The of the book

Working Smart takes a look at books and their possible demise at the hand of digital media:

While most publishers will admit that reference content is better accessed on the computer, almost all believe that the traditional non-fiction book or novel will never be replaced with a digital equivalent. I say, “baloney.” It's coming. The sooner publishing executives get their collective heads out of the sand and face the future, the better prepared they will be to meet it.

I am convinced that we are only one device away from a digital publishing tsunami. Consider what happened when Apple launched the iPod in October of 2001. They provided an end-to-end solution that made downloading music easy, portable, and fun.

He goes on to make a strong case for the possible digital book. There is just one weakness to his theory. When you read a book, the experience is enhanced by the sense of progress that you make as get deeper and deeper into a book. As you read the early portions of a book, you start looking forward to making it to the half way point. Then at the half way point, the story starts to pick up and you begin to race through the remaining pages as the action gets faster. You finally reach the book's conclusion as the pages begin to run out. Finally, you are left with a hunger for your next book as you look at this exciting but puny book that you have just mastered. Until a digital media can give you a parallel experience, it won't succeed in replacing books.

I don't mean to be too critical of him. I admire the fact that he is willing to look into the future to try to predict what technology may supplant the paper book. His comparison to digital music is faulty, though, because recorded music is by its very nature hi-tech. Books are not, and the experience of reading a book is in part the journey of getting from the front cover to the back.