I suppose that the question behind this is one of ownership. When you have a ‘real’ book you own it. When you have an electronic one there is nothing to own.
It always used to be that when you went round anyone’s house you could always tell everything you needed to know about them from the books on their shelves and the records in their collection. It was an insight into their character. It said reams about them, what they thought and believed.
My house is littered with books and records. That is because I am from that age.
I like the reading experience on a kindle as much as that from a book. But I love books. I love the covers, the blurb, the smell and tactile feel. You can easily flick back to check something. You don’t get that with a kindle.
I don’t like the build up of dust or the huge amount of space they take up though.
You can have all the books you’ll ever need on a single kindle. It takes up no room whatsoever and you can pick it up and take it round the world.
I am a bit of a collector. I like the physical presence of a book.
At the end of the day it is a question of lifestyle. If the reading is the only thing then a kindle is quite adequate. The words carry the story, the meaning and import.
But if there is something more to holding a book.
A book has soul! A kindle feels vacuous.
I’ll go for books and keep my kindle for travelling!
Hi Opher,
I like the idea of the kindle, it’s brilliant, but I’ve not got around to buying one yet as my this here laptop does that anyway.
I’m a bit of a WW1/2 buff and still have around 15 books in a box awaiting my attention. I like knowing that there’s a further challenge ahead, the covers are staring at me, waiting, and as it’s heavy duty stuff to digest and I might be cross-referencing between at least half a dozen other books at the same time – so at this juncture the kindle just doesn’t work for me.
It’s also nigh impossible to insert a colour code system of sticky tabs between the pages for ease of cross-reference on a kindle.
On the other hand, my music archive info is getting to the stage where it’s all in more or less kindle format. I’m a collector of a number of bands/acts that have a huge archive – The Rolling Stones would require a huge telephone directory, were it in print format. It used to be that way in fact, back in the 1990’s, ref Felix Aeppli’s magnificent heavyweight tomb “The Ultimate Guide”.
Since that publication he received so much further information from his fellow fan readership from all over the world (I am one such anorak) that from there on it had to be in data format. It’s now available on-line absolutely free and he constantly updates it, too. What more could you want!
It’s a similar situation also with Hendrix and The Beatles. Nobody needs to buy an actual paper book for this information anymore.
I do realise of course that this is a somewhat different scenario than that of say which ever writer’s latest that I could read a chapter of on the train, and were I a daily commuter I would most probably own a kindle.
Yep. Horses for courses. There are times for a kindle and times for proper books! Thanks for your input (always pertinent) – good to hear from you Andy.