The Future of the Book | ideo.com

We will find out that books never really wanted to be printed telephone directories, or hardware catalogs on paper, or paperback how-to books. These are jobs that screens and bits are much superior at—all that updating and searching—tasks that neither paper nor narratives are suited for. What those kinds of books have always wanted was to be annota

wind at the back of audiobooks. They’re cheaper to make than they ever were before and they’re now very easy—just as easy as spelled-out words—to deliver as well. It seems reasonable to expect that long-form books will gradually decline and long-form audio will grab a larger share of consumer attention for many years to come.