An Exciting Time for Books (of All Kinds)

Books have come a long way since the scrolls of the ancient Greeks and Romans. The coming proliferation of e-readers and devices like the iPad (and expected alternatives) promises to take content and information to a whole new level.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love a good book. In fact I’m out to set a new personal reading record this year and it will involve pretty much 100% good old fashioned paper books. In 2009 I read just shy of 50 books, and upped that to about 90 in 2010. I’m at around 18 so far in 2011. I do not expect this trend to continue.

Oh sure, I’ll keep reading, but I have a feeling that the days of paper in my hands will be coming to a close soon. This isn’t because paper books will become obsolete. They still have advantages (you can write on the pages, no electricity is required, and they are easily loaned). It’s just that the future of e-books looks so interesting!

The Kindle was good with its E Ink technology that is easy on the eyes. The cost of an ebook is less that that of a hardcover, you can carry loads of them in one device, and the ability to download and start reading any book you want (so long as it is available in electronic format) within a few minutes is great.

Then came the iPad. No Flash, no Java — so what! If the iPad was nothing more than an e-reader it would still be an amazing thing for books. Of course it is a lot more than an e-reader but let’s just consider the future of books on the iPad and the coming devices that will soon hit the market.

I don’t think that novels need to be flashy and have embedded video, animations, or supplemental material–although they most certainly could if an author thinks that will add value to their work. It seems that a novel should be able to stand on its own using words and nothing more. Perhaps “enhanced fiction” will be a new genre facilitated by the arrival of tablet devices with color screens and video. This is already happening to an extent with the dictionary look up feature built into the iBook app for the iPad. I once wrote a post about using a voice recorder to help learn new vocabulary. A dictionary built into an e-reader app makes that approach totally obsolete!

There’s more though, especially when it comes to the future of textbooks and technical books in general. We may be satisfied with words when it comes to fiction (perhaps we even prefer our fiction “un-enhanced”) but I know of few engineering students who would prefer to rely solely on their imaginations to visualize the transition to turbulence in the the flow of fluid in a pipe.

It is in the conveyance of better understanding of technical information that the upcoming generation of tablets will have the most impact. When graphic representations (video, animations, historical footage, expert commentary, etc.) with controllable parameters are available at the flick of a finger from right within their textbook, students will truly have entered a new and exciting era in education and learning. Drawings and illustrations will be available with 3-D viewing capability. Circuit simulators will be built right into electrical engineering texts.

These kinds innovations in textbooks should be here very soon on the iPad. The future of books–especially technical books–indeed looks bright. Beyond bright in fact. Books are here to stay, but they certainly don’t all need to be printed on paper.

April 9, 2011 Tags: ebooks, iPad, learning, Reading, tablets Posted in: Learning, Reading