What is the future of books?

As with all our blogs we really want to bring you some topics we hope you can empathize with. I hope this will be one, because I would really like to get some views from you on this topic. Well here goes.

For the past few years I’ve noticed a decline in the amount of new readers I see in the bookstore aisles. What alarms me is the fact I see very few younger readers and when I do they seem to congregate at the Manga shelf. I’m not knocking Manga because the way I see any reading is better than no reading at all. Even my own daughter to my shame does not read unless she is forced to—usually by gunpoint.

Books are only around to this day because there has been a renewable source of people wanting to read them. With this newer generation, I’m finding a reluctance to stretch their minds and let their imagination paint a new world for them to discover. I’ve heard, I’d rather watch the movie than read the book so many times I want to scream. Harry Potter aside I haven’t seen children get excited over a book in years. Growing up, I couldn’t wait for the new Hardy Boys book to come out. I loved solving the mystery before they did. As I grew older my worlds expanded to Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Romance. Nothing was sacred when I wanted some to while away a few hours.

What I’m getting at is where is the world going to? If our children, our future, don’t have anything to spark their creative juices, where will we find the next Gene Rodenberry, the next Stephen King or any author that makes us think, cry or fall in love with something bigger than ourselves. Most of our scientific advances have come from people who read H.G. Wells and said to themselves we can do that. Hell, the cell phone in your pocket is a product of Star Trek. I’m still waiting with baited breath for my lightsaber btw.

If books are becoming a thing of the past, what will take their place? Call me crazy but my money’s on Video Games. Don’t give me that look. I’m serious. If you’ve ever sat down and played a modern video game you’d know they have highly developed story lines, amazing graphics, and as much as I hate admit it, force our children to reason out decisions to achieve their goal. The downside is they might have to kill a hooker or two to do it. But, the point is with our children turning away from reading as a source of entertainment, video games are in my opinion the future of books.

Scary thought. One day instead of reading the new Kenyon book, you might be forced to pick up a joystick and play it out on the PS300. I might be going off my rocker but I can’t see any other conclusion to the trend we as a race are following. We have evolved past words to become a visually based form of sentient life form.

We’ve come full circle don’t you think? Our ancient ancestors expressed themselves with pictures painted on cave walls. Now, our children are expressing themselves with pictures on a 52” flatscreen.

So the question is, are you ready for a future without a book in your hands?

I’m not. My eyes go buggy if I play Resident Evil for longer than 3 hours, then again they do it after 3 hours of reading. Maybe I’m just old, but don’t quote me on that.

Jmorgan

Jmorgan.