Now as usual Jon Stewart was messing around and poking fun at Bezos and his device, which was all so funny. However, even though I believe that technology is handy and has helped advance the way we carry out a lot of essential tasks, I was disappointed that it also came down to making reading books an electronic experience. It is reliable, to the extent that it is needed, that we have e-books online, which can also be printed, but to make all books digitalized into a device removes a distinguishable exercise and ritual that people, for centuries, used to practice.
Reading a book is not always a task or job to be done, but is rather considered something people to do as a past time. There is something gratifying about the activity of reading an actual book that cannot be replaced with an electronic device, the aspect of holding the book and turning the pages as you read, feeling the paper and getting a waft of the paper’s smell are all part of that experience. You can almost tell how much a book has been read from the state of the paper, its feel and smell, and those features are also what makes one book distinguishable from the other. The Kindle does have a “paper-like” screen, but that isn’t the same thing at all.
I don’t know how many people feel the same way, but I know there is nothing that would compensate reading a material book, especially with a cup of coffee :p
1 comment:
I didn't know you'd have such strong feelings about this :)
There are physiological differences between reading on a Kindle and reading on a regular computer monitor, since the Kindle uses a passive display (it doesn't emit light) it is less straining to watch. It is very similar to paper in that aspect.
I do enjoy all the physical properties of a book, even though the smell you notice is mostly from the glue used to bind the pages together I still really really like it - sometimes, when I'm going through a new textbook I'll lay my head down on its pages, my nose along the middle and I'm quite happy that way :P
I have an old copy of a cookbook that my mum bought for me from either a garage sale or from ebay. On the inside is an inscription, detailing who gave the book to whom and when, a little piece of history that makes me a proud to own it.
There's the aesthetic appeal to consider as well; I hate how the Kindle looks. I think it's ugly. Un-rescue-ably ugly.
The Kindle and other ebook readers have a long way to go before I'd use them for casual reading. That said, I do have a 1700-some page Physics book I wouldn't mind replacing with something more mobile. I think readers might have their place, just not for $400.
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