<
https://theconversation.com/should-we-get-over-print-books-in-the-digital-age-or-are-they-more-precious-than-ever-264201>
"Ebooks have been popular for decades and audiobooks are increasingly so. But
physical books are still the decided favourite: a survey of Australian
publishers after last Christmas reported print books made up a comfortable
majority of sales (ebooks were 4–18% and audiobooks 5–15%). This is despite
regular warnings about the death of the book.
Some critics of print books have even changed their tune. “We need to get over
books,” wrote journalist Jeff Jarvis in a 2009 book calling for them to be
digitised. “I recant,” he wrote in the
Atlantic nearly 15 years later, in
2023.
Some readers like a print book’s sensory qualities: its feel and smell. For
others, there is satisfaction in assembling a book collection. Like vinyl
records, sales of which are also healthy, print books can be collected as
valued objects to be cherished. Collections, and individual special books, can
be admired, shared and displayed, in homes and on social media.
Books are used to communicate taste and class, from celebrity book clubs to a
current trend for sharing lovingly annotated books on social media. Books
signify reverence for culture – and bring it into domestic, accessible spaces.
Earlier this year,
Books and Publishing reported on a rise in “luxury”
special editions of already published books. Romance author and academic Jodi
McAlister calls them “a romanticisation of the physical object of the book”.
Print books in particular are carriers of history, knowledge and shared stories
– as I’m learning through an ongoing joint research project into community
publishing in regional Australia. And widespread horror at the destruction of
books and libraries in Ukraine and Gaza reflects our collective knowledge that
they represent culture itself."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
