Predictions from 1996: The e-book

In 1996, MPR News looked deep into "the bright electron-driven world of the future" and saw a new invention — a crazy invention that could change everything.

An electronic book.

"Imagine that you're reading a book by holding just one thin, paper-like screen — a computer really," reporter Mary Stucky dreamed in this piece from the archives. "If you get tired, your computer can read the book aloud to you."

Doug Smalley, then a project manager in the fledgling world of "new media," took the dream further.

"You'll really see a whole new type of book being published that will include a lot more media elements," he said. "You'll have sound and video. I think maybe the distinction between a full-length presentation movie and a novel, that distinction may blur."

So, that didn't quite happen. We got the books onto the thin, tiny screens, but multimedia editions have yet to make a dent in the market. And while e-readers are now in million of homes, e-book sales actually decreased last year.

The future came, it seems, but we didn't fall in love with it.

Why not?

As people predicted back in 1996, there is just something about a paper book.

"The printed word has a stability, has weight, has a gravitas that a floating word on a screen doesn't have," said Fiona McCrae, now the publisher of Graywolf. She was paraphrasing an essay by Sven Birkerts, on concerns about a computerized future: Into the Electronic Millenium.

It might also be because of bathtubs.

Bart Schneider, of the Hungry Mind Book Review, told Stucky in 1996 that he was concerned how these futuristic electronic books would mesh with his reading habits.

"I'm concerned about what I'll be able to read with in the bathtub," Schneider said. "I don't know how wonderful it will be to have a little computer device, leaning back with the suds. I think I'll still prefer a book with a bathtub, which is where I do much of my serious reading."

Listen to the full predictions on the future of the book here: