Sunday, April 23, 2017

Week 16 Prompt

First, how have reading and books changed since you were a child, for you specifically? Second, talk a little about what you see in the future for reading, books, or publishing - say 20 years from now. Will we read more or less, will our reading become more interactive? What will happen to traditional publishing? 

For me specifically, reading has changed pretty dramatically. I never really read growing up. Even though all of my friends were reading Harry Potter, I did not ever have a huge interest in reading. I started reading more popular books like Twilight and The Uglies when I hit high school. I fell into a friend group that enjoyed reading and talking about books that peaked my interest more. I didn't read any hard hitting literature until later when one of my friends had lent me Dave Eggers' A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. I began to read deeper novels and those are the novels I still read to this day. I also began hoarding books around that time, which I still have not been able to break.

I don't see print books going extinct in the next 20 years. Ebooks have been around for years and numbers are showing an increase in print books being purchase this year over past years. I feel there is a large number of readers who still love to sit down and read without any distractions. Interactive reading could cause distractions, so I don't think that could ever completely take off. I think reading overall could decrease with the addition of new technologies in other fields that are more interactive and new than reading. Of course, technology is ever changing and could change the reading industry dramatically.

7 comments:

  1. I agree with you that print books are probably not going to be going anywhere any time soon. I also think that eBooks are going to continue to increase in popularity. They are very convenient and easy to store on a device, so they are bound to increase sales.

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  2. I am also a book hoarder and I bet a lot of us in this class are. I only wish I had the time to read all of the books I own. It's been suggested that I just get all the books in e-form so I don't have to dedicate so much space to them, but there is something beautiful and comforting about seeing all of my books on the shelves. It just makes me feel at home.

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  3. I am always buying books from the Salvation Army because they have a really good selection and their reasonable prices. I have a growing collection that is on a bookcase that is starting to be too small for the number of books that I have. It brings me joy to see the books that I have to read, and I like being able to buy books with the spare change that I have in my wallet. I also enjoy eBooks because they are convenient, and I can download them to my iPad from the comfort of my couch too.

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  4. We have a library in the house (an extra bedroom that we converted into a library) and we do purchase books for it (us actually). The word hoarding as a negative connotation of late (have you seen those shows about hoarding-it is so sad) so I call myself a connoisseur of the written word. My younger sister didn't read serious novels until she was older also but she is now hooked as you are now. I love technology and like to be informed but I personally will be doing what I do all the time and that is read. I hope that reading as a whole will not decrease with the new unknown technology but instead increase but time will tell here.

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  5. It is fun to look back and see how my reading style and tastes have changed. I am no longer interested in many authors that held an appeal several years ago.

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  6. I love reading and I'm glad you enjoy it now. Did your parents read to you when you were young?

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  7. Wonderful final response! Full points!

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