Book Project - Day 4 - Book vs E-Reader

Lesson learned #2: Don’t write blog entry while under the influence.

This is what happened on the last 2 entries when I pissed away the 2 hot days of the weekend when the temp topped over 100 degrees mostly sitting indoors with all the fans in the house working at full speed & getting baked. Needless to say, I spaced out a lot while writing them.

The topic of today is e-reader – whether it’s Kindle, Nook or what have you. I’m guessing most people who love books & reading have been asked at one point if they are getting an e-reader. I certainly have. My answer is “no.” But my rejection of the e-reader has been tempered quite a bit over the last few months; I have gone from a “Hell no!” to more of a “it’s just not for me” response.

While my allegiance still lies with the cumbersome book, I do recognize some advantages to the e-reader. For example, with the proliferation of public domain books and scanned copies on the internet there are a lot of books out there you can read for free. Some of the websites, like Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page) has a ton of obscure books I’ve never heard of (Best British Sort Stories of 1922, anyone?) which is part of what makes it pretty cool. I found pdf copies online of 2 Ahmad Tohari novels from Indonesia that I had read as a teen. I haven’t gotten around to reading it yet, since after 8 hours of sitting in front of a computer at work I’m not very likely to hop back on the computer at home to read a book. But that’s one case where an e-reader can be useful.

The exception to that is Kindle. I think the newer Kindle DX can read pdf files while the older Kindle 2 cannot unless it’s converted. I actually do have a few bones to pick with Amazon’s Kindle. I’m not sure if these issues are also present with Barnes & Nobles’ Nook, I haven’t looked into that one much yet, but here is my problem with Kindle:

Kindle books aren’t yours. When you buy a Kindle you are buying the device, and when you buy a Kindle book you are licensed to view that book on your device. If Amazon should decide to terminate their licensing agreement it has with a publisher, you also lose access to your book. An instance that illustrate this point happened not too long ago where a dispute arose between Amazon and the publisher who had agreed to license George Orwell’s “1984” as a Kindle version. Somehow the dispute led to the book being removed from Kindle’s catalog and thus, the book was also removed from the Kindle device of those people who had purchased it.
You also can’t lend your books to others, as your purchased book is only licensed to your particular Kindle. For example, if a friend of yours also has a Kindle you can’t transfer books between the 2 devices so you can read each other’s books. You can let them borrow your Kindle – but that’s like letting someone borrow your laptop for a few days. Why would you, and even if you would, for how long?

Kindle books can only be read on Kindle devices. If you have a collection of Kindle books and your reader take a shit, you will need to get another Kindle; you can’t switch to a different reader. If you decide not to then you just lost all those books you bought for it.

Here is my favorite rejection of the Kindle, courtesy of Patrick the Bookish Pinoy. Patrick clearly loves book and I enjoy reading his blogs.
http://www.syaoran.net/thebookishpinoy/2009/08/11-reasons-why-i-dont-like-the-amazon-kindle/

Aside from the above, I think there are valid reasons for getting an e-reader. As I mentioned above, plenty of books area available online for free. Also, books can create a lot of clutter, and this is something I am intimately familiar with. Some people don’t like to see their books take over their living space with joyful abandon. I do – but I also have an attack goose, so clearly my opinion on good housekeeping is worthless.

Which reminds me of a testimonial for the Kindle that I read on Amazon: this woman said she loves her Kindle because she can be assured of its sanitary quality, She said she doesn’t like used or library books because she doesn’t know where they have been.

Really? I guess that’s the opposite spectrum of the housekeeping issue. She probably wipes the bus bench with Purell before sitting down. Actually she probably doesn’t ride the bus anyway.

In the end, I don’t wish to demonize e-readers – although I think it looks douche-y.

Here are just some of the reasons why my loyalty still belongs to the printed book:

1) E-readers are electronic – Meaning it’s not cheap. Meaning it needs power or batteries to work. Meaning I must remember to keep it charged in case I get a sudden urge to read. Meaning it has delicate parts and can break. Meaning for a person like myself who likes books exactly for their easy portability, an e-reader just isn’t very practical. I can’t carry a reader around casually tucked into my pants or on a long bus trip, nor can I throw it at somebody should I get mad at them.

2) I can’t stack e-readers to form a night stand for myself or a fortress for my cat.

3) A book is so much more to me than the story it contains. It is an object, and to those who love it there is no limit to the elements of the object that maybe fixated upon. Just like some people who love cars may note things most others ignore, bibliophiles may note paper quality, binding, smell, etc. To me, in addition to being mental fodder books also provide tactile pleasure – the feel of the binding, the texture of paper. Flipping the pages of a new acquisition or examining the book before diving in evokes in me an expectant, restrained joy – like the week before a vacation trip. Or like foreplay. And some books have gotten stuck in my mind for tactile reason: the best smelling book I have ever read was a somewhat ratty paperback edition of “Madame Bovary” borrowed from the Moreno Valley Public Library. It smelled faintly sweet, almost like rosewater.

4) Books are still cheaper. Not when you’re one of those people who only buy new copies of the latest bestsellers, but if you’re a book freak (as Will called them) you have your spots and your hustle. Second hand stores (selling in person or on the internet), library sales, book-swapping sites – the only reason I pay full book price anymore is when somebody gives me a gift certificate to somewhere. Kindle books are still in the $8-$9 range, and there is no buying used Kindle books. The same titles can likely be found in used copies for much less.

5) Seriously – this is the simplest form of mass media. You don’t need power, you don’t need a screen, you don’t need to navigate through it. All you need are eyes that work. Just pick it up and read it. Why make it complicated?

6) Did I mention you can throw books at somebody when you get mad? With a little practice books make excellent projectiles and can inflict gratifying damage. Even paperbacks. Youtube tutorial to follow later.

7) Book’s obsolescence isn’t coming yet. Oh ye of little faith! You think since everything now exists in electronic form it means we have no more need for books? Think they’re tearing down the Library of Congress pretty soon? Not likely. The only reason we have electronic form of everything is because somewhere, somehow, a hard copy exist. And while no one will likely lament the day when not a single copy of “Bridges of Madison County” remains to exist, books will continue to exist and libraries will continue to exist even if only to serve as storage for our accumulation of printed knowledge and memory.
Your Kindle, on the other hand, will be nothing more than a joint-rolling surface in 5 years. Make it three.

8) Books already make good joint-rolling surfaces anyway. Especially those wide, heavy coffee table ones with lots of pretty pictures in them.

9) Coloring books. Hello? Do they have an e-coloring book yet?

10) Books, like people, have history. This obviously doesn’t apply to people who shun used books because they don’t know where they have been. But I personally love used books exactly because they have a history (which usually makes them cheaper, but not always). I love seeing signatures or book plates in a recently acquired book, finding notes or photos or a receipt or anything else that had been used as a quick bookmark between the pages. I don’t feel that I can reject a book for it having had another owner anymore than I can expect a new lover to have had no partner before me. Unless the book is completely trashed or the new lover comes with a previously contracted VD.