All right. Here we go. Rant time.
E-books. I am so not a believer of e-books. The Kindle, the Nook, they all just need to get out. I hate them, they just really shouldn't exist in my opinion.
Now, I understand that a like or a dislike of e-readers/e-books is purely based on ones own preferences, and that it can seem fairly insignificant to some, but for me it's a really big deal.
I grew up in an incredibly literary household. At a young age I was taught to turn to novels for entertainment and not the television; I passed the time at my dad's church conventions reading book after book, my favourite thing to do on vacations was to go to used bookstores and buy books I really didn't need, I love having so many books and not enough space, and having a stack of books by my bed that I really want to read but I can't get through them all because I keep adding more. The smell of old books is intoxicating to me. The feel of the pages, the delicacy you must have when the spine of your book cracks because you've read it so many times, it's all so blissful and wonderful and comforting to me.
E-readers? A chunk of plastic with some buttons.
Yes, there are advantages to the e-reader. Books are cheaper electronically, you save paper, etc.
But here's the problem. The rise of e-readers means the downfall of actual books. And that is just not ok. Bookstores are closing left and right; over the summer my very favourite bookstore back home closed down and I was crushed. Second hand books stores are becoming harder to find because no one is really interested anymore.
Adrian Turpin, director of the Wigtown Book Festival, says that "There was a time when second-hand book sellers in book towns were first of all selling books and secondly selling the experience of browsing" and that "the days when second-hand book shops were the only place to find a book...are long gone."
Authors are feeling it too. Turpin says that "Speaking to writers who have published in e-format - they say it is only when they hold a real copy of their book that their work feels validated."
It saddens me that everything I knew, what I grew up with, what brought, and still brings me, joy is disappearing right in front of me. Yes, this is a biased opinion. But think about it. What would you do if there were no more bookstores in the world? If you could never buy a new book again? That idea terrifies me. So, just cool it with the e-readers, and give me back my bookstore.
Rinaldi, Giancarlo. "How Do Book Towns Survive in the Age of the E-reader?" BBC News. BBC, 10 June 2012. Web. 08 Oct. 2012. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-19814700>.
I agree with you. I wasn't sure just how much this meant to me until I got into a verbal altercation with my publicist about how I wanted to publish my upcoming book. But besides this, I have always been a collector of the hard bound book. There is the validation, but there is also evidences of a work well done. Maybe the author doesn't have access to see every single person who is reading their book, but they at least can know that their work was worth it and someone else is enjoying the "fruits of their labor". I know for me, the joy will be mine when I know that someone is actually holding in their hands something that I have taken 17 years to write, sweat into, cry into, and even on a few rare ocassion, bled into.
ReplyDeleteI recently purchased the Kindle Fire...and I am thinking of giving it away for a Christmas gift. I don't understand the spontaneous purchase but this will be the first and last one of its kind. It is HARD BOOKS FOR ME!
Thanks for the insight. Much appreciated.
I completely agree with you, I hate that junk. Books are not only an experience, but they are a memory or a little souvenir, if you will, by being a statement of "HEYYYY YOU FINISHED ME AND I MIGHT HAVE CHANGED YOUR LIFE." For an example, to back up my crazy statement, when I finished the play, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" It changed my life. It was a new element to who I was and I enjoy waking up and seeing it on my bookshelf everyday. Now if I read it in an e-book or on a kindle, it wouldn't be as intimate, it would be as if there was this third wheel in the room, that might make a weird sound or will die on you. That is another point, a book does not need to be charged or wont fail on you technical wise, but a kindle or an e-book will. Plus, who wants to stare at a screen for a long period of time...come on.
ReplyDeleteBut hey, I can understand why it's "easier" and "cheaper" in some sense to have an electronic book. You can download it instantly, there's a better chance of not loosing the book, you can easily find it, etc.
GO BOOKS!