With ever-improving technology, are books a thing of the past?

Most likely not. Technology may be ever changing, but it's hard to improve on the book format that has worked for centuries.

And, think about it--with all the other options out there, your car still has an AM/FM radio. I see this as kind of the same thing, except that book lovers feel more strongly about the physical experience of reading a printed book.

Never will books become a thing of the past .

No matter what form of technology the future

will unleash can ever duplicate in ones mind

the feeling a good book does. Reading books

can & do sometimes put you right in character

with the story. Personally I've yet to come even

close to such a feeling reading off a computer

screen. Agree or not , a good book will always

rule !.........

I hope not! I think reading is a nice break from being on the computer!

With a book it takes you places you couldn't ever imagine. It allows you to take a break from your life and experience someone elses.

What kind of world would we live in if books didn't exist? Even with ever-improving technology, nothing could ever replace being able to hold a story in your hand which is just waiting for you to read it!

God no.

A book's more than just the words that are printed in it. It's an escape to a different time, a different place, and part of that is the physical feel of the book itself. If you've ever picked up an old book, maybe slightly yellowed, smelling a bit of musty old paper, perhaps with creases in the paper where someone before you has held those same pages, read the same words - maybe even felt the same things that you feel as you read them - if you're lucky, even scribbled their name at the front or underlined a sentence they particularly adored...then you'll know: a book's not just words. It's a tiny piece of history, a little slice of escapism.

no not yet. the current technology isn't good enough. Reading from a computer screen for long periods hurts your eyes and laptops aren't anywhere near as mobile as a book while other more mobile devices like phones, PDAs are too small to permanantly replace books.

I'm sure in the next 10-20 years as technology continues to improve a realistic alternative to paper will come into existence but until then books will continue to be a thing of the present.

Yes, we can say that with the current technology of the world books became things of the past, but who knows when a time comes that there will be energy crisis in the world, when this time comes books will regain its usefulness .

I say no, though e-books may become big after a few decades. I think people like the idea of having something in their hands. The book form may not look the same forever, but I don't think books could ever go away, not perminatntly.

Of course not. They are cheaper and more mobile than e-books (which if you were to read onscreen would be bad for your eyes, and if you were to print out to read would be just as much of a paper waste, if not more, than buying the printed book in the first place).

Also you are less likely to have someone steal a book off you than a PC or e-book reader.

So lets get this straight.....you curl up with your 8yr old and ready the next chapter of Harry Potter to him via the PC???

So my 2yr old no longer needs a bookcase in her room, just a computer desk and a link to google to search out the latest "Fairytale"?

And I need to bring my laptop into the kitchen and place it away from the cooking area to read that all important recipe?

Whilst waiting in the car whilst my daughter has piano lessons, I should have my laptop to catch up on the gossip mags?

Just an thougt or 2

Never! Nothing can replace the experience of reading a book! Technology doesn't come into it, there is simply no substitute.