I like my books. I like the feel, the smell, the weight, the texture. Last summer I read a pretty good list about why e-books just aren’t quite there yet in taking over. And I agree with all of it.
The lack of marginalia is bigger than just arguing with the author. One of the books I read for my alphabet challenge was a book my grandma had owned and read, and marked. She and I had a conversation with Helen Keller. Can you hand down e-books to your descendents?
A neighbor has borrowed several books from me lately. I love sharing books I love. Can you loan out your e-book version of the Artemis Fowl series to the neighbor kid? Do you get to use the hand written thank you card he writes when he returned the last series as a bookmark?
If you give an e-book about near death experiences to someone for their birthday can you write a note in the front cover about how they better not have any kind of death experience, near or otherwise, in the near future the way you can with a print book?
Can you meet an author at a train stop and have them sign your copy of their e-book?
Can you open up and spread five e-books across your kitchen table and examine the differences in what they say all at once?
I remember several Star Trek episodes where print books were highly valued because of how rare they were. I’m not saying I’ll never have some kind of electronic book. But for right now, I have far too many reasons to keep my physical books.
I am an educator and PhD. I quilt, belly dance, run, read, and try to grow things. I am a Mormon. I am infertile. I am a daughter, sister, aunt, grand-daughter, friend, wife, and mom.
Brett L. Dennis
Mama g
Giggles
AmandaStretch
It’s hard to do “Book Spine Poetry” if there is no book spine. 🙂 :book:
make that Book Spine
Still going strong on my death experience commitment. I’m glad to have it written in hard copy, because you never know how it might have turned out otherwise…
:brett:
Since I started nursing the girls, I’ve downloaded and read many books from Amazon and read them on my iPhone Kindle app. When I read a book I really liked… I’d have to tell friends about it, but I couldn’t loan it to them. Just like you said, that’s a huge drawback. So I went out and bought, for example, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, because I imagine us reading it, looking at it, and interacting with it for years to come. Certain books (like George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones series) have been fantastic to read in eBook format, because I can’t imagine carrying all that around with me.
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