Are Books the Clutter of the Future?
Recently, I went on a “Tour Of Homes” which featured many fancy restored houses. The thought that stuck with me, was that all these old homes had walls and walls of built-in bookcases. (Filled with old books, of course!) Some must have had five or six rooms with “book walls.”
Now, these were historic homes. I doubt that many of us have that many bookshelves.
However, most people have at least one area of their home that is taken up by books. I have a small alcove that has two bookshelves containing several hundred books that I have accumulated. But, I have not read any of them in years. In fact, I have picked up less than a dozen for reference in that time. Why? Perhaps, it’s because the Internet has replaced them as a source of information.
As I stood in the historic homes, among their myriad rows of books, I couldn’t help but wonder if my young son’s future house would have bookshelves in it. (When he grows up.) Maybe, it will take until his kids’ generation, but I don’t think homes of the future will be filled with books.
These days, I read almost all my books on my iPad or iPhone. (Kindle App and iBooks.) And while I am an early adopter, it is likely that our kids and their kids will not stack their homes with books, but rather get their knowledge from online and electronic sources.
Ironically, just yesterday Amazon reported that they are now selling more eBooks that physical hardcover books. (See article here.)
Will books be considered clutter in the future? Maybe. But, I think we can reclaim some of that space that we have traditionally allocated for physical books. On my home improvement list is to clear out those old bookshelves and make better use of the space.
Do you have books that take up space in your home? Do you think physical books will be in our future homes?
Random Note: If you look closely at the pic above, you might see Randy Pausch’s The Last Lecture. Randy was one of my professors while I was as student at the University of Virginia years ago. His “User Interfaces” class was one of my favorites of all time and I still have his coursework materials on my bookshelf. (That’s not clutter!)
Photo credit jlz
