Below is a bit of commentary I posted in the comments section of a frenemy’s blog, and for some strange reason I decided to post it here as well. The subject was the demise of book stores. Honestly, I didn’t even read the post that the comment addressed; the subject matter was enough. Weird, that. Anyway. . .
I person I trust quite a bit says that Apple is going to launch a product this spring that will actually make the whole electronic platform for books and magazines work, and that publishers, writers, etc. will like the model. It will essentially be an affordable device where your books, magazines, papers, etc will be sent to this device which will be easy to carry and pleasing to read, and you’ll have super easy access to all of this literature and it will aparently work much better than the the Kindles, etc. out there now. This is speculative, but I feel it’s going to happen one way or the other very soon.
As for me, I’m not happy about it. True Story: to keep up with the various fields I write about, I spend a ludicrous amount of time staring at a freaking computer screen. The act of picking up and reading a magazine about the same subject is a revelation, and not only do I appreciate the art/photography more I (and I think this is a big deal) I notice the ads more, too. I ignore online advertising, and have an application that kills Flash unless I click on it so I don’t even see have the ads out there. Online advertising in publications, in my view, is actually is a colossal failure. That said, magazines should survive for so many reasons, but I think they are about to go nearly extinct.
Then, like books, I think they will come back. It’s such a better, non-electronic alternative to the reading experience. But the carnage that will take place before this happens will be painful. There is nothing on the web that can duplicate walking around the amazing canyons of an old book store. I wish some billionaire would just start a bookstore chain and keep it alive, not matter how much money it might lose. People like us would be more mentally stable as a result.
RollingProse 