I'm participating in Booking Through Thursday today, and the question is an excellent one:
With the advent (and growing popularity) of eBooks, I’m seeing more and more articles about how much “better” they can be, because they have the option to be interactive … videos, music, glossaries … all sorts of little extra goodies to help “enhance” your reading experience, rather like listening to the Director’s commentary on a DVD of your favorite movie.
How do you feel about that possibility? Does it excite you in a cutting-edge kind of way? Or does it chill you to the bone because that’s not what reading is ABOUT?
By eBooks, I'm assuming you're referring to books on Kindle, etc, as well as books available online?
Anyway...I've really given this some thought. My grown kids love to read, and both my sons have gone happily and enthusiastically into the Kindle age.
Around Christmas time, one of my sons asked me if I'd like a Kindle for Christmas, and I said no.
My main reason is that I don't just love reading. I love BOOKS. I love the feel of them, the smell of them, the look of them. I love holding one in my hand and turning the pages. I love the bookcases that decorate my home, chockful of, well, BOOKS!
"Mom, you'd end up loving it if you had one," my son assured me.
And he may be right. I can see an advantage or two of having a Kindle--the sheer amount of books it can hold, for one thing. While traveling, I wouldn't have to worry about the extra weight of books in my luggage.
And the interactivity of it appeals to me.
But I just can't see myself ever abandoning real books for a high-tech reading experience. If you look in the sidebar of this blog, you'll find a button that says, "I pledge to read the printed word."
I want to preserve the actual book, the actual printed page, before it becomes...a page in history.
Go here to participate in Booking Through Thursday!
