shlewkin:
bibliotheque:
I am terrified of the Kindle in the same way my boyfriend is scared of robots. I just don’t trust them. I always have this moment every now and then where I’m drawn in by how sleek and shiny it is, which is dangerous because this is how I ended up with an iPhone. I see them all over now, people using them at the library at school, in restaurants. I feel the weight of whichever two or three books I’m carrying at the moment in my bag and for a second, I wonder what it would be like to have all my books and newspapers in one device. I have to look away as I consider this possibility, a betrayal to every book I’ve read.
I love the physical nature of books. I learned to read when I was barely two and have been lucky enough to have parents who consider books a necessity in the same realm as food and shelter. From story books whose pages I thoughtfully turned in my lap to the novels now riddled with notes in their margins. I love the moment where you’ve read up to a certain point and you crack the spine, the first milemarker in your journey through that book. I own a lot of the books I read, organizing them at times in alphabetical order, by genre, and currently by the color of their spines. Each book brings back the specific memory of when I first read that book and where, how my legs were dangling over a chair or falling asleep, eyelashes against text; a whole life I’ve lived is inside each one.
This is a good argument about the emotional ties people have with books, and the individuality we might lose if we conform to one e-reader instead of many books. Read the rest here.
I understand the convenience of the e-readers, just like I understand (and take advantage of the convenience of mp3 players). I just have a different connection with books than I do music. I know music people who prefer CDs or even records over mp3 players.
Maybe if the e-reader were affordable, and hard copy books came with e-copies, I would consider buying one, because I could still pay for the hard copies (assuming I had enough money to buy new books). It’s not a resistance to technology, it’s just an emotional tie that some people aren’t willing to sever for the sake of convenience.
I didn’t realize it was and either/or scenario. You can’t have an e-reader without sacrificing your love of books? That’s an interesting theory.
I don’t care if you don’t ever own an e-reader. I really don’t. What I hate is people acting like owning an e-reader is somehow bad or you can’t get the same experience from reading. Bullshit. Books are nice, don’t get me wrong, but when I read I’m not lost in a physical copy of a book, I’m lost in a story. This might come as a shocker, but e-books actually have exactly the same story as the physical books.
If you don’t want an e-reader, that’s perfectly fine, but stop acting like it’s going to result in a “loss of individuality” or you somehow won’t be able to connect with people anymore. It’s like you all are trying to say a person who read books X, Y, and Z in a physical copy are superior to a person who read books X, Y, and Z on an e-reader because the first person had a better experience. Get the fuck over yourselves. Congratulations, you enjoy reading books! That’s wonderful. I’m glad people are reading books. But really, why do you all seem to care so much if other people want to read off their Kindle, nook, or Sony E-Reader?
Reasons I want an e-reader:
1. Everything is in one place. If I take my nook with me (which I plan on doing), then I will have every book with me for whenever the reading urge strikes me.
2. Buying on the go (or from home). If I want a new book, I don’t have to go to a bookstore to buy it. Will I still go to bookstores to browse? Probably more.
3. Font sizes. Books with tiny fonts are simply daunting to me. There’s something about so many words being on one tiny page that makes reading become a chore before I can get into the story. Increasing font size makes reading easier, which means I can fall into the story more quickly.
4. It’s all the same size. The physical size of the device is a plus for me because sometimes the sheer thickness of the book makes me feel like I’ll never finish it anyway.
5. No pages. This might seem like a negative to some, but after reading for a while, I almost always try holding the book with one hand, or I set it down and try to keep the pages from flipping back as I read. With a nook, I can set it down on a table and “flip” the page with a click, or I can hold it with one hand AND turn the pages without much effort.
6. I think I will read more often. Maybe some of you spend a lot of time reading. I don’t spend nearly as much as I’d like. I feel like with the ease of everything, reading will become a lot more enjoyable on a regular basis.
3 days ago
