Is the physical book dying off?

With companies like Amazon and Barnes and Noble developing e-readers and e-books right and left it can cause many people to wonder if the physical book, you know the kind made of paper and ink, is dying off. These new e-readers, like the Kindle and the Nook are designed to make reading “easier” and more “efficient” but are these kinds of electronic books really better for the readers or the book itself? Some people certainly think so and the manufactures of them should certainly be pleased with the sales records. E-reader devices are looking to hit ten million sales this year - more than double what they did in 2009 and with the prices of them dropping quickly, it’s becoming even easier for the average consumer to purchase them. These e-books are meant to be convenient because you only carry around one slim little device and you still have access to your whole library. The offer all kinds of features like wi-fi that allows you to instantly download new books and magazines, newspaper subscriptions that are with you on the go, the ability to search through books and text and so forth. With all of these great improvements it would be almost impossible to see why anyone wouldn’t abandon their old paper and ink books - wouldn’t it?

Some people may certainly think so but I would have to disagree. While it seems like there are a lot of really great advantages to sing an e-reader versus a “regular” book there may actually be some downsides that hold our old paper books up in more favorable light. Part of the problem is the backlighting that some of these e-readers use. This kind of backlighting requires a lit source in the device to be able to allow the viewer to be see the screen. Such lighting is very similar to computer lighting and in the long run can cause eye fatigue - making it difficult to read for long periods of time which, any true book lover can tell you, makes all the difference. On the other hand - the readers that do have the necessary natural lighting effects make it difficult to read any kind of book with drawings or pictures in it because they aren’t conducive to color designs. This can make quite an impact when it comes to certain genres of books that don’t lend themselves well to e-readers, like comics or children's books. Can you imagine reading your child a pop-up picture book from a six inch, colorless screen? Probably not.

The fact of the matter is that while it may be more convenient and easier to read from these kinds of e-readers, it also takes some of the fun out of it. You lose some of the fun and the escape that a book can provide when you’re using an e-reader. Plus with so many of us working on computers all day it can be annoying to find yourself spending your free time staring at a screen as well. While e-readers may be handy, they’re less than ideal when it comes to reading which has lead many people to think that while we may move towards a world that has more in the way of electronic books - the physical book will never really die off.