I’m a bit of an old fart ap
parently. I like my books to come in book form: written on paper, and in ink. The advent of e-books seemed to me forewarning the death of the paperback.
That’s worth a sad emoticon : (
About eight months ago, I downloaded my first (free) book on iBooks. It sat there, on my virtual bookshelf, gathering virtual dust. Last month I spent a couple of weeks in the States. I packed only one paperback (Gabriel García Márquez’ Love in the Time of Cholera) and my e-copy of Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
For me, the old fart, the e-book was strictly for emergencies. I’m always going to pick a “real book” over an e-whatsit. Reading a novel is a simple pleasure. It should be organic, just you and the author’s words. Nothing fancy, nothing with blinking lights or pixels. And certainly nothing that gets interrupted with the blinking, pixelated message “low battery”.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin was my emergency book. As someone who’s not very good at sleeping, the e-book proved very useful when everyone else in the dorm/cabin/airplane/penthouse apartment was snoozing.
From previous research* of e-book users and sellers, e-books aren’t at all taking over from real books. They fill a different need and provide for very different reading experiences. They enable you to travel light, or buy throwaway holiday books that you don’t want to keep. They allow you to read in the dark and cramped spaces.
But they will never take away the beauty of owning a beautiful coffee table book or pictorial tome. Nor will they replace antique books, first editions or those treasured copies that are stained with crumbs and sentiment.
In 2012, there’s room enough for both.
But for old farts like me, they’re strictly for emergencies.
* Check out ‘ebooks’ in the flash_widget sidebar for my feature on digital readers, Hawke’s Bay Today, 13 Aug 2011
runningwithabook 