I’ve long begrudged the rising popularity of eBooks and e-Readers and have struggled with the exact reason why they evoke such a visceral reaction in me. For some time I’ve tried to explain it away with simply a love of print books or the desire to see my work in print, but it wasn’t until I stumbled upon this article, The Objects of Our Obsession: On the E vs. P Debate, that it suddenly hit me. An epiphany if you will.
First and foremost, I greatly appreciate the many benefits of e-readers, such as their convenience for travel and that they make it easier for people like my grandma to continue reading books even though she needs larger font and can no longer hold a thick book comfortably due to arthritis. Bravo for those things and for the lack of dead trees required in the process of getting the books to consumers. (I have mixed feelings about the new age of publishing in which anyone can publish their novel as an e-book, but that’s a different rant.)
Something that I’ve always understood about my dislike for e-readers is the missing sensory experience. It’s like eating pizza without black olives. You may not agree, but I think eating pizza without black olives is like eating greasy cardboard. Add black olives and it gains a burst of bright new flavor, turning it into a more engaging dining experience. Yum! Reading a paper book is similarly more engaging than reading an e-book. You get the tactile experience of feeling the paper between your fingers, the rustle of the pages turning, and the smell of ink and paper brought together in blissful harmony (or something like that). You get a full sensory experience beyond just the text you’re reading and I love that, but the lack of all that isn’t what really gets to me.
I think there is an amazing social experience that is becoming lost with the advent of e-readers. One of my favorite things about going to a friend’s house for the first time is seeing what books they have on their shelves. You can learn a lot about people from 
their books (and the creepy assassin armor they wear). A person’s book collection is a great way to start up myriad conversations, comparing notes on books you’ve both read or discussing books you haven’t read that might interest you. It really is an immersive social experience and no, I don’t think sites like Goodreads can take the place of that. Seriously folks, we need to have a little in person interaction occasionally (also a different rant), which leads me to my next complaint.
I’ll admit that it’s cool being able download hundreds of books on your e-reader and have them waiting in queue for you (not that I ever expect to catch up with the print pile I have already). Shopping that way also saves you from the burden of leaving your self-inflicted isolation and actually interacting with real people in a real store (yes, that was sarcastic). However, in a world bursting with technology, reading a print book strikes me as a delicious way to escape the constant hum of electronics and the ever-present screens that fill our lives. It is a totally disconnected experience. I love that.
I know I’m dragging my feet on something that is inevitable and I too will probably have an e-reader someday, but not yet. Right now, I’d rather be Luddite as far as reading goes. I write my books on a screen. I prefer to read them on paper, thank you very much.
Happy reading!
Have you embraced the e-reading age? Why or why not?
Also, there is an art to book binding that speaks to the worth of the written word. The effort and agony that you go through as an author creating a story that is just how you want it is honored in turn by the work of the book binder. Building a little house for your your work to live in is their contribution to making a lasting work that can be re-read, passed on, and shared.
There is no art to the e-reader, no soul. No-one is lovingly crafting the silicon and plastic to make a lasting shrine to ideas; they’re churning out some soulless plastic vessel that will house – fleetingly – the lates chunk of trumped up fanfic or movie adaptation that will be discarded and forgotten in favor of the latest over-hyped, under-crafted crap.
E-readers are the fast food restaurants of literature, and are having the same degrading effect on it as the golden arches did on American nutrition.
That’s a great point, Rick. The thought of completing a novel and showing your family and friends (in person, by the way) by holding your Kindle out to them just doesn’t seem to have the same effect as handing them a physical and bound book with your name printed on it. I too believe the actual print copy has more value. While my first novel isn’t the greatest piece of work on the market, I have a great deal of pride in the effort I put into it. Every time I hold the first printed copy off of the press in my hand it puts a smile on my face.
Cheers!
Rob
Wow! That was so passionate I felt like burning an e-reader.
I agree though, the e-reading age has contributed to a cheapening of books in general. When I open a print book, I feel like I have started a unique journey. That feeling isn’t there on an e-reader. It’s just another file.
There is also the issue of book quality when everyone and their dog is putting a novel out, but again, that is a different rant.
Stay away from my e-reader. It makes traveling tolerable (except the whole turn off your electonic devices bull$h!t).
Best hide it. I’m feeling inspired.
While I have embraced the e-reading age and enjoy the convenience that comes with it, I too enjoy going to the bookstore and browsing through the shelves to select a physical book. The smell of the bookstore itself (especially if it has a coffee shop in it) is also something of a weird pleasure that I experience when visiting. I understand the whole save the rain forest idea (and I agree), but there are things like recycled paper that help with that. It saddens me when I see book stores close, and luckily the city I live in has not been affected… yet.
Even ordering a book online and opening up that package with a new book inside is something I would miss if print ever went away completely. It’s one reason I eventually end up buying the print version of any eBook I purchase. If I enjoyed the book, I want to display it on my bookshelf. Oftentimes, I’ll switch between reading the e-version and print copy depending on my mood… and I think enjoy reading the print copy most.
I really enjoyed reading your post, Nikki! One day we’ll bring you over to the dark side of reading the e-ink. Like me, you can still enjoy the best of both worlds!
Cheers!
Rob “Sharky”
vV”"Vv
I know other people who are the same way. If they really like it, they will buy it in print or will have two copies (e-reader for travel, print for at home). I will continue to resist the dark side, but the force is strong there.
I also enjoy the best of both worlds! The convenience of the e-reader and the tactile sensation of a printed book. And I swear that certain books smell different (my fav is my old copy of the Silmarillion). I order print books from Amazon if it’s an author I know and love, and download the Kindle versions if it’s someone new that I want to try out!
Okay, that last part sounded dirtier than I intended…
LOL! Experimentation and all that.
This actually reminds me of something else I love about books. I love being able to look over at my shelves when I’m stumped in my writing and see the covers of books that inspired me into this madness. Just seeing them there is often enough to make me smile and keep trying.
Oh yeah, I’ve been reading ebooks for a very long time. I think I first got started with a Rocket eBook reader, but then quickly moved on to PDAs until I bought my first e-ink reader, a Sony PRS-505.
It’s my preferred format for reading. I like to hoard books, and I can do that with ebooks in a miniscule space. They’re also good for highlighting, searching, and making notes right there in the book, and I like being able to choose from different fonts and font sizes.
I loved printed books when growing up, and I understand the appeal. I still love them. But I just don’t have the space to store all the books I’d like to keep, so I just have a few printed books–ones that are either special in some way, or that I really want to want, but aren’t available as ebooks yet. I have a couple of nice leather ereader covers from Oberon Designs that I use on two of my devices. They open like book covers, so they give me a little bit of that book vibe.
But basically, I’m a gadget-junkie, so ebooks really work for me.
Curse you! I turn from you in shame!
Okay, not really, but I do like drama.
I just can’t learn to love the ebook and I do like not having to worry about the battery in my book dying. Maybe someday. I do have space issues though. There are books on nearly every flat surface in the house and the shelves are all rather full.
I think it’s a bit like vinyl versus CD versus download in the music industry. The interesting thing there is that vinyl records didn’t actually die, and are having a resurgence (well, in the UK anyway). People love the physical experience as well as the analogue sound. Remember reading all the lyrics from the gatefold sleeve of your newest fave album?
I think that this will be true of books too. They will not die out but exist in parallel to electronic forms.
I too want to hold a real book that I have published and see it on the shelf of the bookstore. But at the same time I download and try books on my iPad that I would never have bought as ‘real’ books. Although I still read and buy real books and revel in the experience.
Maybe I am being optimistic, but it could be that the ereader age will simply encourage more reading?
No optimism allowed.
Truthfully, I think you could be right. The easy access to ebooks may encourage more reading. But it saddens me to think of future generations not quite getting what it is we ‘old folks’ like about print books. I don’t think print will die out though, certainly not in our lifetimes.
Thanks for stopping by.
I should admit that I have looked at one of these wee demons with the e-ink screen, and it was substantially better than an LCD in regards to eyestrain over time.
On a separate rant I think we should begin lynching anyone who prefaces any noun with ‘e-’.
LOL! Can I edit the post before you start that practice.
And yes, to admit my own little sin, I have read a book on the Kindle. It was my book and I was doing a final read through before submitting it.
I posted a big bit on my kindle guilt a while back. I presented my readers with photos of my bookshelves, that was three shelves ago and pictures of my pretty kindle.
I do think the reading experience will be diminished by reading on devices that can interrupt you, like an ipad or whatever. Also, the ability to flip over and play a game may be problematic if you’re say trying to slog through Atlas Shrugged or War and Peace and may be very much looking for a distraction when it slows down.
I have a kindle that doesn’t do anything else that I can get to easily and I love it. For the reasons you described and for the fact that I can throw up passages from a book I am reading right then and share it with my facebook and twitter people. This in itself is both way cool and maybe not so cool, right? I am interrupting the flow of the read by having to do the highlight and share(I would do this anyway by digging around for the pencil), but then I also get the social interraction as a result which is a bonus for me who lives with someone who could care less what I am reading. One author contacted me as a result of something I had put up and we’ve had great discussions as a result.
Also, one thing the kindle has been wonderful for is getting me instant access to books, especially classics. I was recently looking for this book that all the stores were out of. I would have preferred to have it as a print copy, but had to start reading it so… it is on my kindle and I can share bits of it with my friends. Pretty cool.
Sacrilege! I feel faint. Someone grab the smelling salts.
Honestly, I understand a lot of what you’re saying and I’ve had some great conversations with authors and the like based on comments I’ve made on Twitter. I personally still don’t like the idea of being connected to anything while I read or of having to look at a screen. I know the dedicated reader screens are better, I’ve used one a bit, but I spend too much of my time wrapped up with some screen or another. I just want to get away from it sometimes and reading has been a sanctuary of mine for much of my life.
On the other hand, I know there are many books I’d likely really enjoy that aren’t available in print. Once I get my print pile whittled down a bit, I’ll probably break down and do some ebook reading simply because I don’t want to miss something good just because I’m not fond of the medium. I’m not quite that stuck in my ways.
I’ve just surrendered and bought a kindle last week. I still have tons of printed books, but some of my friends are selling only electronic copies.
Great post, Nikki!
Happens to the best of us. We have to support the ebook authors too after all.
Thanks for the visit!
That’s why I love a dedicated e-reader. It gives me the feeling of being unplugged, while still giving me the ability to carry around a small library. I like being able to read novellas and novelettes, two forms that were very very hard to get in the days of print. I like that my Kindle is slim and light and not at all like a hardcover (I don’t care for hardcovers, they don’t fit my hands right).
That said, I still have plenty of print books and I like pretty covers and paper pages so I won’t give up on them entirely. In fact, since getting my e-reader, I’ve spent more money on books in total, not less. Go fig.
I do think the e-reader format does encourage people to spend more on books and I have to admit that I think there will be more e-publishing than print publishing going forward. I’m just a bit resistant because I’m so in love with my book collection. I keep adding to it still.
I haven’t read a lot of novellas or novelettes, but I do see where the electronic format increases the market for shorter works that wouldn’t be suited to a print book alone. So, there are benefits.
As a writer, it is liberating to know that now I can get my novelettes and novellas into the hands of readers. No more trying to squeeze a 12K-word story into 5K words or pad a nice compact novella into an acceptable novel length. Woohoo!
I’m definitely one of those people whose eyes swing to the bookshelves in someone else’s house — not to mention my own!! I LOVE looking at books on shelves, and I totally agree you can tell a lot about people by their book collection. You make a fantastic point in that.
I bought a kindle about 2 years ago, primarily for travelling – I was heading off for 10 weeks. Like you, I was skeptical about the reading experience, and was convinced I’d swing right back to tree-books when I returned home.
But in that 10 week period I became addicted to the sheer convenience of downloading books within minutes. If you finish a book 1 and it ends in a cliffhanger, you can have book 2 within minutes and keep right on going. Or if you hear about a book, you can find it immediately and add it to your wishlist. It makes books far more accessible — for the choice is way greater than what is available in bookshops (particularly Australian ones).
As far as the actual reading experience goes, there are pros and cons. A kindle is easier to hold, lighter, and e-ink screens are really not like backlit screens, so the page looks very similar. BUT, it’s really hard to flick around in an e-book — such as if you want to refer to something that happens earlier (or later!), or if it’s fantasy, the map! So… for me it’s a case of split the difference.
I still buy tree-books if I see one that I want to read. But since I don’t seem to get out much, and most of our bookshops seem to be closing down anyway, that’s becoming less often than I’d like. I will occasionally order a tree-book online, but only if I’m prepared to wait!
I will say the inability to jump back would be an issue for me in the book I’m reading now, The Night Circus, because the timelines jump around and I often go back to the prior chapter to see when the scene took place. I have used a dedicated e-reader some and I do like that they are not backlit. I also expect I’ll have to pick one up eventually to support all the great ebook authors I am meeting.
yeah, the flicking thing is probably my single biggest gripe. That, and I do tend to forget what books are in my TBR ‘file’ lol! Nothing quite beats a pile of books beside the bed!
Exactly! I’m one of those wimpy people who, when the going gets tough, likes to read the last page to see who survives. Hard to do on a kindle. And I hear what you’re saying, Ellen, about looking back at the map in a fantasy. I jump between both formats – there are pros and cons to each.
Do you like Night Circus, Nikki? Be interested in hearing what you think about it.
I am really enjoying The Night Circus. It is written in a different style, but I love the story. How much I love it overall will depend somewhat on the ending. I’m a romantic at heart and I’m having trouble seeing this end well.
Hmm…check back with me when you’re done.
I was not disappointed with the ending. I would recommend this to most people I know, but I will say again that the writing style takes a little getting used to. I know some people also find the jumping around in time a little annoying, but it didn’t bother me at all.
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E-books are the devil.
*giggle* Indeed.