E-Reading

E-books are now all the rage. And like everything else that is the rage, I'm ambivalent and even at times hostile towards this change.

Why? Well, I'm a bibliophile. I love and adore books. There is no greater pleasure for me than to sit down with a good book and spend hours with the characters therein. I love the smell of books, the weight of them, the feel of them.... At work, I handle books from the sixteenth century! So when it comes time for me to read an article or a long chapter of a draft on the computer screen, I much prefer to print it out to have it in my hands. I know this is not good for the environment but it feels real once I can touch it.

And so I have no idea how I'd feel about sitting down to read a book on an e-reader. Honestly, it probably wouldn't feel like a book to me. I'm sure I'd lose patience with it all, feeling as if I were staring at the computer screen. But I may be wrong. I admit to eying the Nook at Barnes & Noble. I like the looks of it. But I can't imagine spending so much money on something I'm unsure of. I hear people talk of their love of such e-readers - even my fellow academics - and I'm curious. The only time I could justify buying such a thing would be if I needed dozens of books at hand for a long trip. An e-reader would be much lighter than a dozen books!

But, like with everything else trendy, I'll hold out either until one falls into my lap or until I have a surplus of income (each scenario being extremely unlikely!). And, even then, I can't imagine not having a physical reminder on my shelf of a book I loved reading....