Coveting the Kindle

Have you seen those people on the bus with their dorky little e-readers? Pfft, we scoff, they’re missing the whole experience of touching a book and smelling the pages and experiencing the magic.  I love books as much as the next person but a there’s definitely a part of me that wants to also be a dorky person with an e-reader on the bus.  But how can I do that when I love books.

My own love of books stems from the fact that my dead father was a book lover, just like my love of green ink and fountain pens.  Yes my father is dead.  He is not late, he will not be arriving soon, he is dead.  I digress.  Could it be that our love of books is because, until now, it has been the only way to read? Is it the physical book we love, or the story woven through the pages and how that makes us feel, that we love?

I think about my love of books and all that I associate with this infatuation.  When last did I buy a 100 year- old treasure with pages as fragile as a butterfly’s wings and spine worn and delicate from having been read 1,000 times. Actually, never!  My favourite old book is my father’s (here we go again with the father) high school copy of Hamlet. Beneath his name, he wrote 1956.

A few years ago we stayed at a B&B on Bowen Island, and our hostess, Roberta, had a wonderful collection of old books.  They had that nice old book smell: musty, with hints of moth remains and dust.  I poked around for a bit just fascinated by the collection.  Then she reached up to the top shelf for the real treasure.  In her hand, Roberta held a first edition copy of Huckleberry Finn.  A first edition!!!  When she saw the expression of disbelief, wonder and awe on my face, she allowed me to touch it.  With quivering hands I gingerly peeled back the cover and looked at the title page, it was autographed by the author.  Mark Twain touched that book!! She joked about how she only let certain people touch it because it was so fragile and so precious to her. Note that it was precious to her, not valuable, but precious. I wonder what a first edition copy of Huck Finn would be worth today.

Mostly my books are bought off the sale table at Chapters. Yes, I am ashamed to admit that I like Chapters.  I am guilty of patronising the evil monopoly that has put so many real bookstores out of business.  So clearly I am a heartless human being and can justify anything at this point.

As you can tell, the books in my daily life are hardly treasures. They don’t smell like anything other than paper and ink and dust – sometimes mold too if it’s been in storage too long. They’re cheap and disposable.  I pass them on to the next reader without a second thought as to whether they will come back or not.  My thought has always been that I’d rather the book be in someone’s hand, than on my bookshelf.  The joy of sharing a book is probably one of the biggest disadvantages to using an e-reader.

So what's the hype about an e-reader? Think about never having to lie in bed struggling to hold a heavy hard-cover book in your hands. Remember Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. What about those days when you’re standing on the bus (yes, some of us still take public transit) and you’re trying to manage your book with one hand as you’re hold on for dear life with the other, and then you have to turn the page. Do you use your nose? Or try with your thumb? But you just want to turn one page not five and the next stop is still a long way off.  Are you taking your life into your own hands to let go of the hand rail, which by the way is covered in bacterial atrocities just waiting to take your life, and turn the page? Are you willing to take that risk? Or will an e-reader save your life.

Being the world traveller that I am (she says facetiously) I have run out of reading material on both trips!!  Thank goodness I was travelling with friends and a book swap was arranged; of course there’s no accounting for some peoples’ taste in reading.  With an e-reader, you could carry more books than you could read in 2 years, and it would still weigh less than 2lbs and take up no room in your suitcase.  Upgrading from an e-reader to a tablet such as the iPad, would expand the experience to include blogs, news clippings, magazines, and anything else that one could possibly read.

In trying to decide whether to take the leap, I have encountered very strong opinions.  The early adopters laud their merits and proclaim that they don’t know how they lived a day before they got their new toy.  The book-loyalists are so completely contemptuous of them and vow never to give up the “real” book experience.  “I never read when I travel”, one friend proclaimed.  “I just love how books smell and feel in my hands”, said another in dismissal of the e-reader.  The other one I’ve heard repeatedly is “I’m looking at a computer monitor all day.  The last thing I want to do is look at a monitor at night”. I do read when I travel, I could learn to love how my e-reader feels in my hands, and I don't have a problem looking at another monitor at night? Does that make me the perfect user?

I’m sure this may be a somewhat insane concept, but is it possible that one owns an e-reader, and sometimes still picks up a physical book. Or does the book God know that you have gone over to the dark side of technology and you are henceforth banished from the library. I know the folks at Chapters don't care - they'll take your money no matter how far over you've gone.

Remember when people said no one would buy CD’s and that newspapers would be nothing more than relics of bygone era? I’m guessing the printing industry will survive. They may have to adapt a bit, but I’m going to guess that 50 years from now, there’ll still be books to hold in your hand.  My favourite quote that I saw today is “if nothing ever changed, there’d be no butterflies”.