Tuesday, June 17, 2008

The Future Readers

From The Bookseller
http://www.thebookseller.com/news/61072-young-see-threat-to-bookshops.html

At a bookseller conference last week, statistics from a new consumer study into reading and buying habits were announced. These are based on only a small sample - 1000 adults. There were some interesting portents for the future, based on the responses of those in the 18-24 years-old range:

~ Only 56% of 18-24s think people will still be using bookshops in 20 years' time.
~ 28% were favourable towards the idea of e-readers, compared to 9% of 65+ year olds.
~ 40% liked the idea of downloadable chapters of books, compared to 7% of 65+ year olds.

5 comments:

Anny Cook said...

That older group might just possibly change when the older generation discovers the ease of changing the font size.

Us older folk need bigger print...

Anonymous said...

That's very encouraging news about the e-readers and ebooks. :-)

jan

Tarot By Arwen said...

I'm with Anny. I used to be one of those that thought e-books would NEVER take the place of my paper books. I was wrong. Being able to increase the font with a touch is an eye-saver for me.

TJ Michaels said...

My daughter is a college student, my son will be a senior in high school this fall. Most of their free time is spent on a computer, messing with a video game, or some other kind of electronic entertainment.

My eBook reader, which has seen alot of miles in the 2 years I've owned it, has also become a bone of contention in our family. Why? Because my KIDS KEEP STEALING IT! They love reading, but would much rather read electronic content (that's backlit so they can read in the dark) than a paperback book. Which is fine with me...as long as they remember to give me my darned eBookwise back so I can have my turn with it ;D

TJ
www.tjmichaels.com

Blayne Edwards said...

And now a word from the tree huggers...

I was just talking about this the other day because of the impact paperbacks have on the environment.

http://writehandturns.blogspot.
com/2008/06/radiohead-effect.html

People hate change so it's good for us that the 18-24 group have cut their teeth on this technology.

www.blayneedwards.com