Not mentioned when I wrote this post originally? It was also my 30th birthday. Almost a decade later, we still have books.
In the course of looking for a cover image of They Don’t Dance Much, I came across Book Worship. You need to check that out, especially if you’re one of those people who isn’t made sick by the (looming?) death of book-as-object. I get sad about the death of cassette-tape-as-object, so you can probably figure where I come down on totally paperless publishing.
Book Worship reminded me of this awesome Flickr set I found a few months ago. There’s something about this mid-century design aesthetic that makes me want to write better.
Chris Cocca 
I think books will become more of an art commodity; that is, we’re going to see a future of small publishers that produce books like McSweeney’s does — attention to detail!
I’ve thought a lot about doing this myself; I’d love to start a press wherein I produce a small number of books, say a run of perhaps 1000 copies, and offer the ebook for free or for just a couple of dollars. That way, the true believers can order a limited run of a very well-put-together book and everyone else can have the text at a low price. Print isn’t going to die, it’s just going to become something more collectible and probably more expensive.