E-Books and the End of Literature

Interesting. I've occasionally speculated that ebooks may put an end to new literature, but for a different reason--they make it very very easy for old literature to compete with new.

With physical books, older titles go out of print. Some become classics and do stay in print, but for the most part available books skew toward relatively recent books.

With ebooks, the older titles can stay available (especially if, as I think is likely, we eventually end up with an intellectual property system where we pay some kind of general IP tax and in exchange are allowed to freely copy and distribute copyrighted works).

In such an environment, where the best books from every year remain easily available in perpetuity (because nearly every book from every year remains available), the bar each year for a new author's work to command my attention gets higher and higher.

After a hundred years or so with ebooks, I could easily imagine us reaching a point where you almost have to be the next Shakespeare to get any interest in your work.

Someone will write a free app that introduces random data into the reading metrics.

Interesting. I had not previously considered the possible privacy intrusion into the actual process of reading (how much time is spent on what page, which pages are not read at all, etc.).