Mr. Ingram:

I am not a historian, but my understanding has always been that scrolls and books coexisted for quite a long time before scrolls became extinct. It’s even quite conceivable that many books were merely bound collections of scrolls.

However, a similar situation does not pertain with the Kindle or other electronic media and books. Books are still being printed in large quantities, even as a certain percentage are also being published in electronic formats (including Kindle).

When printed books start to give way to electronic books, then perhaps you’ll have a good parallel to the way scrolls gave way to books, but we are a long way from that. In the first place, there is no universally recognized format for electronic books. The Kindle format may be the leader, thanks to the backing of Amazon, but there are others out there. I suspect we will see a necessary “VHS-vs-Beta” battle in the next few years, with one emerging as the victor. After that, we might–MIGHT–see e-books outdoing print books.

Until then, this proud Kindle owner and user, I remain resolute in my belief that getting rid of old-fashioned libraries is a mistake of the first order.

(p.s. When is PJM gonna be available as Kindle blog? I can get NRO’s Corner wirelessly on the Kindle, but not PJM)