Mass Communication: Books

     In class we learned that books are the last stronghold of the analog age. Although the digital age has transformed newspapers and magazines, it has yet to significantly change books. However,the way books are produced has changed significantly. Authors submit text in digital form, editors prepare digital text for publication, and publishers set type from digital text. Most people still buy the traditional books...you know the ones with covers and pages...but there is evidence that books are about to enter into a transitional period. Digital books, or e-books have been around for almost a decade. The Amazon e-book Kindle was introduced in 2007. It can hold about 200 books and Amazon boasts that it can download a book in less than a minute. The books claims that e-books make possible things that print books can't match. One example is an e-book can be continually updated. The disadvantages of the e-book is the price and there is always something that could be improved whether it be color or battery life. Also, if you happen to drop your e-book you're screwed and out a few hundred dollars. So far, they only account for not even one percent of all book industry revenue, but this is estimated to increase in the next few years.

     Here are my thoughts about e-books. Of course all I know is the traditional book...and call me stubborn or stuck in my ways...but an e-book really does not appeal to me. I like the feeling of holding a book, the pages slipping through your fingers, and the swoosh sound when you turn the page. This is a personal experience that and e-book cannot give you. Sure it saves you a trip to the book store, but there is just something relaxing about browsing through Barnes and Noble until you find the perfect book.
     I am currently reading the book A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. Let me just say that there is absolutely no way I could read this using an e-book. Alex, the main character of the book/narrator, talks in a futuristic British slang called Nadsat. This requires me to look up the meaning of the words in a Nadsat dictionary I found by going to google. While reading the book, I write the meaning above the slang word. I would have a very difficult time doing this if I was using an e-book. Kindles do allow you to make marginal notes, but I would prefer the meaning to be right above the word.
I guess I'm just too old fashion for this day and age.