With the increasing popularity and variety of e-readers these days, physical books might be one of those things our children will never know, see, or use. Is that too extreme to imagine? If you’re curious to know what that world would be like, Argentinean publisher Eterna Cadencia might be scaring us into this mentality with a new book design that utilizes a sense of expiration.
Prepackaged in a sealed, airlock bag, the book titled El Libro Que No Puede Esperar — which translates to “The Book That Can’t Wait” — is printed entirely with invisible ink. When a reader takes the book out of its package, he or she has up to four months to finish reading the Latin American literature within before the ink slowly fades away due to exposure to air and light. Once the ink is gone, the book becomes just your average blank notepad. This concept, which won three gold medals and a Bronze Lion at Cannes 2012 Festival of Creativity, pushes readers to actually get through the book in a respectable time, but won’t be popular among those who want to reread stories, or want to pass it on to a friend.
From our interpretation, the design seems like a statement to the disappearing value of books since it can no longer be physically shared between people and instead, sent to one another in electronic forms. It’s also interesting to think about it from an author’s perspective of knowing that their pieces of literature has to be enjoyed within a certain span of time before it’s no longer viewable. On one hand, this speaks to the Web’s permanence (since the Internet never forgets!) while the other shows that we might be taking these ‘old-fashioned’ items for granted. I don’t know about you, but I loved when my older cousins handed books down. It felt like an act of compassion; to learn more about books that have changed someone’s life or perspective. Sharing books in an electronic form is as good as sending e-cards versus handwritten ones.
So what do you guys think of the book with an expiration date: gimmicky or meaningful? While you decide, here’s a video of how El Libro Que No Puede Esperar was put together.
Novel concept. Thinking outside of the box… If it were bound with a respectable cover, you could always use it as a journal or the likes later on. I enjoy books and would rather sit down with one than do One. More. Thing. electronically. I especially like books that have a sophisticated, rare, or valuable look about them. Within the last year? I purchased the 50th Anniversary Edition of LotR. Now THAT is a book.
Books are Entertainment…
Entertainment is EVERYWHERE! Some people pay for good entertainment and some try their hardest to keep Entertainment free.
You’ll never stop them from reading and WHY would anyone write a book and not want it to be read? It’s because they are money hungry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I like to reread books so it would not work for me.
Books are mainly for leisure, why pressure the reader? I don’t understand why anyone would pay for an item that completely loses its value over the course of two months when there is likely another copy (ebook or print) that can be archived and reread. Even if these temporary books were sold at an extreme fraction of the price, I’d still have more incentive to go to the library, pick up some material, and be lightly pressured by a looming return date. The Book That Cannot Wait is a creative idea, but it’s not going to appeal to the masses at the bookstore. It could have interesting applications elsewhere though. I’d go for a less expensive 3 month long version of a few college textbooks that come to mind (though professors would probably balk at the notion).