The Boom Of eBooks And The Death Of Bookstores
The 21st century has brought with it many boons, but a few curses as well. One of them is the curse of eBooks. While eBooks are truly a handy way to read any material including novels, especially when you are on the road; but they can never compare to the feeling that turning the pages of an actual book provides. But even so, the access to these books is really easy and thus the populous have taken to them as the new favourite method of reading.
While this would have normally been a harmless trend, but with the coming of something new something old must usually go. And in this case, it is one of the most basic sources of all knowledge that is being lost and replaced. The preference of the population towards eBooks is increasing everyday and even popular books such as Harry Potter and Lord of The Rings are now being purchased as Kindle or other eBook reader editions instead of their usual hardcover edition.
The Society of Digital Content – Pure Taboo
Digital goods take our world by storm! Traditional books are antics, CDs/DVDs are things of past. It’s era of streaming videos, reading ebooks and what not. But is it a bad thing? It’s just matter of innovating and going forward.
Pure Taboo could be very well the perfect example of video website dedicated to sexual fantasies that takes everything on step further. The videos presented there are not mainstream, they won’t cater to everyone – but let’s be honest – there is something very alluring in them.
The Hit On Bookstores
This trend has hit the hardest on the smaller bookstore owners, but even some of the bigger ones are not being spared. The closing of the Rainbow bookstore was one such case where an old and famous bookstore was closed down due to drop in sales. And this has been the trend almost in all developed countries across the world. eBooks are made available not only on an author’s personal website, but also on various e-commerce sites such as Amazon and eBay. This has further facilitated the increase in their sales and acted as almost a nail on the coffin of bookstores.
The concept of a small bookstore on a quaint street where young people would come and spend time among literature of the ages is now almost gone. Bookstores have become a novelty factor and are only visited by old people who have the time in their hands. This has led to bookstore owners not wanting to revamp their stores or try and stock the latest titles further leading to them becoming an obsolete object in today’s modern society.
What Does This Mean?
Can you imagine a world where not a single bookstore exists? While we are not definitely not there yet, if this trend of drop in sales of physical books continue, we may get there soon enough. And the drop-in sale of books is not merely in terms of physical books, the sale of books in general has taken quite a bit of drop in the recent times. The younger generation has many more sources of entertainment at their disposal and thus a book is usually not reached out for.
The presence of eBooks is also one of the factors that have led to this condition. Since the feel that has been associated with reading a book is lost while reading an eBook, most kids don’t like to read one. A kid would any day choose a video game over a kindle. But if they were presented a book with a colourful cover and a bit of the story on the back, they might just jump into it. Comic books have also been one of the best ways to get kids into a good reading habit. However, the presence of a reading habit is almost dead with the current generation.
What course will this take in the future is almost impossible to state. A huge responsibility rests with the parents of this age to ensure that their children inculcate a reading habit and take to reading physical books and not eBooks.