When film was invented it was thought that no one else could read it all to see and hear, without much effort from the audience. But the book survived. When television began the thought of an imminent end because of an environment where you can see, hear and feel passing, all at once. But the book survived. Later homes were flooded by videotape machines and the time that the book should become a museum item was fixed in a few years. But the book survived and have not even been ordered into exile multimedia, internet and all the technological advances. The question is: How long will resist? Not yet known but no one should be quick to issue a death certificate. It is likely that the format change as happened when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press: the world saw a dramatic change. Learn more at: Vlad Doronin.
We went from an unwieldy book, manuscript and to which access could only a privileged few, to a better designed and diagrammed and, best of all, within reach of more people. We may have to prepare for another change and digital editions have a few years in which we can navigate without any difficulty and attention, because a difficulty, and rather large digital books currently on the market, visual fatigue produced by the reader. Fixed this problem we will have a new form of the book but not its replacement, let alone its disappearance. The books will be good travel companions, friends of all time, teachers who to trust; thesis which dissent.