Tuesday 7 September 2010

Elegy for the Paperback?

An article I wrote for Running In Heels appears here - please give it a read! 
A short section of the article is below:


Not since the advent of the Gutenberg press has there been an event such as this: one which has made typesetters, editors and copywriters across the land gnash through their red pens and has forced booksellers to torch their stock simply to keep warm. Shelving systems can be heard splintering up and down the country, and each bin is overflowing with library cards and bookmarks. The eBook is here to stay, and the humble, dog-eared paperback is no more.
You only have to open a paper – sorry, flip your laptop open – to see it. In the past month alone, HMV has announced Waterstones may be sold after staggeringly low profits, Amazon has reported that its new Kindles are their “fastest selling ever” and the Oxford English Dictionary, that venerable, traditional old Grandfather of the book world, has virtually ruled out the possibility of publishing the next edition in print form. US Borders, whose sales are down 11.5% on last year, is in such turmoil that it has had a hissy fit and is refusing to talk to the press. 75 years on from the first Penguins going on sale, the once indispensable travel companion, bedtime ritual and posing tool for intellectuals everywhere – the paperback – is in dire straits.....
Click here to read more..
 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I found you over at the classic reviewers forum at the book blog ning, and I really liked your article (wasn't sure if I should post the comment over on Running in Heels or not). It provided some compelling thoughts, more so than the e-readers are the future/e-readers murder books posts I've been reading in the blogosphere. Well done!

WIll be subscribing to your blog.

Lii said...

wow, I read your article on Running in Heels..
I was always against reading my books on e-readers, it's like you say, it loses so much, there are no that special feeling what you have holding a book in your hands, no intimacy. I think most of book lovers anyway prefer real books vs e-readers.
great article!

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