What will the bookstore look like in 10 years? In 1999, one writer came up with a vision that is close to our print-on-demand fantasies.
In Robert J. Sawyer’s science fiction novel, FlashForward, everyone on earth received a brief glimpse of the future–including a peek into the future of bookstores. The novel has been adapted into an ABC television show that airs tonight.
Here’s an excerpt from the 1999 novel, as Sawyer (pictured) imagined what a bookstore would look like in ten years: “[T]he rest of the facility was taken up by individual copies of titles that could be printed on demand. It took only fifteen minutes to produce a single copy of any book, either in mass-market paperback or as an octavo hardcover … In a brilliant bit of preadaptive evolution, book superstores had been building coffee shops into their facilities for twenty years now–giving people the perfect place to spend some pleasant time while their custom books were printed.”
Add your predictions in the comments section. If you want more, we interviewed Sawyer yesterday on the Morning Media Menu–click here to listen. In addition, follow this link to read excerpts from the interview.