When I was younger,  I always  envisioned that the end of days for paper-bound  books would occur ala  Fahrenheit 451;  all written text would be  destroyed  in an apocalyptic  burst of censorship happy flames .

“No more  risque teenage Judy Blume books for you!!!!!”

It looks like it’s  not  fire that is  bringing  about the end of  tangible  paper bound books.  It’s the internet, the cloud, the Ipad(yes enter maxipad jokes here) that is  going to finally allow me to get rid of that 600 pound unread copy of “Infinite Jest“ I have been carrying around for years.

So what does this say for the future of books? Bookstores?  Publishing houses? For that novel I haven’t finished writing yet?   Should I even bother typing it out in Microsoft Word?  At this point would it be wiser just to finish it on my smart phone and  just send it out via mass text ,chapter by  chapter, to people’s Apple tablets?

Writer Timothy Egan has  written a pretty insightful piece in today’s New York Times on the possible future of the written word.  Egan’s article does not definably answer what this new publishing world order will look like,  but he does pose some likely scenarios

To read the article click here.

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