & cost)
e-books will become a viable option for students. If a high enough percentage
of Unisa students want e-books rather than real books Unisa Booksellers will
need to make this happen.
What do you think……..which are better for study purposes,
real books (paper) or e-books (pixels)? – please comment below.
I like your article. Yes, the demise of physical books are inevitable. This is not a bad thing at all. Think of all the resources that could be spared when there is no further need to print 900 page books.
ReplyDeleteThe only problem I see at this point in time, is not really the cost of smartphones and devises lke Kindle. Though some are expensive yes, perhaps the thing we love most about books is how we can interact with them: write notes, make bookmarks etc. But devices like SAMSUNGS GALAXY NOTE may change just that. Software developers like Adobe Reader and Acrobat are also aware of this, and are adding more and more functionality to their software so readers/students can interact with their purchases and make it more 'booklike'.
And probably by the time the last book is printed with soya ink and the printing press sold to Arcelor Mittel for scrap, people will be born with pda's. Until then, I love my books! They become part of us. For now: LONG LIVE BOOKS!
Heaven forbid all the spelling mistakes!
DeleteThere is only one mistake in the original blog post. I just checked this in Word. "there" should be, "their". Any others. Or did you mean that there are spelling mistakes in the previous comment?
DeleteThanks for comment. Apologies for the spelling mistakes. They will be corrected shortly. I will fire the person responsible for these.
ReplyDelete