Future of Books

Will traditional print books disappear?

  • By:Sarah Glazer
  • Content Type: Report
  • Publisher: CQ Press
    • Online pub date:
    • Update date:
  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/cqresrre20090529

Introduction

The migration of books to electronic screens has been accelerating with the introduction of mobile reading on Kindles, iPhones and Sony Readers and the growing power of Google's Book Search engine. Even the book's form is mutating as innovators experiment with adding video, sound and computer graphics to text. Some fear a loss of literary writing and reading, others of the world's storehouse of knowledge if it all goes digital. A recent settlement among Google, authors and publishers would make more out-of-print books accessible online, but some worry about putting such a vast trove of literature into the hands of a private company. So far, barely 1 percent of books sold in the United States are electronic. Still, the economically strapped publishing industry is under ...

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