Here is a wonderful slide I took a photo of at the Germany Library Association Conference - Bibliothekartag 2009. I like what it says and makes a lot of sense about why books are being improved upon... however, i still think we have a long way to go (because I really like to see the pictures too) :-)
Curtis,
ReplyDeleteGreat quote. I like the analogy to horses. A long time ago, I read something about their being more horses in the U.S. at that point than 100 years earlier. Don't remember where that was, so can't confirm the credibility of the statement. However, assuming it is accurate; Bezos' analogy should give us bibliophiles some comfort. In my conversation with Sarah Susanka, we talked about our belief that people may be reading more than ever, just not in the traditional sense and that books will continue for a very long time, but they may be packaged in a different manner. We were defining books as a collected group of words that convey a thought or storyline in some sort of organized manner. While I personally prefer the tactile aspects of a traditional book, I find that I read in a variety of ways and packages and they are becoming more fluid every day.