Printed Books and Magazines.

A few years back it looked like physical books might be dying out, except for perhaps coffee table style of books. Everything seemed to be moving to digital. Part of me was sad and part was happy.

There are obvious advantages to digital books and looking back I think the books I was reading at the time lent themselves to it. I seemed to be on a spree of reading technical books about technologies that were evolving rapidly. The information had a limited lifespan and on the occasion I did buy a physical book a few years on I was throwing the book away.

Thankfully I realized this is not the best way to learn, honestly I am not sure why I slipped into the pattern. I know I was busy at work and perhaps reading easy tech books was an escape? My equivalent to pulp fiction seems to be pulp tech books.

Once I shifted, back, to books about core principles/understanding rather than "how to" I found myself wanting physical books again.  It could sit at my desk for study and transition to comfortable reading on the sofa without bathing myself in screen light. It makes learning slightly more pleasant, at least for me.

I brought only one digital book last year and that was only because I could not get a physical copy. It would be a huge book if printed.

I don't read much fiction these days but when I do it is the printed version, There was a year or two where I went digital but as reading fiction is a treat I returned to printed.

I don't think I am the only one who thinks like this as physical book sales have been rising in the past few years. Having said that I like that digital books make self publishing much easier something I am generally see as a positive thing.

From my perspective the book industry seem to be in a reasonable place.

Magazines on the other hand are in a totally different place. I understand that, in the UK, for some topics such as Vegan Lifestyle sales are growing but for the most part it is an industry that seems to be in decline. Particularly the tech part.

I recall a time when a computer user targeted magazine at its peak was able to sell over 200K copies in a month. They served as the primary way to get news about you niche interest. I would not want to return to those days. News over the internet is much better.

So once the internet appeared magazines news became less of a feature and tutorials and reviews filled more of the pages. The internet obviously took over these topics as well. It is much easier for a you tuber or website owner to do an in depth series of tutorials on say Vulkan as a magazine can only scratch the surface.

So what are the benefits of a magazine over the internet? Magazines usually cannot target your specific interests accurately they have to target a pool of interests that sufficiently overlap your interests to make you buy the magazine. The targeting has to be wide enough to ensure enough people purchase the magazine to make it profitable.

This means you are continuously being introduced to topics that are adjacent your specific interests. There is much value to this and contrasts well with the internet where it is very easy to go down the rabbit hole of you views/interests and not even look at niches that are adjacent to yours.

While I am not holding out hope for a printed magazine comeback I didn't expect the printed book to make a comeback or vinyl records for that matter so I will file it under it would be nice if it did.

What is interesting in the Tech world what magazines survive. It seems to be some Gaming, Linux, and arts magazines. Most others seem to have died out.

Note: I happily read long tutorials and articles online without complaint just when it comes to a topic I want to study deeply I like to have a physical copy of a well edited book detailing the core concepts. You tube is also a great source for learning that I use frequently so I would not want any one to think I am advocating learning from physical books is best and other methods are wrong. It really comes down to results and if you are doing it for fun, you enjoyment. And this blog it about the fun parts.

While I occasionally read magazines on topics such as Linux, computer art, gaming and vegan living the only magazine I subscribe to is Wireframe. I used to subscribe to Linux Voice I miss that one.