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I'm happy, married, and looking forward to sharing my world with you! If you're interested, that is!

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Books vs. e-books (again!)

I'm so loving reading the various viewpoints, and am choosing to share some of them here.  Admittedly they will most likely skew to the book side of the debate; I am, after all, a book addict.  Physical books, books with pages I can turn, with ink I can smell, books.

I'm also a techno-geek who can't afford to buy the newest and latest and best gadgets, but I would love to!  I can see the value of an e-book reader for me when I go on vacation; that's one less suitcase I have to pack with heavy, breaking-my-huband's-back books.  I might even borrow one from my friend when I go to AC in November, just to try it out.

But I am a book person, through and through, and will never convert to an e-book reader.  That's not to say I don't enjoy the argument, though!!!

Quotation of the Day


The Coming 'Backlash Against E-Books'

"The backlash against e-books by those who aren't so in love with technology for its own sake has yet to begin, but it's coming.... And as for the death-by-2015 predictions of [Nicholas] Negroponte, it's just as likely that as the ranks of the early adopters get saturated, adoption of e-books will slow. The reason is simple: unlike the move from CDs to MP3s, there is no easy way to convert our existing stock of books to e-readers. And unlike the move from records and tapes to CDs, it's not immediately clear that an e-book is in all respects better than what it succeeds....

"So the world is left with an unconvertible stock of used books that is vast. If the bustling, recession-inspired trade in used books tells us anything, it's that old books hold value for readers in a way that not even movies and music do. That's value that no e-book reader can unlock.... Finally, and most importantly, as a delivery mechanism, e-books are nothing like music or even movies and television, and the transitions seen in those media simply don't apply to the transition to electronic books. Books have a kind of usability that, for most people, isn't about to be trumped by bourgeoisie concerns about portability: They are the only auto-playing, backwards-compatible to the dawn of the English language, entirely self-contained medium we have left."

--Christopher Mims in his Technology Review article "The Death of the Book has Been Greatly Exaggerated."

3 comments:

patrysia said...

Methinks the lady doth protest too much.

I would have thought you, of all people, would be delighted at anything that makes people read more.

Krys72599 said...

Well, methinks you shouldst think some more.
I don't want an e-reader, I don't care if anyone else wants one, and of course I'm happy that people are reading more.
And on my blog, my own personal blog, I will continue to post anything that ranks books over e-books, or real books over e-readers.

patrysia said...

Fair enough. I will take a respite from reading your blog then, as these posts seem directed at me. As I'm not interested in politics, either, I'll check back later to see if you have any interesting photos posted.