It seems that the internet, particularly the World wide Web, people are not reading books anymore when compared to what had prevailed in earlier times. Ouside of the mandatory situations like in the requirements of a school setting, they dont seem to be able to find the time for books because of the numerous happenings on the Web which will grab their attention and considering that there is an abundance of information than can be obtained online for almost any situation.
Most of what I read anymore is online ; and unless I need an actual copy of the book for some reason, this works really well for me. I have moved a lot during my lifetime, and each time, I had boxes and boxes of books to drag along with me, and they were books that I wanted to keep; but those boxes took up a lot of room and weighed a lot each time I had to move them. Plus , you have to have space and bookshelves of some kind to store your books, whereas an ebook doesn’t take up any space at all, and is no problem when you are moving, and you can even read it when you are traveling. I used to carry a book along when traveling; but if you finish the book , then you are stuck with nothing to read until you get another book. With e-books, you can download several and always have plenty of things to read. The main place where I want an actual book is for things like health books, Biblical studies, or even recipe books, which are all books that i want to easily be able to reference something in them. I know that you can reference things in an e-book as well, but it is justnot as fast as looking through a regular book, especially if you have highlighted the important parts.
I love science fiction stories and I used to buy books of my favorite author Isaac Asimov. Since books in that genre are expensive, I go to the used book store which sells cheap second hand books. The only problem is how to find science fiction books. But now, I have forgotten the printed book because of the myriads of free reading of stories in all genre. Just do a search and that's it.
Internet has really made life very easy by providing for us electronic books, notes, revision papers and self test online examinations. With this we save a lot of money since there is no more purchasing of books. Almost every book is found on the internet. As for me, the last time I read a hard copy was in high school.
I use both Bookbub.com and Bookgorilla.com to find cheap and free books. they send out an email each day with books that fall into your catagory. When you join, you can select the kind of books that you are interested in reading, and those are the kind that they tell you about. You can be as selective or as open as you want in the type of books that you choose to receive notice of. Another easy way is just to go to the kindle store, type in a topic (i.e., science fiction), and then ask it to sort the results from low to high price, and then all of the free ones comes up first. Since Amazon pure new books on the free list every day, you can always find new books to add to your library for free.
To be honest, with this internet of things coming into my system, I have lost track of some good and even bad things that I have come to like in my life from a simple chit-chat with friends and hanging with them till morning just talking about almost anything to going bar hopping and drinking till dawn. While the reading book (hard cover) parts, yeah it has dwindled a lot. Can't even remember the last time I came to read a book nor will schedule to read again. But I think on some parts, it has become an advantage to me and I'm starting to discover a whole new world in these awesome but tricky world wide web.
I also find I can read my notes when in softcopy but find it hard to even concentrate on the printed notes. Internet makes it looks simple and easy. I can spend weeks reading blogs and any informative material I find online than spending time reading a printed novel.
To be honest, I don't much like to read books on the screen. I think we are already spending too much time online which causes quite a strain on the eyes. In fact, reading a regular paper book relieves my eyes to some extent and I know many who still prefer to read physical books in spite of the internet and availability of so much stuff to read online. I think the usage might decrease to some extent, but physical books are here to stay!
I can't say for others. But I am reading less and less books lately. And relying more on the internet for the printed books. So that's something I am learning to manage. You can see that some of the time printed books may not be the right set of the option. So it depends on how we are handling things. It is not easy though that printed books can help out with things.
I don't think I have lost the interest in reading printed books as I still like to hold a physical book and read, but I certainly spend lesser time to read a physical book as I am reading more online now. There are so much to read online and I can find what I want to read easier, and most of them are free too. I still buy books and spend some time to read them, as I still like to read a physical book.
I quit buying printed books because ebooks and audiobooks are not only cheaper but also saves trees. Also I can abuse the system with audible by asking for refunds. I just refunded 3 books at audible and I got all of my money's worth.