The death of the book is a result of the eReaders. Music is one thing whose format gradually grew to be more and more portable. However, no one will neglect the power that listening to a 12" record has. This isn't exactly over hyped nostalgia, but it is an attention to detail and quality that in recent times has been somewhat pushed to the back burner. The mp3 format has speed up music production, yes, so there is more music more rapidly and that is a great thing but at what expense? We loose sound quality, detail, and the overall experience of the album.
Most recently there is another medium that is in danger of loosing its tangibility; books. The eReader, which included devices like Barnes & Noble's Nook, Amazon's Kindle and Apple's iPad takes digital files like .epub's and .pdf's and makes it possible to read your favorite books on the go. But again i ask, at what art forms expense? Sure, i see the benefit. "oh no i don't want to carry all of these books with me to read on the beach in Cozumel. Whatever will i do?" Yes you can carry an unseemly amount of digital books out and about. That is cool, however it was never a problem before. Also i believe there is an art in a tangible book that can never be replaced. Sure enough you may receive cover art along with your file, but you are with out the entire book design. The way the pages literally feel as you turn a page and crack a spine is an experience that can not be digitized.
There are things though that i like about the eReader phenomenon; textbooks and comic books. No one enjoys carrying around ten 20lbs anatomy books, with an eReader, it make life a little easier. The second is with comics. There has been an extreme growth in comic book interest in the past couple of years in comics, and the format and experimentation has been pushed further and further. I see interesting things happening in the future between animation and graphic novels. One thing that may not be able to be conveyed in a single panel as still image, can easily be animated within an eReader. Look forward to interactive on a whole 'nother level.
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