Stephen King On eBooks: Is A Book Just A Delivery System For Story? (VIDEO) (POLL)

Bestselling author Stephen King was asked on CNN Money: "The internet, in many ways, killed the music industry. So, why won't it do that to books?"

"Well, I'm not sure that it won't," King said. "The book is not the important part. The book is the delivery system. The important part is the story."

So, what do you think? Do you agree with King?

Quick Poll

Do Physical Books Matter?

Of course they do!

Not at all!

They matter, but they're still going extinct ...

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Comments

[RationalCaliGirl]

04:15 PM on 10/25/2010

Books will always be need as there are many places on this planet where the Internet is not accessible or available, even in the US.

[Honor MacDonald]

11:09 PM on 10/18/2010

Like most internet polls, this one manages to offer a few overly simplified options while completely missing the ones that would make sense. The positions the poll wants to force us into aren't mutually exclusive... Books can (and do) matter in their own right while the story remains (obviously) the important part. The production of physical books can dwindle without falling to actual extinction.

[TheBestLackAllConviction]

01:51 AM on 09/29/2010

I've lost paperbacks in airports and even dropped a book in the toliet (don't ask). I hope that the printed word on paper never goes away. The replacement cost would be prohibative!

[FlaviaDeLuce]

12:06 PM on 09/28/2010

How Spockish of him haha.. I mean yes, it's true... but I could throw my dinner into a blender and drink it, the nutritional delivery is there but not the experience. I do love my Nook, I use it all the time, but I would never NOT buy paper books, it's hard to break a bookworm habit that one had their whole life. I get books here and there on weekly basis, but I think e-books make it easier for authors who have a hard time getting published, so in a way it’s great to discovered new names that might have gotten pushed out by the publishing process.

[Craig 212]

12:06 AM on 09/28/2010

Story is what's most important. Physical books may go out of style, but they'll never go extinct. Plenty of people like me just love seeing a full bookshelf.

And on a side note, King was superb as the Cleaner in last week's Sons of Anarchy.

[imbible]

12:50 PM on 09/27/2010

it may well remove some barriers for authors and give us access to stories we'd have never seen.

[doglove]

12:38 PM on 09/27/2010

Mr. King is looking quite excellent considering what he went through several years back. Great to see him like this.

I would love to watch the video, but I am protesting, withholding my clicks. There is enough advertising here already (American Apparel, please go away). Having to watch even half a minute of it is enough to make me say 'no way'.

[FlaviaDeLuce]

12:02 PM on 09/28/2010

I agree, I read his "On Writing" recently and he described that whole accident, I read it with goosebumps on my skin

[doglove]

05:36 PM on 09/28/2010

Ah, goosebumps, his trademark

A good old Mainer he is!

He is also very generous in his praise of other writers. I've always liked that about him.

[Lynn100]

08:17 AM on 09/27/2010

I love my collection of books but would invest in an e-reader - definitely easier to take books on vacation in that format. But I'd still buy certain books (eg books on astronomy) which contain beautiful images/photography - an e-reader just won't do justice.

[JDM73]

07:24 PM on 09/26/2010

Physical books matter. They look great on my shelf...I like the way they feel in my hands...I like the pulpy smell and the yellowing pages of the older ones. Physical books are like old friends.

[doglove]

12:40 PM on 09/27/2010

I agree, but then there is the environment, the trees

I used to keep them, but now I utilize my library regularly and make an annual donation.

[jayquintana]

07:10 PM on 09/26/2010

If you're settled down, old fashioned books are great. But if you're a college student or a young person just starting out and will probably move several times over the next decade, you can't beat e-books.

[ChelleAgain]

03:24 PM on 09/26/2010

The poll is too simplistic. Print books don't much matter to me currently, but I respect that they matter to other people. In order for me to like -- or not like -- something, I don't have to disparage someone else or be narrow. Now, if the poll question had included the words "to you..."

A lot of older folks aren't open to tech and print books still matter to them, as they still do to people of all ages. However, readers are great for middle-aged and older eyes. I'm with Stephen though. I see my Kindle as a way to deliver to me what matters most (unless we're talking a picture book) -- the words. It's the best choice for me and the way that I read.

[MikeyMike]

04:39 PM on 09/26/2010

I too, respect everyone's choices; why does everyone seem to care so much how we read, rather than celebrate that we are reading? I just think it's great that I can fit 100 books in my purse!

I have found, though, it is my older friends who are more open to e-readers, and their hipster kids who are most vocal in opposing them. (though, are hipsters ever really young? hmm.)

[ChelleAgain]

05:00 PM on 09/26/2010

I think the people most open to it and who love it the most are middle-aged. I see a lot of marketing for younger folks, but I think that's because the truth of it is not that scintillating and they want some of cache of youth loving gadgets. There are certainly people in all demographics who just want print books though. I also think that at a certain age people are a little more likely to be fearful and resistant.

I'm 42. Young enough to be well-entrenched in technology and so not intimidated by gadgetry. Especially the simple stuff. Old enough to know I want a dedicated book reader. A lot of the younger people who don't get the Kindle as opposed to the iPad are at a stage with a different expectation. They point out that a Kindle doesn't let you watch movies and I point out that neither does a paperback. They are not impressed. :)

The stories I love though are about people with macular degeneration or other eye issues being able to read once again. I'd love for my grandmother to feel comfortable with a reader and would rush to get her one in record time, but she's just too intimidated. She can still read print, but I'd love her to really have the freedom a reader would allow.

[kinogod]

11:03 AM on 09/26/2010

Its always been the story since the ancient days sitting around campfires making myth and pathos out of day to day living. First the delivwry device was words shared, ink etched on rock, than papyrus. I eagerly await my next exciting read on whatever delivery device as long as the word-strings conjure meaning, exvitement, emotion, learning....

[Lev Raphael]

08:59 AM on 09/26/2010

I'm a "transitional reader." I grew up with books, love them still, but have a house so full of them, downloading new ones to my iPad is terrific. Especially books I don't feel I don't to re-read. And as an author, I welcome the opportunity to have older titles of mine turned into ebooks.

My habits haven't changed in one particular way: I always buy more physical books than I have time to read and I'm doing the same with books I'm downloading, so that I'm in the middle of a handful of books, as well as a few ebooks as well.

[ChelleAgain]

03:27 PM on 09/26/2010

I definitely took my huge stack of books buying habit and transferred it to my Kindle. It just makes me feel rich to have all the choices in a way that I'd never feel were I buying clothes or other less important to me items.

[Lev Raphael]

04:18 PM on 09/26/2010

Isn't that aspect of it wonderful? Adding Nook, Kindle, and iBooks I have thirty or so new books that aren't cramming a shelf. Or actually, piling up somewhere while I figure out where to put in new shelves.

[FlaviaDeLuce]

12:04 PM on 09/28/2010

Yes, totally. I added 900 ebooks to my Nook this weekend ( finally had them organized in Calibre) and I can't imagine putting all that on a shelf, I would have to add new shelves on a whole wall.

[Kap Hop]

06:32 AM on 09/26/2010

He was great on the last episode of Sons of Anarchy!

[StarWarsHippie]

10:19 PM on 09/25/2010

If there were no books in the world I wouldn't have to dig through every box by the sidewalk labeled free. It would suck.