I agree that “form is important” and that “Having a book in your hand is a tactile sensation that many of us crave”.

But I thought you were leading somewhere else entirely when you said that the Juniors and Seniors all assumed that the other students felt the same way. They should not assume that, right? So we should not assume that others might not, for instance, enjoy holding an Amazon Kindle as much as we enjoy the tactile sensation of a hardcover book. Have I misunderstood?

Good thoughts on books. Regarding “lean-back” vs “lean-forward”: I once asked Amazon’s Bezos about this, and he regards this as one of the break-throughs of the Kindle: It is a lean-back experience. so it’s not like reading on a computer screen.

Google is an interesting issue. I’m supporting them because, as Tim O’Reilly has said, obscurity is a greater threat to authors than piracy. Google makes contexts within books discoverable, which is what Gutenberg’s technology has always missed.

Regarding the customizable Hannibal: Er. Hmmm. let me get back to you….

It’s funny, I was watching CSI the other night and Grissom made some comment about why he ordered print versions of manuals that he could have just accessed online. His justification was a screen forces you to “lean forward”, he preferred to “lean back” as he read, something a book allowed for.

I don’t know if this will save books and their publishers, but I think what might is treating the creation of the book more like a piece of art. Get back to some of the old ways of printing, treat it as a craft.

Better yet, get people involved in the creation of your book. Through things like your doing with this blog, which will get people to shell out $30 for the hardcover because they can’t wait. Because they feel like they have been involved in the creation process and want to see what the end result is.

One other potential idea. Maybe let people create their own copy of your book. Somewhat like how you can customize your Nike sneakers. What if you could create a one of a kind “The Hannibal” book sleeve? Or some other kind of unique concept. Just a thought.

I’ve seen a few such lists. I feel a post coming on….

Since to produce a video or audio is becoming progressively easier, it may soon be that reading off the net, and from books, will take a back seat to watching and listening.

In “Fahrenheit 451″, all the book-readers, realising there will soon be no more books, start memorising the great books, so they can recite them to interested groups.

This, then, became an audio/visual culture which ours seems on the way to becoming. “Fahrenheit 451″ is indeed prescient.

To any who haven’t read “Fahrenheit 451″ because you “haven’t the time to”, you can viddie the excellent film of it, starring the wonderful Julie Christie.

I agree with you on 1), but isn’t the problem today one of scale? Taping was manual. I taped something and gave it to one person. Now the 0s and 1s of the same song can immediately be copied by millions.

Number 2) contains a fascinating scenario that I’ve heard book types contemplating. This is to go all paperback. Currently, though, authors are likely to resist: Apparently there is less kudos in being published in paperback first.

3) Yes.

4) I’ve taken a keen interest in the Kindle, and am on the (long) pre-order list. I also plan to write something about it in The E. I’ve also wondered, as you are, whether that eventually leaves only coffee-table books in paper: what Seth Godin calls the “souvenir effect”.

5) Possible, but I see the trend going in the opposite direction right now: On the Kindle, eg, you can read the NYT without ads, but you pay for it. So we may see all sorts of “free” reading become paid-for. (esp. if advertising disappears in the coming depression)

6) I confess that I have not read Fahrenheit 451 and increasingly feel guilty about it….

1. There have always been second-hand bookshops. So the selling and buying of books, the revenues for which don’t accrue to the writer or publisher, is nothing new. The same goes for the music industry, since, before the burning of CDs, there was taping. Authors and musicians should embrace this, since it publicises their names and works.

2. The price of a newly published hardback book – $40 and up – seems excessive, particularly since new paperbacks are around $10 (I exclude trade paperbacks, here). Perhaps, then, the way to go for publishers is to publish only non-trade paperbacks.

3. It is inevitable that many booksellers will go out of business because, despite that for many readers the amount of reading they do is nowadays is more than ever (as I think you pointed out in one of your postings), more and more is off the internet, and less and less off the printed page.

4. Book-readers of the next generation may read all their books off electronic readers (like Amazon’s Kindle). Because there will always be a demand for coffee-table books (the ones with big glossy photos, and bought as Christmas and birthday gifts), these may form the majority of printed books.

5. Novels and non-fiction books (whether or not in printed form) may contain advertising as a matter of course, in the manner of magazines.

6. Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451″ has never, today, been more relevant, and, mutatis mutandis, more prescient.