I don’t see the business model for printing books stopping anytime soon.
Reason? Well, at least two: reading on paper is better for your eyes and a lot of the country can’t afford digital readers.

I hope you’re right, Rebecca J, because both of those apply to me. Well, I suppose if a digital reader were the only way I could get at the words, I would find a way to buy it, but that’s not going to solve the problem of eyestrain.

However, I can see the ebook format being an enormous boon to readers IF the price of ebooks drops way down to reflect the lower production costs. It would benefit not just individual readers but libraries, which could buy three or four times as many books and thereby make new authors available to readers like me who borrow and read first and only buy keepers.

Cohen IS very resistant to change, folks, so this column doesn’t surprise me. I, too, read the “tattoo” column and my reaction to that was the same as my reaction to this: It’s the 21st century, Mr. Cohen. Move with the times.

I think Cohen is thinking like a Luddite. He sounds rather reactionary and nostalgic…and not as though he really looked at his own habits.

I don’t see the business model for printing books stopping anytime soon.
Reason? Well, at least two: reading on paper is better for your eyes and a lot of the country can’t afford digital readers. Also, most new technologies seem to augment user needs, not supplant a form.

Re the finite resource of trees: there are new paper-like substances being produced to slowly take the place of traditional tree-based paper. See Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough and Michael Braugart for more information on the non-paper used to print their book (the information is in the last paragraph).

Instead, I see the two forms (tactile and digital) as complementary. We buy things based on the way we live our lives. I see no reason to purchase an electronic reader as I don’t travel a lot, I don’t review books, and I’m not an agent. However, as I plan to travel early next year, I can foresee purchasing a digital reader for the trip. But that will never replace my books…

I purchase content and experience it via digital delivery systems (mp3s, mp4s, etc.) to try it out. I download an eBook from eHarlequin, Avon, etc; a movie off of iTunes; and an album from iTunes, eMusic; or an audiobook from Audible/Amazon to test-drive the product.

If I like the electronic version, and I think of reading it again, I will purchase it in hard copy or in traditional media storage: CD/DVD. I also do this to preserve really good copies of very good work - I don’t like to be at the mercy of electricity…those bits and bytes are so ephemeral…

Also, I am a bibiofile and love the feel of the cover, the page, and on beautiful letterpress editions, feeling the text on the page.

I prefer the delivery system, or storage device (as SandyW refers to them), of the book as it’s easier on my eyes. I spend a lot of time in front of a computer and it is a sheer relief to spend some time reading from a page.

Last month he blamed the rise of tattoos and the young people who like ink and needles for the US’s current economic woes. Because tattooing and piercing are self-indulgent and *different* and thus to be viewed suspiciously.

And none of those people (note: I’m one of them) contribute to society, hold steady jobs, pay taxes, raise families, or do any of the other stuff that their squeaky clean peers do. *rolls eyes* I have seen the end of civilization, and it is colourful . . .

I love books in any form. Will print books die out? Probably not. Too many people love to line their bookshelves with the printed word. Unfortunately, I’m one of them, although I’ve gotten better at weeding them out!

Because when scholars made the change from scrolls to books with pages? No more books. And that Gutenberg guy, with his newfangled moveable type? He was the end of books. Again.

I can’t help thinking that if Cohen is truly a reader, he would know that he is not buying paper. He’s buying words. Regardless of how they’re stored, it’s about the words.

I will say that an eReader would make moving so much easier . . . *grin*

“Sweeping generalisations are always right.”

I appreciate the ebook for the portability of large amounts of books, I would only probably invest in a reader if I were to travel again if it meant I could take 100’s of books with me instead of two. (although as I said recently, here or otherwhere, it wouldn’t last as far as Calais as I am the Death of electronics). But I’ll never be cured of paper.

I’m a little confused with Bezoz’s statement about the medium that’s lasted for 100 years, though - what medium is he referring to? I’m confused.