Wednesday, February 24, 2010

The future of reading

This is an interesting think piece on e-books. Are we creating an elite who can afford these devices, and then eliminating alternatives, so that only the elite will be reading in the future? Scary thought. My personal hope is that the devices become cheap enough not to be for the rich only, but who knows?

From Karin Slaughter on Hufingtonpost.com: According to the latest census statistics, the more affluent the members of a household, the more likely they are to own a computer. When income, race and education come into play, the percentage of people without a computer is cut by almost half. One can assume these skewed demographics translate to eBook readers. Minimum wage still trails behind the price of most paperbacks. Do we really expect a person who has to work roughly three and a half hours a day in order to earn the price of a hardcover book to shell out the money for an electronic reader? More...

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