TEXTO:
The future of the book
The transformation of the book industry has reached
a tipping point. Electronic books now outsell paperbacks
on Amazon, the retailer recently announced. And
Borders, the second-largest bookstore chain in the
[5] United States, is reportedly considering a bankruptcy
filing. With books evolving at extremely rapid speed, we
polled some literary brains on the future of reading:
JUDITH REGAN, book editor :
I think books will be more affordable. Books are
[10] pretty expensive. Publishers are so silly because
they focus on “We’re not going to be selling so many
hard-cover books at $26.” Yeah, but you’re going to sell
infinitely more electronically, so what are you complaining
about? I view it as a greater opportunity.
[15] DAVE EGGERS, author and founder of the publishing
house McSweeney’s:
I don’t own an e-reader, and I’ve never read a page
on an e-reader. I do everything I can to avoid more screen
time.
[20] I don’t think e-books have topped 10 % of the market.
My guess is that it will be about 15 to 20 % of the market,
because e-readers are expensive, and they’ll continue
to be expensive.
Not to diminish the value of a paperback, when it
[25] comes to somebody investing in a hardcover, it’s
something you want to keep. You have to give readers a
choice, between a richer experience with paper books
and a more sterile experience through an electronic
reader. We just try to make every aspect of the physical
[30] book as good as it can possibly be, because that’s our
greatest hedge against the dominance of e-books.
JAMES H. BILLINGTON, librarian of Congress:
The new immigrants don’t shoot the old inhabitants
when they come in. One technology tends to supplement
[35] rather than supplant. How you read is not as important
as: will you read? And will you read something that’s a
book — the sustained train of thought of one person
speaking to another? Search techniques are embedded
in e-books that invite people to get slightly involved rather
[40] than follow a full train of thought. This is part of a general
cultural problem.
JOYCE CAROL OATES, author:
My husband, Charlie, is a neuroscientist, and of
course he immediately ordered both the Kindle and iPad.
[45] When we travel, we read books and The New York Times
on the iPad. I’d much rather have a book.
SETOODEH, Ramin .The future of the book. Newsweek, New York, Feb 14, 2011, p.10. Adaptado.
About Joyce and her husband, the only question to which there’s no answer in the text (l. 42-46) is
