A Book is a Wonderful Technology

"The most technologically efficient machine that man has ever
invented is the book." --Northrop Frye

"One of the recurring themes in the discussion of the new media if bytes will replace books. To many, it certainly looks that way on any given day at any given rest stop on the Information Highway. The book remains the dominant permanent record of all things worth keeping. Storage mediums come and go in the cyberverse ( One word: "floppy."), but I don't think that the age when all information and opinions and records and history is held in some immense GoogleServer pile is one which we should welcome. Distributed information is more powerful and more secure when it is distributed not only throughout the Net, but in more than one medium.
What is good about the book? What makes it persistently valuable in storing, not the trivia of the day, but that which is valuable to humanity over the long term?

1. No "advanced" technology required. Ability to manufacture present in all areas of the globe.
2. Crude but functioning units can be made by kindergartners with pencil, paper and glue.
3. Operating system and interface rock solid.
4. All types of information can be stored.
5. Has been demonstrated to be able to retain information in retrievable form across several thousand years.
6. Of the two, the User will often crash first.
7. All parts can be recycled.
8. All or part can be backed-up at any Kinkos.
9. Can be powered for hours with one candle.
10. All users receive up to 12 years of interface training free.

Add to that the tactile and aesthetic pleasures of fine books where art combines with craft and you have something that will be with humankind well into the future long after this day's high-tech toys are consigned to a museum and listed in their paperback catalog."
-Gerard Van der Leun