The future of reading

EXCESSIVE thoughts

WHEN our newspaper's app for the iPad first rolled out for testing among The Brunei Times' editorial staff, one of my colleagues said: ''So no need to buy newspapers anymore iflanf.'' It is certainly an interesting point, something that people wonder about whilst they are flipping through the electronic edition of the day's edition on the paper on its website.

Why would you need to buy newspapers again, especially with the convenience of having the day's edition sent straight to the mobile electronic device of your choice? Most likely, you are reading this article either on our website or on the new iPad app.
Our tech columnist Mr Refresh highlighted that this will be the future of newspapers, and I have nearly no doubt in my mind this would be the case.  After all, tablet technology is becoming the norm instead of a trendy new toy.

In 2010, Amazon declared that its e-book sales outnumbered the sales of hardcover books for the first time.
Bertelsmann, in its 2011 report, cites that e-book sales are ``rapidly growing'' at their book publishing subsidiary Random House Inc, one of the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world.

So what does that mean for book lovers like myself?

In Brunei, I am starved for titles.
Bookstores in the country tend to stock international bestsellers and some niche fiction that was popular a decade ago, a shadow of what a major bookstore in a larger city would be like, with up-to-date titles and content that cater to the wide variety of tastes that a population of millions would have.

Would picking up, say, the Kindle (Or the Kindle App for my iPad) help sate my desire for the latest fictional works from my favourite authors without having to wait a month or two before an online order comes through?

A quick foray down that road suggests that the Kindle, at the moment, is not a smart purchase, mostly because of the restricted amount of content due to ``geological restrictions''.

Unless you have a valid address in the United States or the UK, many books are in fact ''Not available in Asia-Pacific Region'' (and the choices the Kindle Store has for the Asia Pacific region are, quite frankly, pathetic).
If you plan to pick up a brand-specific e-reader, make sure you are aware of what material you can access, as whatever rules and regulations that govern them might seem completely unreasonable at this time.  

I did, however, pay a visit to ebooks.com, which did have a significant variety of titles that I could actually purchase.

I picked up The Stone Mage and The Sea  by Sean Williams. The process took less than 10 minutes and about US$8 from the comfort of my home after a rather exhausting day at work.

The next two books in the series can also be picked up without any hassle of hunting high and low for them in the bookshelves or stressing myself over a ''where is it?'' kiosk (or asking the person at the desk and wait patiently while they try to get the name of the book right. Failing that, they would ask for the ISDN. Who on earth remembers the ISDN of a book?).
 
And if I don't happen to like the book, instead of making another trip to the bookstore I could simply look up more books that I might like instead and download them onto my reader without regretting that the book takes up a slot on my already overcrowded shelves.

The convenience is undeniable, and I haven't touched on easy chapter-to-chapter navigation, e-bookmarks, resizing font or having your e-reader simply read the book to you.
So the question really is when, not if, the digital format would completely replace the traditional paper and hardback material. And when it does, will anyone miss holding a copy of the physical, immutable book in their hands?

I know I certainly will. There's a certain romanticism in holding a book, the feel of turning its pages and the weight as you hold either the thinnest paperback or the heaviest hardcover title that you can't quite mimic if you choose the convenience of holding an e-reader and browsing the digital print edition. It is hard to describe why this is so, though perhaps my friend who continues to purchase a subscription to this newspaper, despite his complaints of reading the entire edition of the day by 6am, can shed some light on the matter.

''I just love the feel of it in my hands,'' he said. Perhaps to our Internet generation (who probably prefers watching YouTube to actual reading, in any case), it might seem a bit silly but nevertheless, it's simply how he felt. (He might feel a bit differently if he also had to pay for the e-edition, however).

There is still quite a while before a complete replacement happens despite e-readers such as the Kindle and other such tablets becoming more affordable week by week. Maybe by the time I become a grandfather, a paperback novel might seem to my grandchildren what a cassette tape is now to my 16-year-old brother, an ancient artifact of the past.
The views are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of The Brunei Times.

The Brunei Times