What is the Future for Books?

Do you love to read? Is an actual paperback book in your hands what you crave every night before you go to sleep? Or have you affixed yourself in the technological world, as many have, and read your books on an Amazon Kindle? How about a Nook? Or an iPad? What does the future of the book look like? What is considered a book? Is a book only an array of sheets of paper or parchment with printing on them fastened together along an edge? Or is a book now considered a text and image-based publication? Note the difference, one includes sheets of paper; the other does not.

Is it ethically subordinate of me to say that there are four different types of readers?

1.) The first type are those that have been reading paperbacks for more than 20-years and have just started to adapt to the likes and conveniences of an e-reader...

2.) Then there is the second type, or in other words categorically speaking those that only look for the added convenience and benefit from the conducive likes of technology

3.) Now onto the third type; the individual that enjoys both the e-book and the paperback, whereas there is no need to adapt from one to the other.

4.) The fourth and final type of reader includes the individual that will not abandon their moral companion, the paperback book.

Remember the four different types of readers because it will play a part throughout this article. A book passes the time, but also allows a person to delve deep into an imaginary, or not so imaginary world by virtue of the letters assembled to make words, eventually composing a sentence. Upon conclusion of the book, the person moves onto the next one, or doesn't... It depends on how interested the person is into reading, but the prominence of convenience could make quite a bit of difference for those that may not be as interested versus others that are when it pertains to just that.

So what exactly is the future for books? It is currently the year 2010, almost 2011, and technology is advancing so rapidly, I can't decide whether to purchase an iPod Touch now, or wait until the next-generation one comes out. But a book is no longer just sheets of paper with ink on them, they are actually interactively and advantageously suited to include so much more than what regular paperbacks & hard-covers do, such as nicely defined & colorful pictures, immense portability, availability, language accessibility, and for those of you that are really interested, environmental safety.

Is a bookshelf even needed anymore? Okay, let me rephrase that... If you have converted over to the e-book, is a bookshelf really needed anymore? What about all of the paperback and hard-cover books before the conversion over? Well, wouldn't you want to preserve the orderliness and security of those precious and valuable old fashioned, but "close to your heart" novels? Put them away then! Lock them up! The chances you could obtain each and every one of those paper-emanated books in e-book form are much in your favor. If you have a den with your books as the preeminent décor, well I cannot help you there.

Before continuing on, let's hastily discuss the controversy surrounding the high/higher prices of e-books and e-book readers. If a paperback book is $14.99 and the e-book version of that same book is $14.99, why should you have to pay the same exact price? Seeing that an e-book version of a novel is easier to create, shouldn't it be cheaper? Note that easier is italicized simply because this goes a lot further than whether or not they are easy or not to create. Forget about the editing process. Let's remember that portability actually means something, as well as the convenience of storing that very book, among thousands of other ones in a single device. There is also the fact that e-book readers are a one-time buy (regardless of if they are $300.00 or not), unless it is lost or destroyed, which concedes to a contrasting calculation depending on how many books a month/year you purchase I do certainly like the portability of being able to cart around thousands of books in my hand.

Surely there are going to be a plethora of people that highly disagree with what I am saying, but the truth speaks for itself; technology is sensuous and very inviting, especially devices that only focus on one thing and one thing only... Reading! I am not even talking about a computer that requires a button to be pushed, as well as multiple clicks before being able to be used (is that even quintessential anymore?), but the factors of a device so easy to use sincerely gratifies even the most unimaginable candidate; you know the one that hates change. My opinion... Try it.

It is clear, at least to me, that the future of books will focus solely on the use of technology because so many other avenues similar to books have done so, and continue to do so, however I do not necessarily want to go as far as to say paperback books are going to permanently disappear off the face of this planet. There will always be people enthralled with holding an actual copy of a book in their hands, but the majority, and I will safely state this, will take the convenience and portability of the e-book reader over paperback and hard-covered books.

Quickly, let's refer to VHS and cassette tapes. Where did they go? Are they permanently extinct? While many people may feel that they are seeing that they aren't exactly easy to find as adequately these days, they are still available. I will still say I won't go as far as to say that books will fall prey the way VHS and cassette tapes did, but this is one of the many points I am trying to induce in helping you understand the future when perceiving how technology changes the way things are/and will be in the near/and far-future.

Let's compare music to books, shall we? Where do you usually obtain your songs these days? Albums? Wait, albums? Do we purchase albums anymore? How about online? Do you still head to the music store in your town (if you still have one) and purchase cassette tap.. I mean CDs? Or do you conveniently download the songs you want from iTunes or Amazon? Would it be safe to say that the death of the CD is looming? Perhaps we can save that for another article...

Let's proceed onto books... A paperback book can be compared to a CD because I know, when I see the author of that book, or the artist of that CD, an autograph would be nice, which conveniently can be scribbled on either or, the book or the CD. Looking ahead into the future, the constructive & positive feedback from many e-book reading fanatics gives those that have yet to experience the added comfort in converting over to the next-generation in reading a revitalized impression. Look at how prevalent online colleges are these days. I am a student at the University of Phoenix and the use of e-textbooks are so much better than old-fashioned hard-cover ones. Even many traditional colleges have molded over to using them. Let's call this progession!

With the continued advancement of technology, many things that are continually used and done to this very day, whether it'd be a book, music, movies, video games, banking, shopping, exercising (yeah, ever heard of the Wii or the Kinect?), will slowly, or perhaps even more quickly transition over to new and more accommodating ways of usage. We always wonder what the future holds for us, and I use the word "us" because we include so many other aspects of life into our very own lives and statistics show declines in older fashioned methods of doing certain things, which can only mean two things, newer methods become more commonplace, or they just fade away. I'll go with method number one.