Paper, but eBooks have their uses!

Posted by missangela on 01-24-2008 in eBooks vs. Paper books

I love technology, I do. But there is nothing better than curling up with a good paper book. I may be partly biased as a librarian, which in and of itself denotes a certain obsession with the printed word.

However, I live in an urban metropolitan area, surrounded by tech people who work for a certain industry giant. Consequently, the library system I work for has been moving to more and more content available electronically. Overall, I support this. All those computer books from the 005.XXXs go out of date incredibly quickly. There is a huge demand and then the next version comes out leaving shelves of barely a year old, but already obsolete, materials. In this realm, I think an eBook is great.

From what I understand in the publishing industry, romance novels are being loaded on more and more electronic devices. If you're going to read at all those children's events, they can be at least a little more subtle about it.

Online databases are a fabulous invention. If I'd had the same access from home 24:7, high school homework would have been sooooo much easier!

Someone brought a Kindle in to work, and we all ohhhed and ahhhhed, but the price tag is still too steep for my budget. I can see some potential uses for it. Instead of packing my vacation luggage with 8-12 books for a week long trip I can download them instead. I have to admit that's intriguing.

But for settling down at home with a nice novel (or non-fiction) I want a cat in my lap, my cell phone within arm reach and the physical heft of a printed book. I love the smell of paper, the different textures of paper quality, and the pleasure of reshelving it in my personal library when I'm done.