I love a book – the actual, physical book. I love to hold a book and run my finger down the cut pages. I love a book tossed casually on my bed and lots of books piled haphazardly on my desk. I love the feel of a book in my bag as I go off to town or to uni. I love the smell of a new book as well as a well read, well loved book. I love to look at books in my home and in a book shop.
I love my e-book reader. I love that I have over 100 books in my hand at once. I love the fact that just by plugging in my e-book reader I can download another 4 books without actually having to get on my bike, ride to the book shop, buy the book, and ride home again – what a waste of good reading time!
But before I can compare books and e-book readers, I think a definition of a Book is due. A book can take many different forms. It can be an 800 page hardback tome (OK, don’t worry, I’m not going to go on and on about the size of Fall of Giants again). It can also be a 40cm by 40cm so-called Coffee Table Book (What? You don’t read your Coffee Table books? I have stayed up till the wee hours of the morning entranced with a very large book about the making of maps many nights! You should try it). A book can be a normal paperback of any size, mostly easy to hold and carry around. A book can be very small filled with philosophy or poetry. It can even be a comic book sized, very soft covered graphic novel (of which I am just beginning to appreciate).
A book gives its reader clues about the story just by its physical presence. When the action starts heating up and you can see that there are 200 pages left to go, you know this is a build up to the intermission, so to speak. If there are only 25 pages left to go you know to ignore the ringing phone and the cries of hungry children and keep reading. An e-book gives you no such clues – you have to take this increase in tension just as it comes, on faith, and go with it. When a book starts to bog down or get a bit boring, you can see that that there is still the majority of the story to come and choose to give it the flick, or see that there are only a few pages left and persevere hoping that it comes good in the end. With an e-book reader – no such luck. You have to decide to continue by pure stubbornness or quit because it just feels right to quit! This sort of reading takes practice, but the learning can be quite thrilling.
You can slam a book closed when you get angry or frustrated with the plot or a character. You can push the off button really hard on an e-book reader but it’s not the same (obviously). You can lovingly place in a book mark that your friend just brought you back from her trip to Turkey (so jealous) and close your book with the sweet anticipation of starting again as soon as you get home from work. Or you can push the off button. You can bend the page to mark your place, stick a post-it note on a page that you want to read to someone, write in the margins and photocopy your favourite bits of a book. E-book reader – you can push the off button. You can lend a book. E-book reader – well you get the picture.
But, and this is a big but, as I said before, with my e-book reader I can carry 100 books with me in my small handbag. I can decide I don’t want to read the book I am reading and, with a flick of a button, be reading another book within a few seconds. I can go on a holiday and have more room for shoes and clothes so I don’t have to wear the same pants for three weeks and wear my heals out for a walk on the beach because I had to make room to bring the latest Alice Munroe in my suitcase (or Steven King which would mean leaving the shampoo at home as well – not such a great idea).
If someone sees you reading a book they generally leave you alone. E-book readers, at the moment, invite conversation. Now, this may be a good thing or a bad thing. When you are sitting on a bench in the park, right in the middle of Pip’s adventures, a passerby stopping to ask about your e-book reader is not always a welcome thing. But a handsome, inquisitive, ring-less stranger interrupting your coffee and Mr Darcy could be the start of something wonderful. OK, that’s a little silly but hey, stranger things have happened. And until everyone has one, an e-book reader is still a novelty and having one makes you a little more popular!
Both of these ‘holders of pages of wonders’ have a place in my reading world. I still love books. Why do I have to stop loving the physical book just because I also read novels on my e-book reader? There is not one reason that I can think of. Why do I have to hide my e-book reader when I’m with my snobby, intellectual and highly judgemental bookish friends (really I do love them)? I won’t. And if the media stories are true concerning the sales of e-books, then everyone will have one soon. I’ll just be able to say something like ‘oh, yes, I bought my first e-book reader in 2010 – I was one of the first!” Then I can be an e-book snob, as well.
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