The Economist takes a terrifically interesting look at the changes digitisation has caused in the publishing world and its fellow travellers, among the most interesting of which have taken place in the furniture giant’s manufacturing plans:
Next month IKEA will introduce a new, deeper version of its ubiquitous “BILLY” bookcase. The flat-pack furniture giant is already promoting glass doors for its bookshelves. The firm reckons customers will increasingly use them for ornaments, tchotchkes and the odd coffee-table tome-anything, that is, except books that are actually read.
As our shelves fill up with more tchotchkes than Chomsky, and we click through rather than page-turn, it’s becoming increasingly clear that we’re in the most substantial period of literary transition since Gutenberg first fired up the printing press. [Economist via Postereus]
PranoyG
Saturday, September 10, 2011 at 11:29 AMI have been having this argument with some people for some time now and I don’t think books are going to completely disappear whilst some people say that in the next decade or so they will. I read eBooks and I read print books and I still think that comics and textbooks are still way better in the printed format since they allow you to flip through their content much easier than on an eBook reader.
Sicarius123
Saturday, September 10, 2011 at 12:12 PMI find ebooks an absolutely horrible way to read a book. Screens are fine to read blogs and articles but a book? I want that on paper or I won’t read it.
Max
Saturday, September 10, 2011 at 1:14 PM… Why?
Chris
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 10:05 AM@Max: eBook readers do not yet provide a good means of flicking back and forth. Unconventional example: When reading through CVs and job applications, I print them out then lay the pages in a large table so that I can readily go from page to page, compare different responses side by side and make notes in the margins.
At a lesser level, my favourite, well thumbed books have a physical quality that their digital cousins do not. The Lonely Planets that accompanied me around the world, my maps that have frayed along the folds but which are rich with memories, my copy of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance whose spine is folded back along my most favourite passages, my signed copies of books and rare first editions.
Steve
Saturday, September 10, 2011 at 6:17 PM…An ebook screen is essentially non-backlit paper and better-quality with none of the printing imperfects of conventional paper or the varied light depending on which side happens to be closer to the spine or how far you are into a paperback.
An ebook reader is also slimmer, lighter, easier to read on your side without cramping in the hands keeping pages open, drying of the fingertips from turning pages and allows you to change fonts and text sizing to your own liking.
Chris
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 10:09 AM@steve: You cite the ability to condense your book collection into a single device as a measure of positive quality, but I find that it’s both positive and negative.
The bookshelf in my study complements the artwork and photos on the other walls and will soon be accompanied by a (replica) Eames Armchair because all these items provide an environment that I find relaxing after a day’s work. There’s plenty of instances where the ability of an eBook reader to hold multiple books is positive (when my kids start secondary school I hope they won’t have to carry 10kgs of books on their backs as I did) but this is not always the case.
JM
Saturday, September 10, 2011 at 12:34 PMI read all books and magazines on my iPad now. Only thing I buy in paper form in a hardcover of something I loved or more obscure non-fiction books not yet on ebook.
Darren
Saturday, September 10, 2011 at 1:02 PMOur Billy bookcases are the perfect design for out dvd collection, add a few extra shelves and they fit nice and snug.
We now have 4 almost completely filled and have to get more. They are cheap and perfect for it. (plus 2 more full of books, moving is a nightmare.)
SkinHead
Saturday, September 10, 2011 at 9:09 PMOhhhh. DVD’s. There is another obsolete thing
Dan Warne
Saturday, September 10, 2011 at 1:19 PMMy Ikea bookshelf makes a fantastic home theatre / network equipment / printing rack because it is deep. And from memory it was only like $100 or something — so much better than those stupid custom-designed ones sold at places like Harvey Norman for hundreds of dollars…
Tony
Saturday, September 10, 2011 at 4:08 PMDVD collection? That is so 1998. Books,movies, and music all fit on the cloud, and even that is beco ing obsolete.
Nathan
Saturday, September 10, 2011 at 10:39 PMHmmmm soon you could have your entire life on the cloud. How sad.
202halffound
Sunday, September 11, 2011 at 7:53 PMAnd you’ll need a constant connection to the internet just to access your stuff.
salmonpie
Sunday, September 11, 2011 at 11:47 AMI think reference books will continue to be produced but the text based novel no longer needs to exist.
Chris
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 10:11 AM+1
Cameron
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 8:31 AMI’ve got about 9 BENNO DVD shelves right now, and about 6 BILLY Bookshelves. All filled to the brink with DVDs and Books. I hope they don’t change the design, they can add new models, but please don’t’ change the design, I won’t be able to add new shelves as needed if they just change things around!
Ollie
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 12:16 PMI don’t think print or optical media or going to disappear too soon, yeah you can put movies on the cloud, but they’re still too big to have on-demand in HD with good audio.
And for all you clowns trashing books and praising up eReaders, there’s nothing like reading a book as a book, in paper. There’s something not quite right about eReaders yet… hell look at audio, the purists are all going back to analogue with glass tubes and shizzle, why? because it sounds better.
TSH
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 at 11:18 AMBooks can be flicked through, eBooks cannot. Yet. This is especially important for such things as reference/textbooks, instruction manuals, language books – things that are used rather than just enjoyed.
If I could use a keyboard shortcut (say, SHIFT+NextPage on my Kindle) or a gesture (say, three-finger swipe on the Kindle app) to arbitrarily and quickly skip 10/40/100 pages ahead it would simulate how I flick through a reference book for an entry that I know is “about *this far* in”.