Is Print Dead?

Ah, the ubiquitous question.  Will print books go the way of the 8-track, or see a fall like that of Betamax and more recently, VHS?  Will everyone own an eReader, and will libraries be filled with computers and eschew bookshelves?

I'd like to think not.  And I'll go beyond the whole "digital divide" argument. (Yes, I just linked to Wikipedia - it is not quite the evil behemoth that some make it out to be, but that's another post entirely!)  I can say with perfect clarity - and plenty of anecdotal evidence - that most of the students I see here on a daily basis want to read print, and will actually WAIT for a copy of a print book to be returned rather than turning to an online version of the same text.  I do need to qualify, though, that I am speaking only of books here, monographs, not journals and magazines and newspapers.  (Again, a whole other post.)

But more scientifically speaking, *statistically* it appears that younger adult readers, far more than 30 to 50-somethings, prefer the experience of reading a print book to a digital version.  In fact, the percentage of young readers (under 20) and the percentage of older adult readers (over 50) are about equal when asked their preference for digital vs print - 85% "prefer the experience of a printed book."  That blows away issues like cost concerns, privacy concerns, and digital restrictions by a huge margin. 

How do I garner this information?  From a study done by R. K. Bowker (specifically table 31 on page 39).  It was commissioned by an international organization which promotes reading - mysteries, specifically - designed to see where the market was headed for that genre.  But the one table I mention is very, very telling.  I would love to see a broader survey done that focuses more on print vs digital.  Mystery readers are often considered "old fashioned", so I wonder how sci-fi fans would respond, or folks who don't do much reading "for pleasure".  And if the sales of Nook and Kindle and all the others are spiking dramatically, why is that happening?  The ereader industry would have us believe that ebook sales are through the roof, and they are, but who is doing the buying?  And will that trend continue?  If the bulk of the buying follows the trend in the Bowker study, then as younger readers start having more disposable income (as they get older and get established in the workforce) will we start to see a decline in digital books and an uptick in print sales again?

Something interesting to ponder, and watch.

Here's Something Interesting

It's actually something I wrote and published about five years ago, stored now meticulously in Florida State University's institutional repository.  Yes, indeed - it's my thesis.

Information Professionals and the Intelligence Community

Come to think of it, it might actually bore you to tears.  So venture forth at your own risk!

Of Prunes, Pumpkin Juice, and Stewed Rabbit

I posted this essay back in 2008.  Like Lewis and Tolkien, though, I continually come back to exploring the idea of a "good story".  So I think it's appropriate to start off with this re-post especially since our book group here at the library has recently decided to read some of the best classics for children.  We've definitely gotten off to a good start by reading The Hobbit and Voyage of the Dawn Treader!  ::grin::

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This is one of my favorite quotes from Lewis, as he talks about how the author of children's stories needs to connect to his audience, not as a teacher or a parent, but beyond those types of relationships. He writes:

"Once in a hotel dining-room, I said, rather too loudly, "I loathe prunes." "So do I" came an unexpected six-year-old voice from another table. Sympathy was instantaneous. Neither of us thought it funny. We both knew that prunes are far too nasty to be funny. That is the proper meeting between man and child as independent personalities. ("On Three Ways of Writing for Children")

Which leads me into my main argument - that Good Stories have a universal appeal. And part of that is because the authors don't try to act like a teacher or parent to the reader. The reader is an equal, regardless of his age, and that must certainly makes any story more accessible and attractive. But I think there's something more to it, and that's where I'm headed...

I've been reading C. S. Lewis's collection of essays called Of Other Worlds, which is about writing and fiction and fantasy and fairy tales. I was having a discussion with someone here in the library about Harry Potter, and we were debating about whether or not Rowling's work should be considered in the same breath with Tolkien (and Lewis, and Le Guin, and all those others that seem to come up as comparisons). The ultimate question then, is "What makes a fantasy novel 'good'?" (Philosophers, feel free to chime in!) Lewis makes the comment:

If good novels are comments on life, good stories of this sort [the marvelous and fantastic] (which are much rarer) are actual additions to life; they give, like certain rare dreams, sensations we never had before, and enlarge our conception of the range of possible experience. ("On Science Fiction")

Which reminds me of a quote by Frederick Buechner:

... faith is like the dream in which the clouds open to show such riches ready to drop upon us that when we wake into the reality of nothing more than common sense, we cry to dream again because dreaming seems truer than the waking does to the fullness of reality not as we have seen it, to be sure, but as by faith we trust it to be without seeing. (Sacred Journey)

So according to Lewis, a good fantasy story "expands our horizons", and I would say it also gives us a longing to return to that world. Admit it, you Tolkien and Potter fans, how many times have you read the books??!? Yes, I know Buechner is talking about Christian faith in this passage, but I might argue that our faith in the Story (to borrow from Tolkien again) has the same effect. Good novels and good stories open doors for the reader, and we are free to wander in and take up residence for as long as the story lasts. Indeed, once there we can take what we learn within the story and apply it to our own Story when we return to the world of the mundane.

And you know what's really interesting to me?  Many of the best stories are stories for children. Pooh. Wind in the Willows. Narnia. Grimms' and Anderson's and Aesop's fables and fairy tales. And (in my humble opinion) the best of these stories are not the mundane, but the fantastic - those that take us out of our everyday world and plop us down in the middle of Someplace Else. I enjoy children's stories much more as an adult than I did as a child, and that's a good thing, according to Lewis. "... a children's story which is only enjoyed by children is a bad children's story. The good ones last." ("On Three Ways of Writing for Children")

Maybe as adults we are attracted to these stories, not only because we better understand the deeper narrative, but because they connect us to an age of innocence amd remind us how to "do nothing". In the final chapter of The House at Pooh Corner ("In Which Christopher Robin and Pooh Come to an Enchanted Place, and We Leave Them There") Christopher Robin tells Pooh that he won't be able to "do nothing" anymore.

"I like that too," said Christopher Robin, "but what I like doing best is Nothing."
"How do you do Nothing?" asked Pooh, after he had wondered for a long time.
"Well, it's when people call out at you just as you're going off to do it, What are you going to do, Christopher Robin, and you say, Oh nothing, and then you go and do it."
"Oh, I see," said Pooh. "This is the sort of thing that we're doing right now."
...Then, suddenly again, Christopher Robin, who was still looking at the world, with his chin in his hands, called out, "Pooh!"
"Yes?" said Pooh.
"When I'm --- when --- Pooh!"
"Yes, Christopher Robin?"
"I'm not going to do Nothing any more."
"Never again?"
"Well, not much. They won't let you."
Pooh waited for him to go on, but he was silent again.
"Yes, Christopher Robin?" said Pooh helpfully.
"Pooh, when I'm --- you know --- when I'm not doing Nothing, will you be here sometimes?"
"Just me?"
"Yes, Pooh."
"Will you be here too?"
"Yes, Pooh, I will be, really. I promise I will be, Pooh."
"That's good," said Pooh.
"Pooh, promise you won't forget about me, ever. Not even when I'm a hundred."

Sitting down and getting drawn into a good book, for me, is the best and most beloved time of "doing nothing." Good novels, good Stories (whether they're about pumpkin juice or stewed rabbit) will always be there, and we readers won't forget about them. And that's the thing, I think, about children's stories. We read them as kids and they stick. We re-read them as adults and return to them, even if we're a hundred. Our childhood and our adulthood are made better because of them.

More about this blog

In his essay “On Stories” C. S. Lewis recounts a conversation he had with a bright American student.  Lewis told the man that what he liked about stories wasn’t primarily the plot and the characters. Of course you need the plot and the characters to further the story, but for himself, Lewis said, it was the portrayal of the world itself that excited and intrigued his imagination, and drew him into the tale.  The student replied that he cared not “one brass farthing” for all that – he just wanted to know what happened in the end.  Lewis goes on to talk about storytelling and imagination, and I find myself in complete agreement with him. Indeed, any story must have a world in which to set the characters and further the plot. But a great story is all about what stirs the imagination, and that is the critical key. 

So this blog will be my “two cents” on reading, and learning, and education, and imagination – and how all those things tie into my vocation.  As an "old fashioned" librarian, I want all my patrons to enjoy reading - how could it be otherwise?  But I also know that my profession is a bizarre combination of the timelessness of print and the cutting edge of technology.  So a post on Google Books or open source digital publishing is just as likely as a bit of literary musing on Winnie the Pooh or The Lord of the Rings.

C. S. Lewis, On Stories and Other Essays on Literature (New York: Mariner Books, 2002), 4-7.