Last night I posed the question to my Facebook friends and families -
"I am taking a quick poll - for all of you readers out there...
Nook/Barnes and Noble , Kindle/Amazon, I-Pad/Mac or hard copy of the actual book. AND why? I really want to know and there will be NO judgements!"
The answers will not surprise anyone. Some preferred hard copies and some preferred e-books. Some were ambivilent, enjoying both. Some were adamant about their choices. I was taking an informal poll at work and found the same kinds of answers. I am not here to judge, merely share my own point of view. And this is what I intend to do.
There are some thing that I refuse to debate - books have been around for thousands of years, and e-books are recent. Those are given facts. It is the passion about such things that I wish to explore today. Why are people so passionate about things? That is why I asked, in the original question, "why?"
Please allow me to expound on a few things here: Whether iPad (mini or other) or Kindle or Nook,
E-readers are here to stay. They have become part of the school systems in many parts of the country, and for good reason. The young people today are caught up in electronics and likely will be more likely to pick up an e-reader to read a book than they are a hard copy. (I am generalizing here, of course because I know there are many kids and young people who prefer hard copies.) In addition, it is less expensive to place all of the books as well as textbooks on devices. Easier on the backs of those kids so they won't have to carry fifty pounds of books on their backs every day.
E-books on a device take up no extra space than the device themselves, and in today's economy, many homes have no room to walk around, much less store the hundreds and thousands of books that we own. E-books can be accessed anywhere and can be bought at any time at much lower prices than hard copies. All of this is fact. But there is a 'downside' to e-readers. Other than the Kindle Fire, e-readers cannot be read outside in bright sun because of the glare. So, there you have it. The electronic book.
Now, on to the hard copy book. No one is debating (not here anyway) the legitimacy of an authentic book. Some are old and some new. They have been around for ages and have affected many people. They are great additions to shelving, which have been created for the sole purpose of storing these treasures - it's not called a "book"shelf for nothing! I mentioned in one of my more recent posts that I have had a love of books since I was knee-high to a tadpole - as many of you. They have been a part of our lives for so very long, haven't they. No, you cannot open the actual leafy pages of a kindle and smell the musty smells of a hard copy. Hard copies require some sort of book mark, and DO NOT dog ear the pages. (Not sure why that is but that is what my mom told me as a child and I refuse to do that.) No, you won't be able to 'crack' open a new book and be the first person to thumb through the pages on an e-reader. These are wonderful characteristics of a hard copy alone.
So, what, you may ask, is the point of this post then? I cannot refute any facts. Facts are facts. And passion is passion. A person loves their e-reader or hard copy for a reason. As some answered on my FB page, they are around electronic devises all day long and don't want to read their books on one. Others love the portability of their electronic reader. Everyone has a preference, don't they? I just want to offer some words of wisdom to those who 'nay-say' others' preferences, "Please don't do that." You never know why a person picks up their worn, tattered copy of "Lord of the Rings." Perhaps they spent many hours escaping a circumstance in the confines of a bedroom. And please do not mock a person for using their e-reader on a constant basis. Perhaps they don't have a place to store all the copies of a particualr series and the cost associated with it.
Personally, my favorite place to go is a bookstore. It's always been like that. I like visiting each section and fingering the spines of each, dreaming of owing my own bookstore. I love walking into a used bookstore and smelling the aroma of 'age' and knowing that the books have touched thousands of lives. I love trying to find space on my bookshelves for more books and I absolutely cannot refuse buying books, even though I ran out of room long ago.
That said, I love my e-reader. I have almost 300 books totalled on my kindle and nook. I am constantly getting more and more to add to the collection as well. I cannot stop myself. Books are books, after all! The thing is, I don't mind not finishing a book in my e-reader, but I feel extremely guilty if I bought a hard copy. I feel like I wasted money (in a small way).
The bottom line, my friends, is that it doesn't matter what form you use, it's the fact that you are reading. You can be transported to new worlds and new adventures, or you can be reading the latest how-to book on either. The point is that you are reading. That's the most important thing, isn't it? Be passionate about your reading and don't let others stifle that enthusiam.
Wishing I could stay home from work and read,
Petra
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