The death of the book

I'd like to address the idea of the book's obsolescence that is brought up in the Writing Space chapters. The argument that an electronic text cannot be taken to bed is (even if that's a cliche) quite convincing. The tactile, physical entity that comprises a book simply cannot be replicated online. It also seems silly to pay for electronic access to a book, though I'd gladly pay money (when I have some) for a fresh bound book. As the digital age goes on, book stores have become even larger and more elaborate, so perhaps that's a sign that print is not going away. It's not difficult to imagine a device shaped like a book, but with an electronic screen that automatically displays the book of your choice after you pay a small fee to download it, much like iTunes. That could be taken to bed, certainly. With that, though, we lose the ability to own a used book, since we would not accumulate them. Also, it's impractical to expect children's book to be fully electronic in any form, since children like to touch books and turn the pages.

The idea of "unity and homogeneity" (10) that characterizes a book is something I take for granted. We know that digital files can and often do contain a little bit of everything. Few of us have a separate flash drive for each class. When we hold or make a book, however, we expect the content to be uniform. One exception might be a photo album, since putting in random photos doesn't seem like too large of a crime, as long as they are photos. Chronology is a rather dull way to organize, though it can be useful. Who, though, has his or her pictures neatly labled with dates? Can we think of other mediums that use uniformity, much like books?
Bethany