I love the
feeling of book in my hands. I prefer softcover, because they tend be less
clunky and I can find them in smaller fonts and book sizes. Currently, I’m
reading a series of books by Tad Williams, which I thought were only in print.
I was sad when I couldn’t find the first book in this series at Half-Priced
Books almost two years ago. They had stocked the last three books, but who
starts a series by reading the second book?! So I literally and figuratively
put the series on a shelf until I could find the missing book.
On a whim, I
checked my Kindle app on my phone the other day. I couldn’t believe it when I found
the first book’s EBook edition! It was about the same cost as a printed book, a
price I was willing to pay.
My
experience with reading the book on my phone was actually very enjoyable. For
one thing, I could adjust all the settings for my Kindle app, including font
size, spacing, brightness, and even the font itself (which had a weird but
powerful effect on how the text appeared to me and how I read it). At first I
was hesitant about EBooks, being stubborn and set in my physical-book ways. But
then I realized—a book is a book, no matter what form. I care more about the
content than about the packaging it comes in.
Dennis Baron
states that “critics still attack the newest technologies of writing not simply
as deceptive, but also a impersonal, mechanical, intellectually destructive,
and socially disruptive (Baron 11). I used to be one of these people, not
really trusting EBooks, and certainly never liking them. Only after the ease
with which I found and read my long-searched-for book was I able to change to
my opinion. Sure, text on a screen will always seem slightly less personal then
printed words on touchable pages. There’s no passing-on an EBook to someone
else once you’re done with it, no real ownership of a physical thing. However,
I believe that true book-readers won’t care too much how their favorite stories
are packaged; what matters to us is the quality of writing and storytelling. Just because the story or message is on a screen doesn't mean we perceive it differently, or the story loses its value. Besides, like the pencil Baron refers to, I don't think printed books will be a technology that ever completely fades away.
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| For anyone who watches/reads Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series |
I'm glad that the Kindle has helped you in ways that physical books couldn't. I, myself, have not had any experience with Kindles, Nooks, or ebooks of the sorts. Mostly because I'm too lazy to go and get the device in the first place, but I know it's been very helpful to other people including my sister who needed a book that wasn't available for print, but on ebooks.
ReplyDeleteI agree that no matter what, since there is that group that will be stubborn in changing their ways to adjusting to ebooks, there will always be a following for print books. They are a cultural commodity and something that everyone wants. I think it's a very open and realistic idea that book lovers won't care how the content will be packaged. It's the content that will matter in the end.
I think when they invent holographic books that pop up on glasses, people who don't want to work with these complicated EBook devices will be happy! Then we won't even have to get other devices because they will be on our faces. That would be cool.
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