Debates: VERSUS?
John: There are many ugly print books, so the pure aesthetic argument only works for books that are well designed in the first place. Also, books that are truly works of art are seldom used as books! I own a rare edition of the novel News from Nowhere — with type designed, paper made and possibly hand printed by William Morris himself. It's beautiful, but I'll never cut the folios and read it. If I didn't have a paperback edition (which I do), then I would read it as an ebook. Let's not confuse seldom-read collectibles with books as a whole.
John Parsons (john@intuideas.com), former Editorial Director of The Seybold Report, is an independent writer, ghostwriter, and editor. He is the co-author of the interactive printed textbook, Introduction to Graphic Communication, on the art, science and business of print, which has been adopted by Ryerson, Arizona State, the University of Houston, and many other schools and vocational training centers. Custom editions of the book are under consideration by major printing companies and franchises for internal training purposes.