I recently attended a workshop on the publishing process and there's more to these books, more specifically the production it, than meets the eye.
Every creative decision done to the book design from the type of paper to the way they are bound adds a special value and significance to how the books are presented. It's not all about the text, as they would say, although it does form the bulk of what readers would find valuable. But it doesn't end there.
There are just certain things that e-books cannot provide. The feeling of flipping through pages, as Andrew mentions, the smell of the paper wafting through your nose, as well as the texture of the cover of the book and the inside paper, all of these things factor in to the experience of the book.
If you just want to get information, then there are tons of sources online to find them. But books still hold a special place in culture and history, so I don't see them going out of style any time soon. In fact, the publishers say that the time of e-books has passed. The trend has died down and we're all going back to the real deal.
On the other hand, bookstores might have a bit of trouble, especially with Amazon coming in to the brick-and-mortar scene, apart from their online shelves. But even then, I think book lovers and enthusiasts would know the importance still of your good ol' second hand bookshops or even Barnes & Noble.
Perhaps one way they can earn money without disrupting the experience would be to have premium subscriptions but then again, who would pay Youtube to watch videos uninterrupted? As it stands, we just have to endure those ads or use an ad-blocking plugin (though I'm not sure if it would work).
Not the only fairy tale with dark origins. In Cinderella's story, in order for the two stepsisters to try and fit their feet in the glass slipper, one cut off her heel while the other cut off her toes. Later on, in Cinderella's wedding, birds gorged her stepsisters' eyes out.
I believe Little Red Riding Hood also had some kind of metaphor. And my professor told us that these stories usually ended in this way: "And if they weren't fortunate enough to have lived, they would have died a gruesome death."
In the article, the writer discussed how Karl Popper tackled the issues that democracy, as a political ideal, faces. Particularly when you live in a society where different people hold different and opposing beliefs and values. Take for instance, people who take issue with race and diversity.
His thesis was that in order to preserve democratic freedoms, it may be necessary to use force to quell intolerance. It's an interesting paradox. Even though people have the right to free speech, using that right to impede on others' rights and well-being will undermine its very foundation.
Conflict is necessary to continue looking for ways to improve the quality of life for society as a whole. But when conflict becomes violent and intolerance resorts to force in order to have what it wants, then the only way to preserve the democratic society is not to tolerate intolerance which might necessitate force.
On a different note, we also need to consider that democracy is an ideal and it has the possibility of taking on different meanings for different people and societies. But that, for now, is beside the point.
Every creative decision done to the book design from the type of paper to the way they are bound adds a special value and significance to how the books are presented. It's not all about the text, as they would say, although it does form the bulk of what readers would find valuable. But it doesn't end there.
There are just certain things that e-books cannot provide. The feeling of flipping through pages, as Andrew mentions, the smell of the paper wafting through your nose, as well as the texture of the cover of the book and the inside paper, all of these things factor in to the experience of the book.
If you just want to get information, then there are tons of sources online to find them. But books still hold a special place in culture and history, so I don't see them going out of style any time soon. In fact, the publishers say that the time of e-books has passed. The trend has died down and we're all going back to the real deal.
On the other hand, bookstores might have a bit of trouble, especially with Amazon coming in to the brick-and-mortar scene, apart from their online shelves. But even then, I think book lovers and enthusiasts would know the importance still of your good ol' second hand bookshops or even Barnes & Noble.
I believe Little Red Riding Hood also had some kind of metaphor. And my professor told us that these stories usually ended in this way: "And if they weren't fortunate enough to have lived, they would have died a gruesome death."
His thesis was that in order to preserve democratic freedoms, it may be necessary to use force to quell intolerance. It's an interesting paradox. Even though people have the right to free speech, using that right to impede on others' rights and well-being will undermine its very foundation.
Conflict is necessary to continue looking for ways to improve the quality of life for society as a whole. But when conflict becomes violent and intolerance resorts to force in order to have what it wants, then the only way to preserve the democratic society is not to tolerate intolerance which might necessitate force.
On a different note, we also need to consider that democracy is an ideal and it has the possibility of taking on different meanings for different people and societies. But that, for now, is beside the point.