The Book is Not Dead

by Jim Whalen Rowan Public Library

For many years various reports have said the book is dead. Cassettes, CDs, MP3s, and e-book  devices were much better for the reader and the publishing company.  They would take over and eliminate any need for the book. As early as the 1930s spoken audio has been with us.  Thomas Edison envisioned talking phonograph records when he invented the phonograph in the 1877. His goal was so the blind could benefit from his invention.  In 1931 the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) and Library of Congress Books for the Adult Blind Project established the "Talking Books Program" (Books for the Blind), which was intended to provide reading material for veterans injured during World War I and other visually impaired adults.

Spoken recordings were popular in 33⅓ vinyl record format for schools and libraries into the early 1970s, the beginning of the modern retail market for audiobooks can be traced to the wide adoption of cassette tapes during the 1970s.  Remember the Walkman?  Did you know 400 million were sold?
What about the death of books?  Depends on which report you read or want to believe. One claimed that less and less books are published. Everyone in the potential audiences for a book already knows of hundreds of interesting and useful books to read but has little time to read any. Therefore people are reading only books that their communities make important or even mandatory to read. There is no general audience for most nonfiction books.

Now the other side.  Despite a less-than-ideal environment—no breakout bestsellers on the adult fiction side and a lengthy, brutal election cycle that sucked nearly all of the air out of the cultural conversation—unit sales of print books were up 3.3% in 2016 over 2015. Total print unit sales hit 674 million, marking the third-straight year of growth, according to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks about 80% of print sales in the U.S.

A 2017 report says the largest gains came in the adult nonfiction category, where sales were up 6.9% from 2015. Several subcategories posted substantial increases, Religion and self-help areas also saw boosts.

That is enough of the boring stats.  Cuddling up with a Nook or Kindle is not as rewarding as a book, real paper, real page turner. RPL has digital books and a strong following, but the paper book is holding its own. Proof is in the holds on a new book. Even with multiple copies there is a wait time. As long as this continues so does the beloved book.