Will there be "book" stores 5 years from now?

[jerry limonta]

We've all seen the onslaught of ereading devices like the Kindle and Nook as well as the new line of recently launched tablet readers and I'm wondering if / when do you think paper will books will go the way of records, cds and other mediums replaced by new technology.

If you're not familiar with the 30 + ereading devices now available you can view them at http://www.ereaderuniverse.com

[Courtney Webb]

I could not agree more...my "romance" with the written word in a real book is exactly the same...

[Bibliotropic]

I think 5 years is a bit too short of an estimate when it comes to when hardcopies will phase out. After all, even casette tapes stuck around for a long time after CDs became easily available, and it's only really been a few years since the majority of video rental stores stopped carrying VHS copies of movies.

There are ups and downs to ebooks, whereas a lot of other technological advances had far more ups than downs. You didn't see many people saying they prefer VHS to DVD because the quality was better, or cassette tapes because they were easier to use. Most of the popularity (or initial lack thereof) with other media advances had more to do with affordability than anything else.

But there are a vast number of people who really enjoy hardcopies of books rather than e-copies, who enjoy the tactile experience of reading as well as the story they get. There's a sort of :brand loyalty" appeal to hard copies of books, and the people who feel that way are in a great enough number to make it so that ebooks don't take over the world quite as quickly as some people think.

Then you bring in issues like random deletions of ebooks that can deter potential converts. And what about libraries? When you're buying a personal license to read an ebook, how does book sharing and borrowing keep its place? I can't see libraries turning into literary museums quite so soon.

Part of the decline of bookstores I think is more related to general literacy rates than the availability of ebooks. People have more of an "instant gratification" urge than ever before, paryially spurred on by a lot of media developments. Why read a book when you can watch a movie? Why read a book when you can play video games? Why read a book when you can mess around on online forums for an entire day? I've met people in their 40s who openly brag about not having read a book since high school, but they'll be first in line to see every new movie. It can be hard for bookstores to compete against quick media fixes like movies when they know that their products can take days or weeks to unveil their entire story.

And as somebody else said, there's been a lot of tech items that just haven't made it. Mini-discs were touted as being far superior to CDs and the market was expected to be far-reaching, but they barely got any notice in between the CDs people already liked and the MP3 players that came out later, even though technically mini-discs had more to offer than standard CDs.

I know I'll be hanging onto my hard copies for a long time to come. At least if I drop them on the ground accidentally, they won't break and ruin an entire library.

[Kimmie Howard]

5 years-yes. 50 years-most likely not. Or they will be as scarce as drive in theaters. I remember seeing commecials about the information highway. I was excited about it until I found out you had to have a computer to ride this highway. I thought a computer would be beyond my wallet and intelligence. But lo and behold here I am with tech items falling out of my ears.

And we are raising a plugged in generation. Teenagers today can't live without gadgets. I can see a day where ereaders are as common as ipods.Someday a school board will realize requiring students to have ereaders will save a fortune on textbooks. And as the market gets glutted this the prices will fall. So in a couple of generations ereaders will be as wide spread as computers are now.

Kimmie

[Courtney Webb]

Absolutely...the true book will survive...there will always be individuals like myself who want the tangible feel of a book in their hands...the smell of the pages...the feeling of connection with an object of wonder. To me the book itself is so much a part of the experience. As a librarian, I hold on to books dearly and the idea that they matter in their form. I have not yet bought a reader for this reason...even though I am a prolific reader and book blogger....Long Live the BOOK!!!

[Emidy Shadmand]

I certainly hope book stores will still be around. They probably will, but with a lot less popularity.

Emidy
Une Parole

[Caroline Moore]

I hope not. I'm a great fan of my e-reader, for travelling, ease of storage etc, but there's nothing that beats opening that first page of a new book, or the feeling of closing the cover of a book that left you wanting more. I think the demand will grow, much as the mp3 download changed the music industry - we live in a very immediate society, and one of the great advantages of ebooks is their immediacy, you can read a review and download straightaway.

However, I think they'll always be millions of book lovers for whom nothing beats a rainy afternoon browsing through a bookshop to find that perfect read...

[Scott Nicholson]

I wonder about this notion of "real book" and "true book." Is the book the story or information, or the tangible object you hold in your hand? I suppose it depends on whether you separate them.

A digital book may be likened to a book you read once and discard or pass along--an experience. A "real book" may be the thing you stick on your shelf so you can look at it and be comforted by the experience of having had the experience.

I have paper books I will save and plenty more books I have no attachment to anymore. "Book" is just the name we give these things, like a CD is often still called a "record," though vinyl LPs are rare. To me, it's all words. Whatever gets people reading more, that's cool with me. If it means people buy ebooks and recycle their old paper books, that means tons of 25 cent copies in garage sales and thrift stores that the working class can buy. As a working-class writer, I love being able to directly connect with readers in a way that somehow isn't as intimate when the book is on a store shelf 3,000 miles away. I certainly believe bookstores will last through the current generation, and perhaps there will even be a return to indie stores as regional personality and non-blockbusters get a foothold again (as major publishers decentralize through lost control).

Scott Nicholson
http://hauntedcomputerbooks.blogspot.com

[Carin]

I think those who think the demise of bookstores and printed books is imminent should take a gander at this clever article from last month's Shelf Awareness:

http://news.shelf-awareness.com/msgget.jsp?mid=3730075

The author went back through a century's worth of articles about the book business and found articles lamenting the inevitable shuttering of bookstores and the blood-sucking of publishing as far back as 1890! I remember when CD-roms were going to kill printed books, and audios. Not to mention mass markets that were supposedly going to kill hardcovers... 40 years later that's not even close! There was a forum at ABA in 1985 titled "Will the Book Survive?"

Personally, I am not an early adopter. I want the format wars to be long over and done with before I'd even consider it, but I just don't seen e-books in my future. But I do see one big advantage: men. Books have long lost the male readership generally (well over 60% of book buyers and readers are women) and if technology can bring them back, that can't be a bad thing!

[Patricia Boyle]

Although the e-reading devices are convenient for some people, others prefer the paper-based book. I believe that there will always be bookstores.

[Titli]

It depends on the amount of the readers. But you will need text books!

[Shesten @ I Heart Monster]

I don't like e-readers. I like paper books. I also like to purchase CDs because then I have a hard copy in case something goes wrong with my tech. I realize that books and CDs take up a lot more room than digital files, but I can also do whatever I want with them. I think brick and mortar book stores may thin out a bit, but I don't see them disappearing in five years either. Oh, and I'm a twenty-something smartphone-toting gadget junkie, so I'm not just refusing to change. I genuinely enjoy the experience more with a paper book.

[Michael Evans]

I don't think the brick and mortar book stores will ever fade, but I do think we might once again see a rise in the independent and specialty book store. The larger chain stores are having financial problems, and both Borders and Barnes and Noble closing down their smaller stores and mall stores, I think that will open the door for the mom and pop type stores that I prefer shopping in.