In today's Honolulu Star-Advertiser (our one and only traditional newspaper left) there was an article entitled, "Paper books still in style, survey finds." The article goes on to state that "Adult readers in the U.S. still strongly favor paper over e-books, according to a new study from the Pew Research Center. [In fact,] Around 65 percent of those surveyed had read a paperback or hardcover over the past year, compared with 28 percent who had read an e-book, Pew reported Thursday. Around 40 percent only read print books, while just 6 percent favor e-books exclusively. E-book sales surges after Amazon.com debuted its Kindle reader in 2007 but have cooled in recent years." 



Very interesting; however, there's a few little pieces missing. For example, it doesn't speak directly to sales. My own experience as an author is that for every softcover copy sold, about ten e-books are sold. On the other hand, when I queried my e-book purchasers, a distinctly younger mean age group than softcover book readers, I was surprised to find that even after purchasing an e-book, they often didn't get around to reading it. That is, they act more like book collectors than readers. This seems reflected in their likeliness of writing a review, and/or sharing their opinions of work with others. 

It also doesn't speak to genre, length or quality of read, the latter being the "gold standard" to which all authors I know aspire. In the end, it's only about the read. That includes flash-fiction, manga/comics, serialized works, even short story collections. It's all about the read. 

Will paperbacks eventually die out? I immediately think of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 and the great book burning in Nazi Germany in 1933. Even the hottest fires of hell can't burn from people's minds the memory of books and what they offer. Quick, get a copy of QUANTUM DEATH (Savant 2016) by myself, Raymond Gaynor, and co-author A. G. Hayes, and read it. Oh, and please post a review on Amazon, if you would.