Will Printed Books Go the Way of the Dodo?

Jason Epstein has written a thought-provoking piece in the New York Review of books in which he contends that the digitization of the printed word is a revolution fraught with both opportunity and divers woes, and that ultimately it will NOT render physical books obsolete.

I agree.

One of Epstein's points is really fascinating. He argues that digital media is inherently fragile and can be deleted and lost accidentally or through more nefarious means:

Digital content is fragile. The secure retention, therefore, of physical books safe from electronic meddlers, predators, and the hazards of electronic storage is essential. Amazon's recent arbitrary deletion of Orwell's 1984 at its publisher's request from Kindle users who had downloaded it suggests the ease with which files can be deleted without warning or permission, an inescapable hazard of electronic distribution.

It's hard to see how hackers or cyber-terrorists could wipe-out the electronic stores of man's creative and collective knowledge, but it's a point definitely worth considering, especially given our over-reliance and fetish-like dependence on all things techno-logic. And it's worth noting that we all know the consequences of such wholesale destruction of knowledge as occurred after the burning of the ancient library of Alexandria.

But personally, I can't picture a world in which physical books are gone.

I think e-books are GREAT -- the ability to carry a library's worth of content in your pocket is too sexy to ignore.

But there's nothing like holding a treasured book in your hands; to touch it and feel the texture of  the pages as you flip them; to carry it with you; to see it adorn your bookcase along with all the other tomes you've explored.

There's a stimulating tactile sensation in physical books that's completely missing in their digital counterparts. You can't really highlight an e-book, you can't underline passages or write your thoughts in the margins. And you most certainly can't take your e-book to the beach or fall asleep with it as you clutch it close to your breast. There's an intimate connection there that digital books cannot replicate.

That's why I think the printed page is here to stay. It's role in our lives, its means of production and distribution may change but physical books will endure. They will not go the way of the dodo.