Why print books will endure

Richard H. wrote a great piece called Goodbye to print books last week. It got me thinking about the print vs. eBook debate and why I think that print books will endure, and not just as a novelty item.

It's true that the eBook market, both for devices and eBooks, has outpaced print in growth over recent years, but PCMag reported in January about a significant number: The decline in print sales is slowing down. Also, print books are still more popular overall than eBooks  In fact, 89 percent of regular readers said that they had read a print book within the last year while only 30 percent of the same group said they had read an eBook. So, as they say, reports of the death of print may be greatly exaggerated.

One of the most interesting bits of information I gleaned from that article was that print sales dropped the most in the mass market paperback area that is favored by travelers- the same type of book that saw the biggest rise in sales in the eBook form. My takeaway there is that people like reading eBooks when they travel because of the convenience- eBooks are lighter and easier to read when you travel.

Perhaps the future of eBooks is that we will read them when we want convenience, but print books will remain popular at home, when we don't have to worry about transportability. With that potential insight in mind, here are the three reasons I think print will endure as a popular format.

1. Gifting: Giving a book to someone is a time-tested and popular gift. It's tangible, can be wrapped up, and is something the other person can keep. You can inscribe it to them personally. With eBooks, it gets lost in the digital archive of files and doesn't have that same sense of personalization or transfer.

2. Note taking: Taking and making notes is an integral part of the reading experience. To date I haven't seen a digital reader that makes it as easy or pleasurable to take notes.

3. Experience balancing: Many people work on computers, if not for our entire jobs, then at least for part of those jobs. Opening another digital device when we get home and want to relax can feel a lot like work. Printed books feel different, both in our hands and in our minds. For that reason, I think people will continue to want a slower, less connected, more insular experience that is reading a printed book.

What do you think?

Image courtesy of Sharon Drummond via flickr