The End of an Era in Publishing?

Call me a pessimist, call me Ishmael, but I think that book publishing is about to slide into the sea. We live in a literate time, and our children are writing up a storm, often combining letters and numerals (U R 2 1derful), blogging like crazy, reading for hours off their little screens, surfing around from Henry James to Jesse James to the epistle of James to pajamas to Obama to Alabama to Alanon to non-sequiturs, sequins, penguins, penal institutions, and it's all free, and you read freely, you're not committed to anything the way you are when you shell out $30 for a book, you're like a hummingbird in an endless meadow of flowers.

GARRISON KEILLOR, "The End of an Era in Publishing," A Prairie Home Companion, May 25, 2010

     There is much discussion these days about the future of printed books, libraries, and publishing itself.  I came across this quote from Garrison Keillor and it made me ponder again where we are headed and how I feel about it.  I am not among the younger generation who have grown up with the internet.  I love my blog, I love Googling my every curiosity, I love having information at the tip of my fingers - but I also love my physical books.  That said, I year ago I said I would never buy a Kindle and now I have to admit I want one and will probably acquire one before year's end.   Reading an electronic book is still reading.  Is my desire for traditional printed books just clinging to habit, desiring an old comfort?

     What do you think?  Do you have opinions you'd like to share?  I'd love to hear them.

~ Frances