The question of the future of books in their usual, paper form has been discussed since the emergence of electronic libraries, not only by people for whom the book serves as a source of information or aesthetic pleasure, but also by representatives of the publishing business. A fairly common point of view is that both the e-book and its paper predecessor have a future.
With the development of computer technology, the question of the future of the book in its traditional version became more and more relevant. At first, when users of electronic libraries found themselves tied for reading to desktop monitors, the advantage of books converted to digital format was their relative accessibility and the convenience of finding the necessary information. In this regard, the opinion of the general director of the FEB Russian Literature and Folklore is indicative. From the point of view of K.V. Vigursky electronic publications save the time of readers working with texts, allowing you to quickly search and accurately copy certain fragments.
With the advent of mobile devices that can reproduce the formats used to save digital books, the benefits of these types of publications have become obvious to fans of reading at their leisure. The idea that a library occupying several rooms of paper can be loaded into the memory of a handheld device and always at hand seems attractive enough. Representatives of the publishing business started talking about revolutionary changes awaiting the book market. In particular, this was discussed at a forum held in early May 2012 as part of the Warsaw Book Fair.
According to a number of publishers expressed at the forum, an electronic book is a natural form of paper development. It is likely that at first digital literature will imitate paper editions, since in the time elapsed since the invention of the printing press, this form has become familiar. As one of the forum participants noted, a similar situation developed at the dawn of the automotive industry. The first cars resembled a carriage without a horse, because their creators did not imagine any other vehicle. Perhaps in the future, e-books will receive additional features that distinguish them from paper predecessors.
Nevertheless, electronic books are hardly likely to completely supplant traditional publications. The theater did not disappear with the advent of cinema, and television did not cancel the cinema by the fact of its existence. Despite the decline recorded by statistics, in particular, in Russian book publishing, a certain segment of this market is considered successful. This situation is noted in publishers specializing in illustrated children's literature and collection books. At the Moscow International Book Fair, which opened on September 5, 2012, a collection prepared by one of these publishers was presented. The collection of reprint rarities, printed in seven sets, has the common name "Russia, Napoleon and 1812".
