A book a day keeps the doctor away. Isn’t that how the saying goes? Maybe not, but everyone knows that reading’s definitely good for you. Although, finding a bookstore near you may be tougher these days, the readers experience while reading is no longer limited to paperbacks and hard covers. “A book is a literary composition that is published or intended for publication containing a set of printed, illustrated or blank sheets made of ink, paper parchment or other materials, fastened together to hinge at one side.” (Oxford English Dictionary 12th Edition). While thousands of paper books are published today, the digital world is slowly taking over these versions of reading with E-books or other digital forms. The term E-book is a reduction of ‘Electronic Book’; it refers to a book length publication in a digital form that can be available through Internet also. This innovation is causing many to debate whether E-books are a burden or a blessing on society. The movement from the oral tradition to the printed words was one of the biggest advancements of all times, the question remains if the movement from printed words to E-books is as revolutionary.
Books have been the storehouses of information and knowledge since the printing press and it’s worth our time to inform our selves what the future of our learning will be. “Today, roughly 40-50,000 books are published commercially each year in the English language. But the number is rapidly rising, as traditional barriers to entry are fading away.” ("Polemic: how readers will"). Since the development of E-Books in 2011 a massive amount of books have been published on the Internet. Forbes calls the present time evolution of books a “transition period”. Due to the high progression and qu...
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Umar, Somia, SU. "The Future of Printed Books in the Digital Age." Study Mode.
android, 6 Sept. 2013. Web. 24 Feb. 2014. essays/The-Future-Of-Printed-Books-In-39052789.html>. writer predicts
the future of printed books.
Zorba. "Ebooks Save Millions of Trees: 10 Ideas For Sustainable Publishing."
E Publishers. E publishers, 28 Sept. 2009. Web. 24 Feb. 2014.
ebooks-save-millions-of-trees-10-ideas.html>. This article, about
sustainable publishing, provides an overview of the environmental benefits
of ebooks, and offers ideas and resources for reducing print publishing's
environmental impact.
Books today are everywhere. We find them in many households, libraries and schools all around the globe. We find many different types of books; from stories to educational textbooks, we regard them today as sources of knowledge and amusement. But it wasn’t the case before 1455. That year, one of the greatest inventions in human history was revealed to the world; Gutenberg’s printing press. This press allowed printing in massive quantity, spreading books all around Europe and the rest of the world at a fast rate. The printing press had many positive consequences on society. At first, it standardized grammar and spelling, and then introduced the mass production of books. It finally inspired future printing technologies around the world.
In addition, textbooks are heavy to carry around and it takes longer to find a page. Likewise with digital textbooks they are compatible with tablets, smartphones, and laptops; it’s much easier to carry around and affordable price. However, some people may argue that digital textbooks can be a distraction for people because they would not bother read anymore. The author and poet Dana Gioia argues that electronics alternatives may be a bad influence that will lead society to not read anymore. Gioia complicates matters further when she writes, “While no single activity is responsible for the decline in reading, the cumulative presence and availability of electronic alternatives increasingly have drawn Americans away from reading” (161). I think Gioia is mistaken because she overlooks on electronics being a bad influence; but doesn’t see the benefits of electronics. To demonstrate, most of my textbooks are digital, which I can easily carry my tablet around where ever I go. Also, I save more money on digital textbooks and are simple to annotated the text. Journalist Ellen Lee interview a student from Liberty University, and he states that he prefers digital textbooks because he can tap his iPad, opens the digital copy and quickly open the page. Nevertheless, he also like digital textbooks because it has a feature that allows to highlight and mark the
Bradbury attacks loss of literature in the society of Fahrenheit 451 to warn our current society about how literature is disappearing and the effects on the people are negative. While Montag is at Faber’s house, Faber explains why books are so important by saying, “Do you know why books such as this are so important? Because they have quality. And what does the word quality mean? To me it means texture. This book has pores” (79). Faber is trying to display the importance of books and how without them people lack quality information. In Electronics and the Decline of Books by Eli Noam it is predicted that “books will become secondary tools in academia, usurped by electronic media” and the only reason books will be purchased will be for leisure, but even that will diminish due to electronic readers. Books are significant because they are able to be passed down through generation. While online things are not concrete, you can not physically hold the words. Reading boost creativity and imagination and that could be lost by shifting to qui...
If you had the choice between your phone and a book,you would probably without thinking grab your phone. But what if you knew that reading is crucial to a future. In “Reading for pleasure Is in Painful Decline” by Stephen L. Carter and “Twilight of the books” by Caleb Crain, both authors argue about the state of reading in The United States. Within both passages they give valid points as to why and how the state of reading are negatively affecting the country. Stephen L. Carter represents how the decline in reading for fun is the main concern, while on the other hand, Caleb Crain shows it’s technology and social media that actually are the main contributors.
This source considers the issue of converting to digital books, specifically as it pertains to the effect that this change would have on the global environment. Although the research does recognize that there are disadvantages to not having a physical copy of a book and to abandoning certain platforms that do not transfer well to a digital form, overall, these researchers conclude that publishers should move towards digital products not only for the sake of cheaper long-run costs, but also for the good that going paperless can do for the environment. By displaying a series of graphs, as well as including multiple data sets, the text explains how e-books compare with printed texts; then, analysis of these facts is also included to show the reader the authors’ point.
Impact of Digitizing Books? Ed. Louise I. Gerdes. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2013. At Issue. Rpt. from "In the 21st-Century University, Let's Ban (Paper) Books." Chronicle of Higher Education 13 Nov. 2011. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.
In recent years, access to the Internet has become available to Americans of all ages and cultural backgrounds. Some authority figures in academia see this as a threat to the perpetuation of printed literature. Other authorities view the Internet as an additional medium for advancing literacy. Another problem authorities face is one of definition. Some authorities want a broader definition of what constitutes literature while others insist on a standard of quality for literary works. What follows are some thoughts and opinions on these related topics and others.
First, he provides an overview of the history and development of the book as well as the development of reading. Carr analyzes and explains the effects of these developments on the individuals. Furthermore, he notes that the Internet recreates and alters a medium’s content by the use of hyperlinks, which ultimately distracts readers, and by separating the content into organized chunks. These characteristics make the content “searchable” which stimulates skimming behavior or superficial reading. As a result, readers retain less information due to the lack of deep, analytical reading. In addition, online texts often incorporate opinions, beliefs, or skewed viewpoints of certain topics, which can have negative effects on readers. Carr also addresses that some opponents believe that hardcopy reading was a result of “impoverished access” (111) and that the desire to use the fast paced web is a result of a quickening pace of life and work over the past few
There is no doubt, that literature has taken a back seat in the digital age. In a 2013 article for the Wall Street Journal, a top store executive for Barnes and Nobles revealed that the company expects to close twenty stores a year over the next decade. But Barnes and Nobles isn’t alone. Bookstore chains across the country are suffering the same losses. Consumers are choosing online book retailers like Amazon or opting out of reading altogether. These recent [trends?] are evident of a startling reality: people don’t read anymore.
"Education World: Outdated School Libraries: What Can You Do to Update Yours?"Education World: Outdated School Libraries: What Can You Do to Update Yours? N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2017.
"As Costs of Textbooks Rise, E-books Emerge as More Affordable Alternative." The Daily Illini. Brittany Gibson, n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
As the Internet continued to advance, books became available digitally. No longer were physical books needed when there were millions of books accessible on one
During the past few years, the publishing and reading world has been facing a veritable digital book onslaught. E-books have been outselling print books on Amazon since 2011 (Polanka, 7). While digital book sales skyrocketed, print book sales, especially those of mass marked paperbacks, diminished. Even the fact that e-books are not much cheaper than print books does not seem to interfere with the former’s popularity. It would seem that the age of print books is about to end, and quite soon.
Reading print books not only improves speech but also helps gets a grasp of what reading books is all about. The TopTenReviews stated,” you 're never going to get that comforting smell of paper or the weight of a good book in your hands when reading an eBook” (1). Getting a brand new book, is ecstatic as the smell of paper or the turning of pages is part of tradition. Reading with a book is convenient because it does not have any battery power to operate. According to TopTenReviews, “Most of the time you have a good battery life but, there will be times when you forget to charge it” (2). Traveling with books helps when doing reading, it will be beneficial if the tablet dies. Reading with print books helps escape from technology that will be distracting towards the
Rainie, L., Zickuhr, K., Purcell, K., Madden, M., Brenner, J. (2012). The rise of e-reading. Pew Internet & American Life Project, 3-11. Retrieved from Education Resources Information Center