The Digital Reader

The book is on fire.

For two thousand years the format of the book has been relatively fixed. Sheets of paper with printed words are bound together at one side and given a cover. The format is called the codex, from the Latin caudex for trunk of tree or block of wood. Writing itself was event much earlier, five thousand years ago by the Sumerians. Prior to the codex, people wrote on stone and wood, plants and cloth, on clay and wax tablets, and later on papyrus rolled into scrolls. Sometime between the second and fourth century the codex replaced the scroll. The introduction of pages allowed for random access and provided precise reference points, later enhanced by tables of contents and indices. It was portable and suited to note-taking while reading. The spine of the codex allowed for a title to be imprinted, making it easier to organize books in libraries. The codex was the superior technology for reading, analysis and discussion. It is still the standard book form.

The codex seemed a constant until just forty years ago. In 1971 Michael Hart typed the United States Declaration of Independence into a computer and made it available for download, thus creating the first electronic book or e-book. In 2007 Amazon introduced the Kindle, the first e-reader to win mainstream favour. Reports indicate that print sales are plunging while e-book sales are accelerating. One must cautious about the statistics. Ten e-books sold at ninety-nine cents each counts as ten sales but not ten books read. It is also not clear whether the switch is being driven by the technological superiority of the e-book or by publishers and vendors. Yet, as analysts sort it out, it is clear that the e-book is overtaking the print codex as the dominant format of the book.

Amazon branded its e-book the Kindle, a gentle flame to read by and the beginning of a blaze. Fire is an easy metaphor for the changes we are witnessing. Fire is a chemical reaction requiring heat, oxygen and fuel. The conditions are primed for change. Inventors and vendors of e-books are excited over the business prospects. Consumers are eager to eat up the shiny new toys. The book made of paper is easy fuel. Of course no actual books are being burned. The metaphor can be played out further. Fire is an exchange of electrons. Carbon seeks to combine with electrons like hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. Digital technologies have electronic components, designed to affect electrons or their fields for particular functions. The codex, unchanged for two thousand years, now seems to be yielding to digital technology.

Stone tablets might have fared better the fire.

reposted with permission