I've heard a lot of people make statements like the one above recently and with the recent introduction of Apple's iPad I can imagine why some people might think that they can imagine a time when everyone has such a device and that therefore the days of the paper book are numbered. Like I said, I can imagine why some people might think that, but those people would be idiots.

I'd bet my liver that the book will never be replaced by digital media. I'm sitting here on a train as I write and I'm surrounded by people reading paper based content. Sure there are a couple of people sending and reading txt messages from their phones and there's a guy across the way looks like he's surfing web sites on his laptop, but he and the phone people are out numbered by at least 5 to 1. The book and it's little cousins the magazines and newspapers have so many advantages over any electronic media it astounds me that anyone could think their days were even close to being up.

Let's have a little rundown of five reasons why books will never die...

1. They need no power. Battery life is never an issue and you'll never have to carry a charger for one. Sure maybe one day everything will run off kinetic energy or dark matter or some other unreasonable and unpredictable power source, but not for a long time yet brother.
2. You can read them almost anywhere. I like to read in the bath and sure from time to time I'll either splash water on my book or even occasionally drop it in the bath completely… if that had been a iPad I'd be screaming because I'd destroyed it or possibly screaming as I would have been electrocuted having had the damned thing still hooked to its bloody charger because of point 1 above.
3. You can lose them. If you accidentally leave one on the bus or on a sun lounger down by the pool then hey ho it's not the end of the world. Sure digital technology is getting cheaper… it'll never be as cheap as paper.
4. They are tangible. Now this is something that might seem insignificant but it isn't. Research has shown the human beast will have considerably more attachment to an object once they have touched it. This is whey wise vendors always encourage shoppers to pick up and examine their wares. Once a person has touched something, their subconscious goes into overdrive extrapolating all of the possibilities of ownership of that object. Now this effect may only be slight for a book as opposed to other kinds of objects, but it is there, it is a real effect and it is something that can never be attained with a digitally delivered ebook. You already own the reader machine… be that Kindle or iPad or whatever. Downloading another book to it has no physical, tangible effect whatsoever.
5. They are collectable. Ever seen a signed first edition e-book? Or an ebook with a message from a loved one written in the nonexistent front cover? No of course not and you never will.

No, books will never die. They are exceptionally good at what they do, they are cheap, they are bizarrely both disposable and collectable. They have a tangibility that makes us feel more comfortable and content sometimes than any number of high tech boxes ever could… You can keep your tablets and your laptops, your iPhones or your androids. The future contains books and they will never become incompatible with our daily lives unless we become incompatible with them first.

Keep reading.