The demise of the book

[Christians A Liberty]

It seems that no one wants to read a book now days it is all about movies, TV, and Video Games. What has gone wrong?

[Inquirius]

The decline in the desire to read probably comes from general listlessness and lack of desire to start books. Having the internet at your fingertips all of the time certainly doesn't help; now we have computer-level web browsing on our mobile "phones". Go on Wikipedia and read a sloppy summary of the book on your shelf to avoid starting it altogether. Go on youtube and watch some random vlog by someone doing something more interesting than you are. Go on collegehumor.com and watch profoundly stupid people doing ridiculous things. Voila.

I remember a few years ago, the children's television series Teletubbies came under fire from parents because of its inability to focus on one topic. The characters gleefully jumped from one activity to another without any pattern or explanation for their actions. This supposedly reduced the attention spans of the poor little kids watching the shows.

This is what the internet has done to us. Are you bored of the site you are looking at? Jump to the next random site that might help you pleasurably waste your time. Reading even rudimentary books requires the ability to catalog and organize characters and events in our minds, and forces us to focus. People who cannot focus don't want to read.

I think you'll find many obsessive readers on this forum, though. You've entered a smart crowd here in the Islands ;D

[Greek People Nation (GPN)]

Movies and TV. They are making more movies based off books these days.

[LondonCity]

I think it will be Amazon kindle that kills the book myself. Which is really annoying because it's hard to have a cool looking kindle library...

It's like that bit in futurama where they show the largest library in the solar system and its two discs, fiction and non fiction.

[Omnaria]

Since when was the book in demise? I and many of the people I know are avid readers. I enjoy the Internet, video games etc. alongside books, and can't see the book dying out in anything resembling the foreseeable future.

[-Valoniah-]

I think books will always have a special charm that tv or radio will never have.

[Chronopolice]

Books will still be around for a long time. They are easier to make than a radio, TV or a computer. They also require almost zero power to operate. ;D


It will be the death of this civilization once we lose the ability to make books.

[MinnaCaroline]

I don't think the book is going away at all. If you mean tangible books, maybe because they are all being turned into something digital, but even if you get a book on a CD, it still had to be read and recorded. I think the book is evolving but its definitely not going away. I just gave away about 5 boxes of books to the salvation army to make room for all the children's books we have been acquiring for my children and granted most of the books I gave away were my trashy romance novels that I only read at the pool and on the beach, I kept all my Harry Potter books of course.

I'm always reading a book, just yesterday I took a book with me to see New Moon so I'd have something to do while I waited in line for an hour.

Nope, no demise of the book. Sorry to break it to you! ;D

[New Dracora]

Perhaps not so much the demise of all books per se - just the good ones.

[Christians A Liberty]

I had been noticing that the average person out there do not want to read books. Books will still be around and I know that. I love books and it is sad to hear peoplesay the y never read books. I also think the internet is another reason I just didn't think aboput it at the time.

[Bad Infinitum]

Twilight is the demise of the book.

[Enigmatic]

Nov 25, 2009 17:20:18 GMT -5 Bad Infinitum said:

Twilight is the demise of the book.

Cosigned

[Bad Infinitum]

Nov 25, 2009 18:15:53 GMT -5 Enigmatic said:

Nov 25, 2009 17:20:18 GMT -5 Bad Infinitum said:

Twilight is the demise of the book.

Cosigned

[Petalumadom]

lol...

I think it's really a mix of a lot of things...

part of it is how easy TV, video games etc. are to get into...

but another major factor is that in many of our schools these days... from 4th grade straight on through university we read so much garbage...

There are legitimately amazing books out there... but imagine if you had to write a 10 page paper on every book you read... it makes you not want to read very quickly.

Imagine if you had to write essays for every TV show you watched... or every movie...

wouldn't be very interesting right?

That is mostly what I think explains the lack of reading in people 12-26 or so...

and it's largely the convenience of other things that keeps adults from reading.

I personally love reading amazing books... reading the history of Byzantium by John Norwich right now...

[New Dracora]

Nov 25, 2009 19:06:46 GMT -5 Bad Infinitum said:

Nov 25, 2009 18:15:53 GMT -5 Enigmatic said:

Cosigned

This. Oh god, this.