Showing posts with label language trends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label language trends. Show all posts

January 27, 2013

Is the word "book" on the verge of extinction?

Seriously, will the word "book" fade away? Who the heck buys books these days? I certainly don't. In fact, I doubt I'll buy another physical book in my lifetime. And if I do, it will be because the damn book publisher failed to produce an ebook.

In the e-publishing era, we may not use the word "book" anymore. We'd say we're reading a novel, or a horror story, a screenplay, or a collection of short stories. After all, what would it mean to say we're reading a "book"?

What the heck is a book? It's merely a physical thing, the product book publishers used to produce before people stopped buying their wares. So is "book" a soon-to-be useless term?

The meaning of the word won't fade away completely, of course. We'll always refer to the historical existence of libraries that contained wall-to-wall books. We'll always know what that meant. And some people will inherit books from their grandparents. But will we use the term in our daily lives? I'm not sure. I think at first we will. But in ten or twenty years?

What do you think?