HDC Debates #3 : Will reading a book soon become a thing of the past?

[_____V_____]

With the advent of the Internet, people becoming busier and busier with their daily lives with every passing day, social platforms to interact in cellphones such as Facebook, WhatsApp, etc., one wonderful pastime hobby has slowly but surely taken a backseat - grabbing a book, sitting back to read through it's pages and let your imagination take over your senses.

People who grew up 10, even 15 years ago would remember fondly about the days (and nights) when they pored through their favorite stories/novels and marvelled at the situations and the characters in them. Be it Poe, King, Lovecraft or the rest, every one of us has a favorite book which we hold close to heart.

But the present generation, who is too busy making a career for themselves and going through the daily grind, and the future generation, which is hooked to the Net, finds this a cumbersome job.

Computers have grown smaller and smaller, cellphones have grown wider in their usage, and lives have become busier.

Will there still be someone out there, 20-25 years down the line, who would be holding a book and letting his/her imagination play out the storyline in it?

Or will books become a thing of the past?

Have your say.

[Despare]

With the rise in popularity of devices like the Nook or the Kindle I've actually noticed an increase in reading among my friends. I prefer actual books but it seems to help them catch up on their favorite books and authors. So I guess it really boils down to what your definition of a book is, the physical book may fade away for many but the great novels and stories will be around and well read forever.

[totem]

Will there still be someone out there, 20-25 years down the line, who would be holding a book and letting his/her imagination play out the storyline in it?

As long as power outages & signal loss are around there will be. ::wink::

[neverending]

I agree with Sean. It really depends on how you define "book." Ereaders are really marvelous things. In one little device you can carry hundreds of books and you didn't have to sacrifice any trees to do so. They are convenience personified.

On the other hand, there will always be people who want the unique pleasure of holding a thing printed on paper, and also collectors. It's the same impulse as people who buy hundreds of blu-rays- many that they don't even watch. They want the THING.

There will always be books- whether in digital or physical form. The bookstore, however, may be doomed. Pundits are predicting the collapse of Barnes and Noble as early as next year.

[Straker]

I don't read as much as I would like these days and pretty much only read short stories or factual books. That said, I don't think the love of literature in some form or another is ever going to die. Like people have said, people might use different media, but I think that love affair with literature is here to stay.

I grew up in the birth or consoles, NES, Megadrive/ Genesis and all of that was all any kid, including myself, wanted for Christmas, but I still remember the first time I read Dracula, or The Hunchback of Notre Dame or any number of amazing books that all became a big part of my life growing up.

[The Villain]

I think these days some younger people (Teenagers, I'm in my late twenties) have less patience to read but that seems to be a minority. I know plenty of younger people reading books and real old fashioned books at that.

As stated before the invention and popularity of Ereaders has actually increased reading and although one day i fear that there will no longer be any real paper books there will always be reading and there will always be books.

[hammerfan]

I hope not. I love reading and I love books. Yes, I have an e-reader. I bought it when I was at the jobsite in Connecticut a couple years back, only because it was easier than carrying a stack of books back and forth. Since I've been home, I've only read real books.

[cheebacheeba]

I think physical books will become something for collectors.
Like those that have a laserdisk collection - They may have it on a superior format but there's something about the look, the smell, the overall aesthetic.
More and moreso this is happening in terms of books of late, I think.
I do get behind portable readers, I like them.
I myself will never ditch books.
There's just something about a stained cookbook I can't get from a screen, every sauced up fingerprint is love.
Though, if I have the portable option for entertainment based reading? I'll take it and leave the book at home - to keep the book in better condition and for space consumption/ease of use.

Short answer yes.
Longer, Yes, but not completely.

[The Bloofer Lady]

I think a lot of it depends on your life circumstances. I never read actual books anymore except constantly re-reading "Dracula". But besides having grandchildren, I also run a home daycare and love reading books to the kids. I will always want to read books to kids at bedtime, story time, forever. Real books.

[The Bloofer Lady]

I think a lot of it depends on your life circumstances. I never read actual books anymore except constantly re-reading "Dracula". But besides having grandchildren, I also run a home daycare and love reading books to the kids. I will always want to read books to kids at bedtime, story time, forever. Real books.

To make my position clear, I think there will be books in the future because there SHOULD be books in the future.

[ferretchucker]

Agree with NE and Desp, books might be gone but novels are still very much a part of modern life. If nothing else, some of the most successful films and tv series are adaptations of novels, so this ever impatient and fast paced world still relies on them as source material. It's in the best interests of these industries to not let books die. And looking to the future - my generation and those younger - teen fiction is still doing extraordinarily well, keeping young people reading through their teens and young adulthood.

For many, I believe that so long as they don't break the habit in these period, they will never break it. If you're still reading by the time you've started adulthood, you KNOW it serves an important and different purpose to visual media - a slower paced, calmer, more zen stimulus of the imagination.