Checkout a book from the library and (assuming that the library is old or doesn’t have a computerized system yet) it will have a card attached to the back cover revealing to you all the people that previously borrowed it. Imagine your delight when you see the name of an old friend listed there! Contrary to popular belief, reading is not a solitary pursuit. And traditional books can actually connect people in much deeper ways than its much-touted electronic counterpart.
In most used books, there are scribbles in the margins of the pages telling us the thoughts of the previous reader. Yes, some of these may not even be related to the book’s content but, nonetheless, are still a joy to read. Then there are the book signing events and all the hoopla surrounding first editions. Oftentimes, it’s the little things like this which make a paper book worth even more than its original value.
Each book printed on paper is effectively a piece of literary history. Once a paper book is read, it becomes its own unique edition of the original. Thus, going through a library or a used books store is not merely a matter of browsing through stuff made of paper. You’re actually in a room filled with a portion of human history! The seemingly trivial act of finding a book is an experience in itself that cannot be replicated by ebookstores. You are like an archaelogist digging through caves (read: bookcases) hoping to find something that will provide you enlightenment or inspiration.
Ebooks, on the other hand, are nothing more than just bits and bytes saved on magnetic discs. They are all made of the same stuff making them rather difficult to alter for you to leave a lasting mark on them. Ebooks simply don’t offer the same kind of archival attribute paper books have. And there’s absolutely no way for you to personalize an ebook.
Paper books may have been made using dead trees, but the memory, provenance or history collected in their existence are not dead.
Can your ebooks do this or give you these kind of experiences?
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This is yet another piece against the ongoing trend of disillusioned folks thinking that the paper book industry is going the way of the dodo due to the advent of ebooks and e-readers. I say, paper books are here to stay! We might have electronic gadgets capable of reading ebooks but I firmly believe that a dedicated gadget for reading won’t be the future. Heck, even Steve Jobs thinks so.
You know… You can highlight bits in eBooks now. The Kindle lets you highlight passages and make notes on it, you then have the option to share these comments with other Kindle users or keep them private. Just thought I’d add it to the discussion, although I’m aware this blog post was made over a year ago
Hi, Patrick. You might want to check out Robert Darnton’s several essays on the Future of Books. Fascinating reading about, well, the future of books.:) Anyway, I do also see ereaders as technology that will proliferate soon. But I don’t think they’ll spell the end of books, either. After all, the book or codex itself isn’t all that old, if measured against the other technologies for content. When the codex was introduced, there was also a bit of resistance from the people who were used to the scroll. The technologies might change, but the purpose is the same–to document human thought and history.
Well said, Honey. I’m checking out Darnton’s essay now. Thanks for the tip! Here’s the link for those who might be interested too: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22281
Here’s another article which I found while researching for this blog post:
http://www.sfwa.org/bulletin/articles/ebooks_Fall_2007.pdf
It’s a bit old (2007) but it’s still quite relevant today. It’s an interesting debate between ebooks and “dead tree books”. It’s in a PDF file by the way and 16 pages long but it’s worth the time.
Although one will never get the same feel of a paper book with a Kindle, I think, like Peter, that E-readers are here to stay. With virtual technology in the forefront of development as well, our libraries may be very different in the next 30 to 50 years. Don’t you think so? With environmental issues at stake, paper may be viewed as a sinful waste in the future.
By that time though, I’ll probably be sorry to see electronic libraries and wax poetic about how visually wonderful our bookstores and bookshelves used to be.
Oh yes. So that probably means that we’re the last generation of humans who will appreciate the beauty of real books, boosktores and bookshelves. :’(
Hi, Patrick. I love conventional books more than ebooks. In fact, I don’t think I have an ebook. However, I do feel that ebooks are here to stay, and with more ebook readers having better features, they’re bound to proliferate anytime soon. I even want to get a Kindle for myself soon. Hehehe.
Much has been said about this issue, and people have been really passionate about their views about the book vs. ebook debate. But in the end, I think what matters is content. When you read something from your favorite author, his or her style of writing would still be there.
Same here. I might get an ereader sometime in the future but I’m not yet sure if it would be the Kindle. That’s the problem with new technologies. The first 2 or 3 iterations don’t have all the features you need and are incredibly overpriced. They make the early adopters pay the premium price to pay the costs they incurred in the early development of the technology. I expect ereaders will be priced more reasonably after 2 years or so. It is tempting to get one now but I think it would be smarter to wait for the next generations.
Oh, and the only ebooks I have are those from the less-than-legitimate ebookstores.
A paper book is a paper book is a paper book. It can never be replaced by an ebook. I think I’ve said my piece on this in a blog post of mine.
But now that you’ve mentioned it, I’m beginning to love used books stores more than the others. It’s alway a joy to see notes and scribbles on books, the story of how, why and who wrote those has always intrigued me.
Honestly, I’ve never bought any books yet that has those scribbles but I had friends before who loved books with them. Also, I don’t really like writing on the pages of my books. All my thoughts on each book are written instead on a separate index card inserted between its pages. That way, if someone borrows a book I can just take them out and I won’t suffer the embarassment of having them read my out of this world ideas. Haha!