When I was still working in the tech industry after my oldest was born, I had a conversation with my boss who thought our kids would be the first generation who would break their dependence on books and would read everything on their computers. They would be the first truly digital generation. I doubted it at the time since I knew we couldn’t shake our dependence on the feel of books. We like how books feel in our hands. We like the smell, the cover art. It’s part of the whole reading experience and one we can’t shake. I also discounted it because computers weren’t as portable then (the bathroom reading experience is an important factor in all this :-).

And even though we can now take our computers (in the form of smart phones, Palms, and iPhones/iTouch) into the bathroom, we still cling to our books. My daughter has been on a computer since she was a toddler, she’s had a laptop all of her high school years and when each of use got an iTouch
I tried to interest her in the books she could read with the Kindle app but she doesn’t like to read digital novels! She likes the feel of the book in her hands. So much for the digital generation. Maybe she’s a throwback but I suspect that many of us still like to hold our books in our hands, feeling the smoothness of the paper as we turn the pages (it is a sensual experience, one that’s not easily duplicated by e-books, though I do like the feel of the screen as I flick the pages of my Kindle app — see, they had to keep the flicking aspect of books, it’s part of the reading experience, it’s much more natural than scrolling). We still like to walk the aisles of the bookstore looking for new books in our favorite categories or going to the library and pursuing the new fiction and nonfiction section. That’s why I wouldn’t be too interested in this school for my kids:

And to replace those old pulpy devices that have transmitted information since Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 1400s, they have spent $10,000 to buy 18 electronic readers made by Amazon.com and Sony. Administrators plan to distribute the readers, which they’re stocking with digital material, to students looking to spend more time with literature.
Those who don’t have access to the electronic readers will be expected to do their research and peruse many assigned texts on their computers.
“Instead of a traditional library with 20,000 books, we’re building a virtual library where students will have access to millions of books,” said Tracy, whose office shelves remain lined with books. “We see this as a model for the 21st-century school.”

Notice the implied criticism of Tracy’s lack of commitment to his own vision of the digital age, even he can’t give up his books. Trying to sweep away a tradition that we are all still clinging to,even the most forward thinking of us, strikes me as a foolish use of funds. I wouldn’t want them wasting my tuition money when they realize that they really do need those books that they discarded.
I hope this trend doesn’t go too far the way it did with newspapers and magazines. I like to be the one to determine which form my book takes. Whether I choose to read one on my iTouch using the Kindle app or whether I buy a published book. I suspect that with biblical study books, I’m going to want the books published the old fashioned way but with novels, either form works for me. Sometimes I buy a novel in paperback and sometimes I buy it on Amazon for the Kindle app on my iTouch.
I like having more choices. Buying the newest from James Rollins for $9.99 on the Kindle (his publisher did the best job of any of the books I’ve read on Kindle so far, excellent use of the various features of Kindle, they really made it easy to read on the iTouch), as opposed to waiting my turn at the library or waiting for the paperback edition. Or buying the paperback version of The Reason for God (I already have the audio, see what kind of pull the printed word still has) and The Family because there was a buy 1 get 1 for half off sale at Borders. I can buy whatever medium works for me at the time (though, I’m pretty ticked that I’m not going to be able to get the third book in John Twelve Hawks’ Fourth Realm Trilogy the third book in John Twelve Hawks’ Fourth Realm Trilogy for $9.99 on Kindle, it costs $14.27, I’m going to wait a couple weeks to see if it comes down like I did with The Doomsday Key). Especially, when I can get a brand new hardcover, The Lost Symbol, delivered to my iTouch on the day it goes on sale, for the price of a paper. How much more convenient can you get?

BTW, here’s a link to the paper, “Hamlet’s Blackberry: Why Paper Is Eternal,” mentioned in the article.