What can I say, I’m on an e-book kick lately. This week’s You Tell Me is a poll, but EXPOUND in the comments section like you’ve never expounded before!
Take your writing to the next level!
Get a free course on writing and selling the book of your dreams.
Erik says
Conduit sed:
We’d still be in the dark ages if someone hadn’t thought of typesetting words and printing them on paper.
Yes, all that you said is true. A little time spent understanding the Reformation, the 30 Year’s War, and its net effect on the development of three continents shows the importance of the press. Publishing the Bible in vernacular languages was the key to ripping apart the largest empire the world has ever seen.
Fast forward to today, and it seems to me that everything moved along at a reasonable pace after that, more or less according to Hoyle. While the technology grounded us nicely and made other things possible, the really interesting bit was the splash the press made when it first arrived.
So if you feel nostalgic for the printed page, remember that there’s a decent chance we might live to see the new technologies really turn a corner in ways that are unimaginable now. Charles V might not have seen it coming, but I think we can.
Nathan Bransford says
Linnea-
Paper’s not permanent either, if you take the long view!
Danette Haworth says
I’ve bought a few reference pieces in the form of e-books.
Linnea says
You’re right, Nathan. Paper isn’t permanent. But a 100 year old book has character and history. When you pick up a 100 year old book you know that particular book has been read for 100 years. You can see it on the flyleaf in the handwriting of its first owner, the first time it’s given as a gift, the first time it’s sold in a used book store, the stains, little tears and bends in its pages. Books have ‘soul’. Ebooks are nothing like them. Maybe it is simply because I love history that ebooks will never replace a real book that I can hold in my hand.
Anonymous says
Nathan,
I love to feel the pages between my fingertips, run my hand down the page, smell the book (as Heidi said). The reading is a whole multi-faceted sensory experience for me.
Also, I feel that any house, without the books jammed in the bookshelves of many kinds and types, lining every wall, is a house lacking in soul.
Reading an e-book for me would be like making love to a robot. That might work for some, but it just doesn’t get to the “heart” of the matter for me. 😉
Isak says
I like hanging out in bookstores, losing hours of my life exploring the books inside. That’s a habit I developed as a kid, and I’d hate to see it go.
But then, I think about things like PDF files and rich text format, and eBooks aren’t that far off. I suppose if they can somehow figure out a way to simulate that experience or, ideally, preserve it, I wouldn’t have a problem with buying eBooks on a regular basis. (Sure would save space by not having huge bookshelves filled top to bottom in my house…)
LindaBudz says
I like that the technology could make “small” books available for years to come. No more going out of print! Also that it can help save trees.
CarBeyond says
While thinking about this topic, I actually collected a complete large garbage bag filled to the brim of breakage with junk mail and old bill and bank statements over the last year.
Now, I would want to keep my best books always,
but if i am going to save trees, please let’s get rid of bills and junk mail first, NOT books!!!
Melissa says
I said never, but honestly for myself I typically buy ebooks. But I never buy ebooks for my kids, something about being able to sit with them and let them turn the pages and look at the pictures is the only way I can go with them.