The latest entry in the perpetual "are books dead?" discussion comes from Forbes magazine, which has a special report about books. It's available online, but I plan to buy the magazine and read it in hardcopy because I'm like that. From the introduction:
Are books in danger?
The conventional wisdom would say yes. After all, more and more media--the Internet, cable television, satellite radio, videogames--compete for our time. And the Web in particular, with its emphasis on textual snippets, skimming and collaborative creation, seems ill-suited to nurture the sustained, authoritative transmission of complex ideas that has been the historical purview of the printed page.
But surprise--the conventional wisdom is wrong. Our special report on books and the future of publishing is brim-full of reasons to be optimistic. People are reading more, not less. The Internet is fueling literacy. Giving books away online increases off-line readership. New forms of expression--wikis, networked books--are blossoming in a digital hothouse.
Link: Books - Forbes.com.
Looking at only the summaries, it seems like quite a biased, feel-good-futurist selection. No Sven Birkerts, John Updike, Nicholson Baker? And -- surprise! -- the feature is sponsored by the new Sony e-book Reader.
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