2011: The Brave New World of the Written Word

 I have never been one to make New Year’s resolutions.  They tend to be forgotten or fall flat or just make my gym really overcrowded in January.

But I do make predictions for myself of where I envision the year taking me.  From a professional standpoint, I stand firmly in the camp that believes this year will not be the year we look back on as the death of the book,  despite many premature reports to the contrary.  Here are the some things I DO think will happen to reading and our habits around it:

E-readers.  All those who got them for Christmas, even the very skeptical, will at the very least give them at the whirl.  And they will learn that they need not give up their love affair with the paper tome, but rather, that they have found a new conduit to take their additive reading habit with them.  I packed a paper copy of Jonathan Franzen’s new book, Freedom, for my holiday vacation.  Why?  I want his works in hardcover.  But when I finished, I had four more juicy titles I couldn’t wait to dig into on my Kindle and another on my iPad.  The thought of being somewhere WITHOUT a book kind of panics me, and e-readers are well suited for those of us who feel that way.

People will establish new guidelines for trusted content.  Most people don’t believe everything they read.  But they do have trusted sources of content.  So, if they pick up their Wall Street Journal, they are likely to trust it.  The latest bestseller from John Grisham, ditto.  In 2011, that circle of trusted sources will grow, and people will find themselves believing sources far less traditional than in the past.  Whether it be a site like Mashable or an online bookclub, the day is coming for credibility to stretch beyond its  current confines.  That said, I wouldn’t quote Wikipedia as law if you happen to be researching something really important.

We will all grow more facile with the new technologies like Twitter, Facebook and Linked In.  The reason for this is threefold: as mediums grow, users need to grow with them to stay relevant, particularly at work. Facebook connects us to those we love in a world where people are mobile and often distant.  And finally, Twitter’s purpose of connecting people to information they need to know, quickly, will grow as the medium itself does.   

The line between paper and electronic books will grow increasingly blurry. E-books are already well on their way to become interactive, embedded with material that is accessible only on an e-reader.  Paper books will respond by creating other features to compete with this.

I hope this finds you as hopeful as I am at the start of a New Year, new books and new adventures.