Kindle, iPad, Nook......or Book?

The time is fast approaching when I must join the millions who have opted to augment their precious books with a thin, rectangular instrument that looks like it was made for the sole purpose of being very easy to break, and easier to lose.  Notice, I did not say replace, yet anyway.  They are the little, portable things we all refer to as “e readers.”

They are popular almost beyond reason.  But seriously, how could anything like that actually compare to a book, a real live book? 

In many ways, nothing can replace the experience of actually holding a book.  For me, the feel and smell of a new book is half the fun of reading it.  My friend the novelist (more on her in a future blog), who has devoted her life to writing and such, sees the issue this way:  Real readers need to flip back and forth.  Real readers write comments in the margins.  Real readers like to see their old dog-eared books on the shelf.  Real readers like books that are….booky!

But we cannot, nor should we, stop this progress, for we must go wherever it leads us.

A major downside to this progress could be the demise of many, many stores that sell real live books. Borders is history, and some reports say Barnes and Noble is a banana peel away from a similar fate.  An associate at Barnes and Noble told me that book sales are way, way down since the advent of the “e-readers.” 

Such stores must not fail….I have to believe there will always be a place for them.  It is one of life’s little precious pleasures to roam the aisles of a bookstore, coffee in hand, as you travel in time and space to wherever it is you want to go.  They nurture the part of our psyche that seeks a place of warmth, comfort, belonging, and even history.  Just as we cannot live without our favorite coffee stop, or little diner, or restaurant, or vacation spot, or even church, the book store calls us, and we love to answer. We need to answer. I pray that there will always be a need for real live books.  I pray they can co-exist forever, each retaining their special lure for us.

One very important upside to the new way of reading is that is seems to reach those who would otherwise never read a book.  There are tons of younger people whose fingers must be calloused from video games and tweets and texting that will now read simply because the book comes in a format that to them looks like a game.  I don’t get it, but if it entices people who would (how foreign this sounds!) not read one line in a real book to read entire books looking at a bland little screen, then the whole enterprise will be worth it.

Now where’s my paperback?

Mark Twain Quote:  “A successful book is not made of what is in it, but of what is left out of it.”