Is the Book Dead or Alive?
Three days at OnDemand Expo in Boston this week had me checking out the latest digital printing equipment, book binding equipment, and publishing software. Some pretty amazing machines out there! Xerox, Océ, Canon, Kodak – all offer printers/presses that make books on demand a reality.
Although it’s possible to print a book pretty much any time and anywhere, or even not print it at all – as in an e-book – perhaps we should ask ourselves, “to book or not to book? That is the question.” (Sorry, Will…) After all, Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, as quoted by John Markoff of The New York Times, was referring to the Amazon Kindle when he said:
”It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is; the fact is that people don’t read anymore,” he said. ”Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year.”
I have on my desk additional reading matter – in the form of books – titled: The Future of the Book, edited by Geoffrey Nunberg and Print is Dead: Books in Our Digital Age, written by Jeff Gomez. I haven’t cracked the covers – both are “real books” – but there are some interesting differences to note:
- The Future of the Book is an “on demand book,” printed in 2008, copyright 1996, and printed in the US
- Print is Dead is a hardbound book, probably printed in 2008, copyright 2008, and printed in China
Comparing the two will be an interesting exercise! Consider that they were written more than a decade apart; and the Internet was just in its infancy in 1996. No Kindle, no iPod, and audio books were something read onto tape. I am a book “omnivore.” I read books in any form – paper or electronic – and listen to audio books. My husband and I even read books aloud to each other…
Watch for a follow-on post once I’ve sampled both!
