Quote:
Originally Posted by PMoz99
And that's exactly my point. How many young people do you see nowadays with a real book? Virtually none. They're all glued to smartphones and tablets.
My local hobby store (the one which specialises in WW2 and modern aircraft) has many books on its shelves, and sells virtually none. As for customers, the owner says virtually none under 40. And from what I see whenever I am in the shop, most over 60.
Another hobby shop which sells second-hand models and books similarly has many books on its shelves, but in all the years I've been going there, I've never seen anyone buy one.
Even the general second-hand book shops carry hardly any military books any more.
I agree wholeheartedly with Bombphoon.
The baby-boomers - ie those who may have an interest in WW2 in particular and still regard a paper book as gold - will not be visiting bookshops for much longer.
Peter
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I made this point on 12/1/2018. I think it still stands:
'1) The main reason why books and magazines 'ain't what they used to be' is mainly due to the internet - and, dare I say it, forums such as these! In the pre-digital age, forum posts and information would be submitted to magazines as either letters or articles. This has dropped off dramatically.
2) The lack of this revenue means publishers' budgets are far smaller, so they can afford fewer staff, new articles and photos - and they pay the freelance journalists/writers far less, meaning there is less incentive to put pen to paper.
3) Perhaps most concerning - and it's something few people seem to have noticed or mentioned - the public interest in WW2 has dwindled massively in the last 10 years or so.
This, I think, is due to several reasons, from veterans and the immediate post-war generation of readers dying out, to younger generations having no connection to WW2 and so are just not interested in it - or, more worryingly, history itself. The digital age encourages the younger generation to look forward, not back into history.
If you doubt what I say, look at how few WW2 documentaries there are on TV nowadays compared to a decade ago: it even used to be staple diet for the cable history channels - it isn't now.
Also, look at the UK's main military history publisher: they used to publish overwhelmingly WW1 and WW2: look at their website now and many of their books are now about buses, murders, trains, politics and local history.
Perhaps our subject has been 'done to death'?'