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Gabriela Ybarra

Ms in Integrated Marketing, New York University

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How do you see the future of literature? Do yo think that shorter forms such as poetry and microstories will gain more weight?

Now that immediacy seems to be ruling our world, many have the fear that less people will take the time to read and write long novels.

Do you believe in this? Why or why not?

Which genres and themes do you think will gain more weight and why in the following years

Topics: future literature microstories poetry
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    Tamar Hoffman

    • +1
    Mar 13 2011: I personally agree that over the next few years e-books will become increasingly popular. However, I think that this is just a temporary trend. There is something romantic about the notion of reading print books that I don't think will go out of style so quickly. After a couple of years of relying almost exclusively on digital media, people will miss print and will most likely return to this form. There may be fewer packing the bookstores than before, but they won't be completely obsolete. Bookstores are not only a place to purchase books. They provide a place to read, drink coffee, socialize. People enjoy going to bookstores far more than they enjoy online shopping for the most part.

    Now back to the main question: I agree with the point you are making Mr. Wilkinson. There are obvious successes of modern long novels such as the Harry Potter series. Still, if you look deeper into the content of the book, the long novels are divided into short chapters and the plot lines are relatively easy to follow, even without complete concentration. Maybe the issue here isn't necessarily the physical length of the book, but the writing style. Novels that can be easily picked up and put down after short periods of time are more likely to gain popularity at this point than novels that require enduring concentration.

    • Jarret Clarke

      • +1
      Mar 14 2011: What I think should happen in this case, because I tend to agree with the romantic notion of reading print, is that, to remove the waste of cutting down trees for millions of books, smart paper technology should be implemented into book form, allowing a blend of modern and traditional. You could download as many books as you wanted to the device, select which book you wished to read at that time, and have the words develop on multiple pages. Length of the story would be an issue, of course...but I'm sure that could be overcome with a bookmarking system or page selector or something. I think I'd be more inclined to have an e-book/kindle/nook/etc if it came like this actually ^__^

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