Today, a little something about ebooks. Like a lot of people, I have a Kindle, I read ebooks, but I still buy (and prefer) physical books. I have no doubt at all that our books will survive the onslaught of digital readers, just as movies survived the introduction of television, and television survived the VCR.

“E-books, in other words, may turn out to be just another format–an even lighter-weight, more disposable paperback. That would fit with the discovery that once people start buying digital books, they don’t necessarily stop buying printed ones. In fact, according to Pew, nearly 90% of e-book readers continue to read physical volumes. The two forms seem to serve different purposes.

“Having survived 500 years of technological upheaval, Gutenberg’s invention may withstand the digital onslaught as well. There’s something about a crisply printed, tightly bound book that we don’t seem eager to let go of.”

–Nicholas Carr, author most recently of The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains

Recently quoted in ShelfAwareness.