TO SEE how profoundly the book business is changing, watch the shelves. Next month IKEA will introduce a new, deeper version of its ubiquitous “BILLY” bookcase. The flat-pack furniture giant is already promoting glass doors for its bookshelves. The firm reckons customers will increasingly use them for ornaments, tchotchkes and the odd coffee-table tome—anything, that is, except books that are actually read.
IKEA is redesigning its bookcases because they are increasingly not being used to hold books but other little goodies instead. Sales of physical books are being outpaced by ebooks so true bookshelves are becoming unnecessary.
Why bother continuing to sell a product designed to hold a something whose sales are expected to decline to almost nothing in the relatively near future? It seems physical books will mainly become collectors items rather than the mass-market product they are today. But I digress.
It is kind of sad if you think about it. I have always felt a much stronger emotional attachment to my physical books, especially the hardcover ones, than I ever did to my records, cassette tapes and CD’s, even though I listen to music far more often than I read. I may actually miss physical books after they disappear. (via Dan Frommer)
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