The Codex Funeral

8. Why does your professor argue in THE CODEX FUNERAL that books are dead? Do you agree or disagree with his argument as presented in the pdf file?

In the short text, “The Codex Funeral: Why Books are Dead, How iPad killed them,” the professor makes some incredibly shocking arguments. He states that hardback cover paper books are dead because of the introduction of the iPad on Janurary 27, 2010. The reasoning behind this was not because it was far superior to other e-books that were out at that time, but because of the millions of books and information he could access at any given moment. The fact that he was able to get whatever book he wanted to read anywhere and anytime granted him great freedom from carrying around paperweights all over the place. Rather than carrying his 10,000 book collection around, it was easier to just have one tablet in hand to read.

Ever since the rise of the internet, the value of hardcopy books has decreased to the general population. Surfing the web allows users to freely search for whatever information he or she wishes to find, whether it is magazine articles, biographies, or the dictionary, it was at hand whenever he or she needed it. Instead of buying a hardcopy to keep and paying a few dollars for subscription, it was much easier for someone to go online and read up an article of a magazine. There are millions of information readily available in an instant, which does not cost a dime to look up. When hardcopy books uselessly take up space depending on how many books a person has.

I most definitely agree with the professor’s argument that hardcopy books are dead.  With the rise the iPad, the Kindle, and other e-book devices, it would be hard for us to go back to our old ways of physically searching for the books that we want to read. Because they are ready with a few touches on the screen, it would force us to throw away our desires of driving down to the local library to search for the book we want to keep. This very reason causes the decline in demand of physical form of books, which actually saves more money, time, and space. Not only is it convenient, where a book is just a few touches away, but its much cheaper and saves time to use an e-book. Some of the bookstore near my neighborhood has closed ever since these devices took over the book market.

Although there may be some people left in the general population that still prefers hardback copies of books rather than carrying around an electronic, it is most clear that our society wants to change the way we read. It won’t be long until hardcopies of books will become souvenirs and antics to collectors as e-books take over the market. My only wish is that this drastic change will not result in something too big for us to handle.