In the future will there be books?

This post isn't really about Keegan but more about the world Keegan will live in in the future. Today I was reading about Amazon's Kindle. This links to an article on it.

Kindle is similar to Sony's Reader. It allows you to electronically download and read books. The screen is specially designed to alleviate eye strain. The books are cheaper to buy because you aren't buying any material so-to-speak; just data. To me it's a little bit scary that we are going in this direction. I guess that the ability to make books more widely available and available at lower cost is a good thing. Also having all your books as e-books would solve many home storage problems, and alleviate back-problems of students world wide. Imagine if, instead of three 10 pound text books in your bag, you could just upload the whole book to your digital book reader? No more forgetting textbooks at home.

Even for the everyday person this would be convenient. Imagine not having to pack three books to drag along on the airplane with you on a long trip. Imaging not having half of your cubical taken up by research texts. It would definitely be a time and a space saver.

Still for some reason it bothers me. I love books both for their content and there physical presence. Granted, Lyle would probably heave a sign of relief at being able to get rid of the multitudes of bookshelves that line our basement walls, but there is something to be said about the act of reading. There is something in the act of prying open the pages to a good book, nestling down in the couch, and inhaling the aroma of dust, ink, and paper that wafts from the pages. I find it hard to think that reading my e-book by candlelight would have the same ambiance.

Unfortunately, like so many things, I fear that the most convenient, space-saving, and cost-saving option will start to prevail over time. Books have existed in one form or another for nearly as long as humankind. It's weird to realize that we might see the end of the traditional book in our lifetime. I suppose we went from stone tablets to papyrus to paper - who's to say the next step isn't to LCD.