The Future of Books is in our Pockets


I think one of the coolest things happening in our world is the constant evolution of technology. Growing up, I remember when the laptop was first starting to be massed produced, and how everyone was excited because instead of a 50 pound desktop, you could now send emails from the comfort of your couch with a mere 35 pound laptop on your lap. As the laptop evolved, Palm Pilots were the cool new toy, and a light-weight, hand-held device was just what the general public wanted. With iPads and iPhones, the whole game was changed.

Now, we are starting to see more and more books read digitally on devices. The Kindle and Nook really helped shape the game for digital reading, and of course like all other things, Apple was right there to perfect them. Now, iPhones come standard with iBook already installed. This leads me to believe that the future of books, lies in our phones.

In the reading : The Renaissance of the Interactive Book", the author mentions the Enhanced eBook "Alice" and how it has made such an impact to our reading society. This was the first eBook I had ever encountered, and with it I understood the future of reading was going to be interactive. With books and video games meeting in the common ground of enhanced eBooks, we can reach an audience that no longer believes in reading regular books. This has lead me to believe that the future of book, and in particular textbooks, lies in our smartphones and tablets.

Image how many trees can be saved if all of our books, newspapers, and magazines were completely digital. With the whole "Green" movement, I personally feel like this is not only a possibility, but will come to fruition within the next decade. I strongly believe that in the next 10 years, all of our reading will be digital. Image instead of lugging around 5 super heavy textbooks to all your classes, your biology, history, foreign language, and math texts book all fit weightlessly in the comfort of your pocket. I personally believe that with eBooks and Apps, textbooks will soon be obsolete.