Yesterday I read this article in The Australian. There were very few books in my home as a child. My mother didn’t (and still doesn’t) see the need to buy books when there are libraries. I dread to think what she would say if she saw the rows of books that Bearsy and I have accumulated over the years!
When I was six we moved houses. The previous owners had left a pile of books behind, which I immediately seized and carted upstairs to my room: an odd selection from Lassie Come Home to And Quiet Flows the Don – I read the lot. I never travel anywhere without a book, and have made it quite clear that I expect a book to be put in my coffin for the journey. But I digress!
I know some of you have Ipods and other electronic gizmos that are supposed to replace books. I can’t see that I would get the same enjoyment snuggling up in a chair with a screen encased in plastic that I get from turning over paper pages. Although I spend many hours at my computer, I find it far more eye-wearying than the print on a page. I wonder whether the batteries would last sufficiently long for me to sit and read all day and half the night because I’ve got so caught up in the plot, or would I have to sit next to an electrical socket and get tangled up in the leads? So far, nothing I have heard about electronic books has tempted me to discard my old-fashioned books.
Boadicea's Chariot 
The web is ok for news, blogging, email and transitory stuff like that. but for serious reading the printed page wins. At any one time I usually have at least one book on order with amazon. The other day we went shopping in Reading, or at least Mrs J went shopping and I holed up in Waterstones. They have comfortable seating areas where you can read a book which you might buy. Usually I take a picture on my iPhone of any book which interests me and check out the price on amazon when I get home. On this occasion I spent so long in there that a rare attack of guilt made me buy the book I was reading ( In Search of Kazakhstan) £9.99. When I got home I found it was £2.50 on amazon, taking into account the £2.75 postage I was £4.74 to the bad, nearly a gallon of fuel = at least 40 miles….Damn… won’t give into my conscience again.
Recently I’ve been thinking of buying an e book reader, however E-books are ridiculously expensive as are downloadable audio books when you consider that you’re just downloading preexisting data which . Nothing like the trouble and expense of having to print store and distribute an actual book.
Can you swat a fly with an e-book?
Can you press flowers inside an e-book?
Can you prop up a shaky table leg with an e-book?
I rest my case.
Agree with you Bo. There is something very sensual about a good grade of paper and a decent binding.
I also find I write far more fluently on a piece of good notepaper, give me 100gsm cream laid every time.
And what happens if an ebook gets wet? What happens when it falls? What happens when it gets old?
I am starting to theorise that there will come a point when there will be real cyber crises and maybe we won’t have access to electricity. What happens when there are long-term power outages?
Once the batteries drain the e-book is done. No, I think that in general there will be a time when we will have gone simply too far and everything will start to fall back. Perhaps were are close to that point or, perhaps, we are approaching it. Oh, and on top of that there are only so many books that an e-reader will hold. After that people will have to toss them out and buy them again.
I recently read something about Umberto Eco. He has, apparently, a personal library of 30,000 books. He said that when people see it for the first time, their comments fall into two categories. The majority ask how many has he read. He dismisses them as being shallow. But a few, with whom Eco identifies more closely, ask how many are left to be read. For him the excitement lies in what he does NOT know, rather than what he does. I love books, but am not a keeper. Books are to be read and only kept as decorations or as reference – but then we have the internet-. Few are worth reading more than once. Of the BBC list of 100 books that was published recently, I had read 64,(66 if you allow the fact that I only managed two Harry Potter books and have only read about 1/3 of Shakespeare). I will probably read Tolstoy and Dickens again, but I doubt that I will be interested in rereading Life of Pi or the Curious Incident of Cholera in a Cold Climate.
As for E Books/Readers, I have not tried them, but I am getting to the stage where I might get one. But that is mostly so I can get copies of the classics. I am not really into contemporary novels. The problems are that the technology is still not good enough, or so I have read. The delay in page changing is about a second, which, according to the reviewer is frustratingly long. I have never really though about how long it takes to turn from one page to the next. The other problems that they have is that they are specific to the manufacturer. Kindle does not talk to I-Pad. You cannot lend them. I am not even sure if you can back them up. So if someone wants to read the book after you have finished, you have to give her the E Reader as well. Then what do you read? No, I think reports of the death of the book are premature.
I even have trouble settling into the Chariot short stories for all the reasons listed here.
Gimme a book anytime.
The only benefit I can see of the e-reader is that in a crowded place, no-one can see if are reading a trashy novel. 🙂
I’m finding the answers here really interesting – especially as people have come up with things I hadn’t really thought about – I’d even never considered how long it would take to ‘turn a page’.
Both have advantages. Having a text in e format is good for doing searches. When flying I scanned both the B737 tech manual and flight manual into .pdf. Great for reference and less bulky on a laptop than the real manuals. But for enjoyment the book wins hands down.
Tut Tut Jazz,
An uncontrolled copy of a CMM? Shame on you sir.
YIKES!!!!
Make that ‘AMM’ Stoopid furry mammal. 😦
I agree about the feel of a proper book, though I have a vested interest in the other kind as my writing is all in digital format.
Sorry to remove your advert Tom, but WordPress rules prohibit advertising.
“Sorry to remove your advert Tom, but WordPress rules prohibit advertising.”
Zat so?
Buggrit then I may have broken da rools with a link to my www on my home page. Or my blatant plugs hereon.
I am a very tactile person, I love the feel of good quality paper and a pen in my hand, I love the feel of the nib flowing over the surface of the paper and enjoying the trail it leaves behind. I love the smell of a book, its weight and the feel of the binding, the art plates and the warmth shelves full of books gives to a room.
But I also really enjoy using my iPad to read a book, not forgetting all the other things it can do which I will lay aside for the moment, we are talking about reading. But as well as books there is a whole industry springing up almost overnight to cater for the iPad. I’ve started subscribing to the iPad version of ‘Popular Mechanics’ which I devour as soon as it turns up on the pad, the way I can interact with it fascinates me and allows me to stroll through pastures new. I have also dowloaded the iPad version of ‘A Christmas Carol’ which has all sorts of clever moving graphics in it that will appeal to my two young Grandsons over Christmas and this is no dumbed down version of Dicken’s classic, it is true to the original.
So in my view books will be around for a long time for the reasons I have given above, what may change though is the newspaper and magazine market, these really lend themselves to the new technology.
OMG,
Interesting about the Night before Christmas with supporting clips and sound effects. I can see how that would work. Surely it would have the opposite effect with a bedtime story though. The youngun, rather than drifting off to a calm voice would be excited to see what happens next on mummy or daddys new toy.
Ferret
I didn’t notice an advertisement. I read it as a ‘personal’ post describing your ‘hobby’ of making pens…
Seriously, I do not think there would be a problem with people telling their friends what they are doing – that is somewhat different from advertising a commercial enterprise.
Furry Nuff Boa,
I was worried I had brought the chariot into disrepute for a while there. 🙂
I’ll own Ferret that we looked at your post, but took the decision as above. I cannot see that WordPress would have a problem with a ‘personal’ post, but I’m not so sure how it would react to a link that is clearly advertising a large enterprise. 🙂
Understood Boa, thanks.
I prefer paper to reading on a screen as well. However…
One of my sons has a Nintendo DS and generally the games on this console are more educational than the XBOX etc. Last year I bought, for the DS, the 100 Classic Book Collection disc. It is mostly works by Dickens and Shakespeare, though all the other books are well known classics.
Reasonably priced at £20 it was good having them all in the one place. The pages turn in an instant, you have three bookmarks per book and a variety of background music to play if you wish. Birdsong and books while you’re in the living room. Nice.
Funnily enough, immediately after I wrote my comment this morning, I went to visit some friends who have just arrived from the UK. He insisted I have a go on his I-Pad and I have to confess, I was very impressed. Reading a book was easy and the page turning was absolutely fine. I think I might get one before too long, though he advised me to wait until they come with a camera for Skype. Not sure I need a camera. No one needs to see my ugly mug. All that aside, I still think books will hang around for a while.
Many thanks for all the comments. I’m delighted that I’m not alone in thinking that the ‘Obituary to Books’ was a little premature. 🙂
I had hoped someone, who has an e-reader, would tell me how long the batteries last.
boa
My iPad will go about 12 hours on a charge if I’m just reading but about 10 if using it for other purposes, video, surfing etc.
Thanks OMG. I’ll wait until they do better with their batteries and their price!
I grew up with loads of books and I was brought up to treasure them.
I don’t have room for all of mine at the moment and it is a cause of frustration. They are a pain to move, but I’m planning to house them all at some point.
I don’t absorb information from a screen in the same way at all.
I can’t imagine how many i-things one would need to make a room look attractive but I always look at bookshelves when I visit someone’s house. I gives one an insight, I always think.
“It”, sorry, in the last line of the above.
I could not agree with you more. I think the books that people keep in their bookshelves tell you more about them than most things they say or do. It can be so disappointing when you meet someone who catches your interest, only to find that their shelves are filled with trashy novels and self-help books. If one is going to read those books, one should have the decency to get rid of them afterwards. Of course the reverse can be true when you come across someone who has proper books in their shelves. Quality beats quantity in my view.
“Never judge a bloke by his book covers” eh?
I have 698 books on my shelves, over 500 are coloured in and I’m working on three more at the moment.
Bad form Sipu and Araminta
Sipu, the other day I was gushing in my praise for you, since then you seem to have had a buemp on the head with some of your recent comments. Looking at another person’s bookshelf is rude as is checking their CD collection. Homes are private property and just because you might have been welcomed in doesn’t mean you treat the place like a museum. I mean, where do you draw the line? Do you rummage through drawers?