Online Books

They say the future of writing lies with online books: The ubiquitous ‘they’ again, the omniscient ‘they’. I don’t know about you, but paging down on a computer screen, or PDA or whatever other device is used doesn’t seem to be catching on; at least not so you’d notice. I’ve got books online, and the only remarkable thing about them is the lack of downloads. Of course this may be my fault, but I can’t help thinking the real reason is that most people would still rather hold a book in their hands; feel the weight of it, smell the paper, turn the pages, perhaps make notes in the margin. Online books are for certain kinds of information where we swoop around like birds of prey searching for tidbits, gathering text for specific purposes.
And what happens then? If you’re like me, and you probably are, you print it out to read at leisure. It comes back to the feel of paper in your hand. I think the future of the printed book is pretty secure; at least until paper gets as expensive as gasoline.
As House of Anansi President, Sarah MacLachlan recently said, “The question you really have to ask yourself is, ‘Do people really want to read a 320-page book on a screen?’ There is not yet an interface that is pleasant enough to do that with. I might be naive, but I actually believe that once there is a device that can deal with a digital file like a book then we will come up with a solution to that problem.” She added “I don’t believe that we will be left in the dust.”