Books Are Dying Out

With Barnes and Nobles having to lay off all of their full-time employees, someone I know has recently began to up his arguments that books (and reading) are no longer popular and books themselves are dying out. Normally I just roll my eyes at him and agree to disagree about it, but he's been getting worse since the whole Barnes and Nobles fiasco (as I have dubbed it).

It bothers me more than I'm willing to admit to him when he says it because books are my life. I sell them in retail, and I am working on writing them to sell as an author. The fact that B&N has been slowly killing itself over the past few years doesn't seem to register with said friend. Nope, B&N is the tell all for book trends according to him.

Now, don't get me wrong, multiple people have said this to me before. He's not the first person to look at me concernedly when I said I want to be an author. "Nobody reads anymore," they'd say. A few gave me the benefit of the doubt and just said physical books are dying out, but if I focus on e-books, then I'm sure to be fine.

I am a firm believer that books are not dying out, whether they're physical or ebooks. Yes, bookstores are struggling more these days than they have in the past, but as many news outlets will tell you, retail stores in general are doing poorly. Sears had to close a bunch of stores, Toys-r-us is leaving America all together.

Those are just two of countless examples.

Now, the main arguments for books are dying out are as follows:
-Nobody reads anymore
-Books are a waste of paper and space
-There are too many bad books out there that makes no one want to read anything
-Teenagers have better things to do
-There are movies and TV shows

All of these arguments bother me so much because of the sheer ignorance of them. I will explain why they are wrong (within my experiences) in no particular order.

Nobody reads anymore: Goodreads alone should dissuade anyone from this thought. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of websites out there for reviews on books and book suggestions, such as Amazon, but Goodreads is one of the larger ones I can think of. This website receives thousands of reviews daily for people reading books.

I may have mentioned it before, but I work in a bookstore. A store where they are continually opening new locations (not so often that we're going bankrupt or anything). People still come into the store to buy books (and other miscellaneous items). Parents bring children who get so excited about the books in front of them. Teenagers come in and buy books explaining how much they love to read.

If nobody reads anymore, then there sure are a lot of people going by nobody and cyclopes need to beware. (How many of you got that reference? High five if you did!)

Of this, it is true that overall people are reading the classics less as youth. But I blame that on them being forced to read them in school. As someone who enjoyed reading Shakespeare when I was younger, I can attest to it not being the coolest thing to admit to. And so I refrained from actually reading the required reading (how I passed high school Englishes is still sometimes a mystery to me).

As I've grown older though, I've started picking up those old "detested" novels I judged as boring before even attempting them. Now, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is one of my favorites.

Teenagers (and people in general) have better things to do: This argument could hold some weight. and I'm going to merge the other arguments, about movies and too many bad books into this one because overall they can go together.

Yes there are plenty of other distractions these days than there used to be. Television shows, video games, ipads, other electronics. Even older distractions such as, you know, pretty days and bright sunlight. But along with those distractions, technology has helped getting books into more people's hands whether they are actually reading them (ebooks, I'm looking at you) or listening to them (audio books, audible, youtube readings -- I've not actually seen these but I hear they are a thing).

Where have more than half of recent movies come from? Books. Both normal books and comic books. A Wrinkle in Time, All of the Superhero movies, even the Fantastic Beasts movies have a basis of a book.

The other half seem to either be horror movies or remakes, with one or two unique movies created.

With the rise of self publishing, there has also come a rise in poorly edited or ill-conceived books. Don't get me wrong, there are A LOT of really well-done self published books out there, but you tend to hear more about the bad ones (or the bad ones come into the store I work in more often than the good ones).

Editing is so important, but some people either don't edit or don't edit closely. There are a few books I've opened that read like a first draft. These books do give self-publishing a bad name. People look down on those books.

But that is a bad stereotype.

The first self-published book I ever read was Eragon by Christopher Paolini.
Yes, you read that right.
Eragon.

You might be thinking, but Eragon is represented by the publishing company Knopf.

And you're right. It is now. But it wasn't initially. Alfred A. Knopf picked it up AFTER it had been initially self published.

Yes, there are plenty of bad books out there (both self-published and traditionally published), but it takes only a few suggestions to come across some really great ones.

Books are a waste of paper and space: This one is a short and easy response. If you don't have the room for a bunch of books, get an e-reader.

Although my collection of physical books is slowly overtaking every inch of my living space (not just the bookshelves), I also have a Kindle Keyboard. Yes it's old, and I'm on the verge of having to replace it (the keys no longer say which letter each stands for and sections of the screen are starting to go out)(don't worry, there's already a replacement in my household, but I'm hoping my current one lasts until after Belize), but it is so convenient when I don't want to carry 56451234789 books around with me individually.

Plus sweat doesn't bother it quite so much as paper books.  And I'm less concerned about it when I read while taking a bubble bath since it's easier to hold above me (that might be TMI but oh, well).

Books do use up a lot of paper, but there are a few companies that are working out how to use recycled paper for their books. I read an article on it a few weeks ago and can't seem to find it again (if you come across it, please put it in the comments! It's super interesting).

Used bookstores and libraries help with this as well, because it keeps a lot of books from going into landfills.

But this is where e-books also come in handy. You know what they don't use? Paper. They're electronic!

There are so many people who still adore the feeling of books in their hands (myself included). And I promise it isn't just the elderly. I've had plenty of children inform me they can't get enough of the smell of books, the feel of turning an actual page. The youngest so far I believe has been ten or eleven years old.

Books are NOT dying out. People still read. 

What do you think about the arguments? Do you think books and readers are dying out? And what books do you tend to recommend to people "who don't read" or who don't know what to read next?

Until Next Time,
Shelby