Printed books aren't dead

"Authors stand up for traditional books over e-books"

Just a few years after the launch of the Kindle, old fashioned books are making a comeback as authors promote the joy of bookshelves and well thumbed pages over the e-book.

by

Louise Gray

July 21st, 2013

The Telegraph

 A year ago Amazon reported its Kindle e-books were outstripping its sale of printed books.

However summer reading lists this year show that most authors prefer a proper old-fashioned book to touch screens.

Writers prefer a well stuffed book shelf to one slim tablet and admire well illustrated book over a touch-screen. “Ugly adverts” appearing on screens is also a problem for authors.

Alain de Botton, the philosopher, said he soon dumped e-books when he realised the information didn’t really sink in without physical contact with a real book.

"I'm a recent apostate from e-books. I found that whatever I read on my Kindle I couldn't really remember in the long term. It was as if I had never read it," he told the Sunday Times.

Jilly Cooper missed the ability to makes notes on e-book readers in the same way as with traditional books.

"I like to scribble all over [books] and write things and say 'Well done' and 'God how awful' and 'Let's remember that bit'. I always underline good bits and turn over the pages of bits that absolutely knock me out," she said.

Amazon launched the UK store for its Kindle e-book reader three years ago and a frenzy of e-book-buying followed. In 2011 sales grew by 366 per cent, and they doubled again last year, when 65m e-books were sold in the UK, making up 17 per cent of the total book sales market.

The Fifty Shades erotic trilogy by EL James has contributed much to the phenomenon, filling the top three slots in last year's e-book sales charts.

Philip Stone of The Bookseller said growth is slowing.

"After the initial dramatic sales, we've seen enthusiasm wane more recently," he told the Sunday Times. "The format is certainly here to stay but we are expecting sales will only increase by around 20 per cet in total this year."

Mr Stone said the bestselling genres on e-book were those such as thrillers, which are commonly read in a hurry.