I was surprised to read in a post on Publisher's Weekly that an industry study negates the popular assumption that ebook sales eat into the print market. Ebooks - particularly etextbooks - were heavily used, but didn't impact print sales. That's good news and bad news. For the promoters of the Kindle, saving trees is a big selling point. But the ebook reader won't necessarily save any trees... instead, there's the additional kilowatts (perhaps just watts) the readers will require. That technically adds to the electrical power we need to generate... so ebooks are hypothetically more convenient (how's the Kindle going to handle getting dropped in sand?), no improvement on saving trees, and another damn battery operated appliance.
So what's the upside? Another gadget, something else to buy. Hmm... do I sense another addition to the junkpile of history where now resides the 8-track tape player?
About Me
- RCM
- I am a librarian and a writer (Weathermen; The Stone House Diaries; Where the Gold is Buried). Originally from Niagara Falls, which has proven to be a muse of sorts, my wife Stephanie and I have lived in Massachusetts for about a quarter century, almost long enough to qualify as New Englanders.
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