Paper or Digital

It's been a while since I have blogged, and I know I am going to get into some kind of trouble from someone because this isn't about the kids or the family. However, I have been in the mood to read and write lately, and I don't have time to upload pictures and make sure we get caught up. So, here is what you are getting for now.

I have been reading some about the new e-readers, and how so many people are excited about them. Now, I am not a person who shies away from new fangled and button-y gadgets, but I still haven't decided how I feel about these inventions.

For those of you who may not know, an e-reader is an electronic device to which you can upload reading materials such as books or newspapers. These marvelous machines allow you to carry several books, magazines, and/or newspapers in a single device, the largest of which measures slightly smaller than a piece of paper and just over 1/2 inch thick. To me this sounds pretty cool, especially if you are a voracious reader who spends a lot of time out and about, a vacationer planning on sitting on the beach, or a student who wants to avoid back problems before their thirties. The readers also allow you to take notes, highlight passages, bookmark pages, change the font size, change the font, and one of them even has a read-to-me function so that you can "read" your book/magazine/newspaper while you drive.

But, and this is a pretty big but, I am not completely sold on them for several reasons. The first reason being price. These things range in price from $259 up to $489. That's not exactly chump change in a one income household, and I could buy a-whole-buncha paper books for that price. However, the majority of the downloadable books cost around $10, and many libraries carry e-book resources. You pay for the cost of that library care whether you use it or not.

The second reason I'm not completely sold is actually pretty small. Not all of the books I read, or the writers I read, are available on e-books. Now, granted, when I read history or nonfiction, I prefer original documents or works as opposed to treatises on those documents, and those can be difficult to find in the first place. It actually looks as if a very large majority of books are being offered for e-readers.

Thirdly, there is still some question regarding property laws on these devices. In July '09, Amazon remotely deleted some editions of George Orwell's books, Animal Farm and 1984, from their owners Kindle's. Now, in their defense, the editions were added to the store by a company who did not have the rights to the books, and they did refund the Kindle customers' money. However, if someone sells you a paper book, that you purchased in good faith, then the book is yours. The seller must remove all unauthorized copies from their shelves, but they cannot come and take your property. But, in this case that is basically what happened. Amazon has since changed its terms of service agreement. I pray that the literary irony of this particular incident in regard to these particular books is not lost on my readers....down the memory hole.

Finally, my largest reservation about these devices is simple romance. There is just something very satisfying about a paper book. To me, books are beautiful, and nothing looks as good on a shelf as an entire row of books. Unless it is a stack of finished books by the bedside table. There is a certain feeling of accomplishment when you can see that you are nearing the end of a very heavy, thick tome. There is a feeling of relief when you see you are nearing the end of a short book written in stream of consciousness. Then of course there is the way you can inspire your children to read, when they see you holding a book, that does not come when they see you reading from a computer screen. Plus, that little bit of an ego boost when your oldest, who has discovered his own love of reading, is impressed that you have read "that huge book." It's fun to turn heads when you and your four children leave the library carrying arm loads of books. It's encourages your children when they can bring you their book and say, "Look how much I've read, Momma!" That is the romance of paper books.

All in all, I say these devices are going to be a big hit, and I will probably get one (though not any time soon). On a Kindle the words of classics will ring just as beautifully, on a Sony the history will be just as enlightening, on a Nook the theories just a thought provoking, and on an Apple Tablet the theology just as humbling, but for all their conveniences they will never replace the beauty, history, and romance that is a paper book.