Part 1: Exercise 2- The Future of Books

The Brief

“Whenever I hear the word ‘reader’, I reach for my mobile device.
Today’s ‘reader’ is as likely to be a digital apparatus or software interface as a living person leafing through the pages of a book.
Countless hardware and software products are designed to display, filter, push, and aggregate published matter. Screen readers turn text into speech, creating accessible material for sight-impaired users.
News readers digest blogs and news posts, feeding them back to users in quick-view formats stripped of context, while digital readers serve up books and magazines for instant consumption.”Ellen Lupton, Graphic Design: Now in production, 2014. Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.
Ellen Lupton, Graphic Design: Now in production, 2014. Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.

Given the current development of the book from printed to digital technologies, what do you see as the future of the book, for readers and book designers? Where do you see the book heading? Show and tell. Try and summarise your thinking into a series of short statements, quotations, images (collage) or ideas. Be creative in how you approach this. Use your learning log to reflect on the essay and your own thoughts and visual ideas about the future of book design. This research will feed into part of your first assignment.

Research task: The future of the book

Explore some of the factors that are at play in shaping the future of books globally by reading Chapter 7: The Future of the Book from David Finkelstein and Alistair McCleery’s An Introduction to Book History (2005). This fifteen page chapter (pages 118–132) is available electronically in the library here:

http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucreative-ebooks/detail.action?docID=1092 818

“This chapter will examine four related aspects of the immediate past and present of the book – technology, industry organisation, readership, and the role of the state – to identify the drivers and direction of the changes that will create the future of the book.”
David Finkelstein and Alistair McCleery. An Introduction to Book History, 2005.
New York: Routledge. Page 119

Getting started!

Well! The first problem I stumbled upon was that the link to the chapters in the books did not work! – This could help highlight the argument that physical books are better than digital!

Having scoured the web trying to find a PDF version to read to non-avail, I looked on Amazon to see how much a copy would be to purchase – again, letting me know just how much first editions and out of print books are treasured; £104!

I then managed to find the title on the online OCA library; an E-book version! This is one of the reasons why digital is so handy! – I cannot be physically at the OCA library but I can access the library online wherever I am in the world!

What do I see as the future of the book for readers and book designers? Where do I see the book heading?

I personally have always preferred a physical book to a digital book and I believe that a good connection with books from a young age really does help to educate and inspire creativity and imagination. I think because when I was a child and always had my head in a book that it helped me to become the creative individual I am today. I also prefer the “physical being” of a book for the smell of the pages, the bright colours of the ink, whether the pages are shiny and glossy, whether they are matte, if the book has pictures or no pictures and the memories that each title holds to the person that owns it. Books can also be passed down through the generations, I still have all of my childhood books as I showed in exercise 1! There is also a joy in finding rare out of print books or titles that you did not know even existed in old musty book shops; books that might tell a story in their own rights by having notes, markings, doodles or personal messages inside them from previous owners or their loved ones. Books can also be “recycled” by passing them on to other readers; friends, family etc or by donating them to a second hand shop. Books can be seen as unique works of art, sentimental in value and objects of beauty and for being displayed than necessarily just for being read. The book can be a tool for communication, reading, entertainment, or learning; an object and a status symbol. Books will always continue to fulfil a need; they have done for hundreds of years and I believe they will for hundreds more.

I was also scrolling through Facebook one evening and I found on a group I follow a post about someone who found a rare, beautiful book and when they got it home to further inspect and read it they found a four leaf clover that had been dried and preserved inside the pages! I think this shows just how beautiful and special books can be!

I was also watching a series on Netflix called “You don’t know me” and I watched this snippet and had to include on here! Sums up how books are better than digital!

https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81349458

Funny though how I have done all the research for this exercise digitally…. without a book!

How have people developed and learned through the ages though? – through communication and through books! I first feel like I need to observe how books came to exist before I can know their destiny..

The History of Books

Definition of Books: Books are defined as a collection of sheets of paper (pages), or similar material, hand written, or printed and bound together and encased between protective covers.

Before books even came into existence there were stories. Storytelling was a way of daily life, it taught people life lessons whether that be warnings or to entertain. Storytelling was a way to get people together to share joy or keep danger away, Fables, myths and fairytales began this way and it is essentially how language began.

The earliest “book” was that of cave drawings or stone carvings. Older civilisations would record their lives through these drawings and the earliest examples of “writing” were numbers and lists etched onto stone slabs or pieces of bark to record and show information. Mathematical figures were first to appear rather than being literature.

The ancient Egyptians were the first to write on “pages”. These pages were created by weaving stems of a Papyrus plant and then flattening them to create the “page”. These were then glued together to become a scroll. This technique was also adopted by the Greeks and Romans hundreds of years later. The Greeks and Romans also invented wax tablets, these were wooden blocks layered with wax so that messages or stories could be scratched into them; this essentially was the first etch-a-sketch. Calf and Deer skin was also used as it was less likely to tear and also because there became a shortage of Papyrus.

The beginning of picture books emerged in 600 AD when beautiful, hand sketched illustrations started appearing on parchment. These were known as “illuminated manuscripts” and they helped depict and enforce a story or message.

The first actual book which was written on paper was made in China. The paper was created by mushing mulberries, hemp, bark and fish together to form a big pulp, once it was dry it could be pressed and dried to create the paper. These sheets were the size of a newspaper and was called a “leaf”. As soon as the leaf was printed with ink it was known as a “folio” which is another word for leaf. As more and more individual books were made they became works of art and precious. A lot of these books held important information or religious texts.

In the 14th century the Jikji, a collection of Buddhist teachings was printed in Korea using moveable metal type where pages could be printed using movable components to produce characters or punctuation marks. Following this breakthrough, a century later Johannes Gutenburg built a printing press using the same technique which he then went on to print the Gutenburg Bible from. At the point in time printers started appearing everywhere across Europe. Books were now much easy to print.

A man named Aldus Manutious founded a printing press in Venice with the desire to create pocket-sized books that retold the Greek Classics. His wish was for well-to-do folk to be able to pop the book into a satchel and carry it with them when cycling, meaning books could be transported everywhere.

In 1832 the first ever book clubs came about through one penny books. The first book covers appeared in America and Britain at this time and they were gothic horror stories that were nicknamed Penny Dreadful because they cost a penny to buy and own. At that time not everyone could afford a penny for a book so this was how the book clubs came about to share the stories together.

It was during the 19th century that publishers started printing hardback books – these were aimed at much wealthier families. Hardback books were seen to be great works of fine literature and paperbacks were stereotyped as less intelligent. The publishing house Random House was also founded by two American brothers – Firstly named Boni which sent books out by mail order but then sucessfully became Random House.

Following closely in 1935 was Penguin; a hugely successful British publisher that printed their own branded books that appealed to everyone.

As time passed the book then evolved into modern technology with the invention of the typewriter, the rise of the computer and CD-ROMS and CD drives with Encyclopedia discs being accessible as a new source of wide information. The internet becoming also a brand new source of even wider information and then the first audio books recorded on cassette tape progressing to CD moving forward to audiobooks on ebook or the Kindle. The shift into digital began around the middle of the 20th century starting with the mass- digitalization of books by Google and the mass-distribution of electronic books by Amazon. In 2010, the number of people using an e-reader at least once a month was 1.8 million; in 2019 it was 18.1 million.

I started to think about the things that could be impacted if digital took over;

Health factors

Books are considered to be a calming hobby. Sitting in a cosy corner of your house, a 10 minute chill out on the bus or train on the way to work, sitting on a bench with a book on your lunchbreak, reclining on a sunbed abroad with a cocktail and a book.. the book is seen as good for your mental health and mindfulness. Everywhere we look everyone is constantly “switched on” to their mobile phones; so much so that we are always being encouraged to “switch off” and take a break from technology. What would happen if the only way we could get our “mindfulness” or to wind down and relax was through an app on our phones or tablet? Before sleep it is encouraged to have at least half an hour before where you turn your phone off or leave it on the side for the night.. a lot of people are leafing through a book until the last minute they turn off the light and go to sleep. How much would this impact our mental health and general health if we moved completely to a digital life. The impacts on our eyes – the straining, the tiredness, the light – headaches… poor general health. Most e-book readers have LED screens which emit blue light, a range of the light spectrum that is harmful to the human eye. Looking at such a screen for long periods of time may affect our body clock, and lead to problems such as sleep deprivation. Having a shorter attention span might also be an issue; the urge to click adverts or different links that might appear on the E-book or publication that is being read. If a book is being read on a device where other notifications from social media might be intruding, the urge is also there to divert and look at something else.

The younger generations

I am always amazed by how many parents give their toddlers an iPad as a soothing device or play an iPad whilst out and about to keep the child occupied.. it often goes through my mind how did my parents cope with me as a terrible two… and a “three-nager” (I was a problematic child!) when I was out and about in the pram… they couldn’t give me an iPad and let it occupy me to the point that I was a perfect child when out in public. I might offend parents with this bold statement but these are my opinions and I might change my mind as I become a parent myself. My views are quite traditional in the fact that I would like my children to grow up in their early years technology free. I would like them to lose themselves in a book and for their imaginations to take over, for them to be able to have creative freedom rather than it be fed them through an iPad. I would like them to go outside and play, learn life skills and create imaginative narratives with their toys, I would like them to play with other children their age and learn communication skills rather than just wanting to watch the iPad. This is the sad way I feel the world will go if we rely on digital for books. The younger generation will not know what it is like to be technology free, this will be “normal” for them. Children will not know what it means to choose a book for themselves, to pick up the book and enjoy the bright pictures, to smell the pages and have the sensory experience.

How really have people evolved, communicated and learned over time? – through the use of some sort of book.

Communities

Moving books to digital could have an impact on the wider community. Every city, town and a lot of villages in the world have a local library, it is here that people come to immerse themselves into a good book or take some away to read in the privacy of their own home. This is a place where members of the public meet up for discussions on books, meet for a quiet read or just find themselves meeting new people.

Bookshops would also be impacted (if they are not already to some degree), especially independent bookshops. Again, I can remember when I was younger and wanted to source a book and the only way of being able to do it was to go into a bookshop and look for the title, ask the bookshop assistants to search through the archives of books that it might be or use the ISBN code on the book to give to the bookshop assistants to especially order in for me! When I was at university when I wanted to source out of print books the only way to find them was to trawl through really old bookshops that specialize in out of print books. I searched for all of mine in Stamford and let me tell you I paid a small fortune for some of them books!

This being said the survival of bookshops and the constant running of public libraries goes to show that they are defying the prediction that the “end of the book” is near.

Recession and economy

Recession could have been a big impact on the rise of digital – especially I have noticed in the magazine industry. As I have written in previous posts in my last course, I love magazines! However, there have been many that I have loved but lost due to what I believe is the state of economy and financial implications. One of the magazines I used to like to buy was Company magazine. When I started reading it in the early 00s it was like every other general women’s glossy magazine but then in the late 00s it had an overhaul in every possible way; it became more arty in appearance with the illustrations, hand lettering and more extravagant type. The medium that they used changed; the pages were matt and thick instead of glossy and the adverts were cut down to a minimum allowing for more content. A few years ago they announced that they had stopped paper copies being bought on the newsagents shelf and taken it digital instead due to financial difficulties. I have no doubt that the magazine is still as great digital but I much preferred having a paper copy in my hand to be able to read in any order at any time, anywhere and to be able to rip out pages for mood boards, being able to rip out a picture of a dress I really like and take it shopping with me to find…

By any means I don’t think the future of the book will go this way, there are far too many great publishing houses out there that are financially secure but I do feel the state of the economy and financial issues have had an input into why digital has been so successful. The latest issue being Covid19 and the lockdown. Lockdown saw a 24% increase in E-book sales in the UK simply because the bookshops were shut and everyone had nothing to do apart from hobbies (reading). It is now even possible to read magazines online such as using Amazon prime.

Sustainability

Global warming and ways to save the planet are a massive topic in modern times. Another reason to go digital would possibly be because of sustainability. The future is green and cutting down trees is becoming an issue, it takes 17 trees to produce 1 metric tonne of paper; typically pulpwood grown for harvest. Each tree therefore produces 59 kilos of paper. One tree could produce just under 100 paperback books with a 400 page paperback book weighing 600g.

There was a demand for 190 million books in 2018 which required about 1.9 million trees. The target was to plant 11 million new trees in the UK over 5 years. As they grow, trees remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere: the recommendation was to plant a trillion trees to create a carbon sink large enough to help slow climate change. It’s difficult to give an accurate estimate of the exact amount of CO₂ a tree can take from the atmosphere but a decent estimate is around 20kg of CO₂ equivalent (CO₂e) per tree, per year. Pulp trees are usually harvested at around 25 years old so they capture around half a tonne of CO₂e each from during their lifetime. Cutting down trees might, then, seem like a bad idea. However, a lot of the carbon captured by the tree will remain embedded in the paper that makes up your new book. The widespread implementation of sustainable forestry practice should mean that the trees that are cut down will be replaced by new ones, so the most obvious environmental impact of the traditional paperback is not as significant as it initially seems.

There are transportation issues as well as books would need to be transported from the warehouse to a customers home or the bookshops that they are being sold at. Transportation requires the use of vehicles which is using fuel. Emissions are made worse by the growing trend in “next day delivery”.

As I mentioned earlier on in my post, books can be “recycled” – passed onto friends and family or donated to charity shops.

Is the tablet the antidote to the problem?…

A tablet contains a mass of common materials such as plastic and glass through to precious metals such as gold and elements that are used in LEDs and speakers. These materials have high embedded CO2 as a result of making the product and from processing and transporting which makes the tablet more resource intensive than the book. The tablet also requires charge; e-readers have much lower energy use than tablets which make them more energy efficient than the tablet and also they last longer on a single charge.

After my research what are my thoughts for the future of the book?

I do not believe that digital will take away the real physical books. I have researched the pros and cons to both the book and the digital book and whereas the digital book might be more environmentally friendly, I believe it is not sustainable as the only source of literature. The digital book takes up less storage space and is definitely lighter to carry around but I do not think it will take the joy out of being able to flip back and forth, mark pages with highlighters, making notes and bookmarking pages. I work in a school and I don’t think that digital textbooks work. Technology can be a b**ch! – connections get lost, wi-fi passwords are not easily attainable, networks are not secure and not every student can afford or access an iPad or tablet and then it is the issue that every student would have to purchase their own eBooks. If students do not have access or do not buy the books there is immediately issues in learning. A decade or 2 ago, text books were stored in a classroom and easily accessed by students and teachers to flip to the page they were studying and instantly start learning immediately. Students at University might want to refer back to pages and make notes on post-its in them as they go, not having to click back and forth on a tablet to keep referring back. Creative studies students will want to photocopy pages, make collages, montages and have visual references on their shelves constantly.

I believe that technology will always move forward. There will be further improvements on the way we read books digitally – possibly in the health aspect more, making sure that it is more healthy for our eyes and vision when looking at a screen for long periods of time. I feel though that technology is taking over and we as humans are becoming lackadaisical by letting machines take over. Human jobs have been taken over by machines and technology and I feel that is the way we will go next (a bit like the Matrix!- be able to plug ourselves into the system and learn something which is automatically fed to us with software through a machine!) I feel that in time and the busy lives that we all lead that humans might stop reading altogether and resort to audio books to quickly listen and absorb information whilst multi tasking other activities. I think also that in time the tablet will replace the laptop and general computers. Everything is getting smaller and I think that in the future you will be able to do everything at the click of a finger in one place that is probably small enough by then to fit in the back pocket of your jeans!