Huffington Post Article on the Death of Print

A Well-Worn SubjectImage

As I was looking through the Huffington Post Books page last week, wondering what to write about next, I came across an article by a fellow blogger there (I’m not going to link to it) that annoyed me.  The point of the article was that print will never die because the author found a classic novel in a second-hand store for $0.45.  It was the second weirdest argument in favor of print I’d ever heard.

The first, for the record, is “I just like the feel of paper.”

Sudden, unplanned rant

PLEASE STOP SAYING YOU JUST LIKE THE FEEL OF PAPER.  You sound silly, and it makes me wonder what the hell you’re doing with the books other than reading them.  It also means I assume you don’t really read, because if you did, you would know what it’s like to try and read a 500 page hardcover book while holding a coffee in one hand and a subway rail in the other on a moving train and having to turn the page with your face.

Say you don’t want to buy a Kindle because you don’t think you’ll use it, or say you don’t actually read books, but enough with the feel of paper.  Reading is not a tactile experience.

Back to the point

After reading that article I decided to write my own about print and the possible death of it.

…up until very recently a writer had little choice, because the big publishers were the only ones who could get books into bookstores. Big publishers are still the only ones to get books into bookstores, but that’s not nearly as important because there are no people in those bookstores any more.

Read: The Ten Thousandth ‘Death of Print Publishing’ Column

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