Carmella Borchers

Will eBooks and the Internet Spell the End of Traditional Books?

There is a lot of debate out there as to whether the internet could one day render paper books obsolete. Is there any truth in this assertion?

Books in their “regular” form have existed for centuries, but now some people are speculating as to whether the internet could bring their reign to an end. Indeed there are plenty of books in electronic format available, such as Romance Novels that you can purchase or download for free online and the sales of traditional books has dropped slightly.

However, it does not look like books are going to disappear forever and be relegated to museums anytime soon. Traditional books do have some advantages over online content. They are a low tech item that is very inexpensive to produce and do not require a computer or another electronic device to view. While this may not be much of an issue in the developed world, where the majority of people either own or have ready access to a computer, in many countries only the elite of society have enough money to buy a computer. Books on the other hand, can often be purchased for less than a dollar there.

While sites that offer books of the literary fiction type such as Erotic eBooks as well as Romance Books Online are gaining in popularity, most eBooks sold on the internet still remain those of a more practical or “how to” genre that answers real questions that people have. Common examples of these include guides on making money on the internet,  guides related to information technology like those that teach you a programming language or web design. It is quite practical for these types of books to be published in an electronic form, as the activities that they teach are all done mainly through the use of a computer and the internet.

There is also the issue of portability. A lot of people want, or have a need to, carry books outside of their home. Many would not want to carry around a laptop with them just so that they can read their favorite books while on the go. While devices like the Nook, Sony Reader and Kindle have been released to address the issue, they have yet to reach a significant level of popularity among the general population. These devices could be useful in business and academic settings, where carrying several different books is often required. However, for those that simply read books for entertainment, paper versions of books seem to do the trick just fine as few people need to bring more than one or two books with them, even when they go away from home for a few days.

Basically, while electronic books and their related technologies like eReader devices such as the Kindle are gaining some ground, traditional paper based books are still holding steady and they are not likely to disappear in the next decade, even in the most industrialized and technologically advanced societies of the world.

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