The closing of our local Border's store was announced this week. I will really miss it. It is where I usually bought my book club selections, my coupon in hand. About half the time I managed to find another book or two to take home, too. Books are my splurge. I keep trying to go to the library to be thrifty, but I still can't go without purchasing books pretty much every month.
I am a life long book lover. I still have some of the Nancy Drews from my childhood. The Edger Allen Poe book my aunt bought me when I was 12, eecummings poetry volumes I collected in high school and the Jungian psychology of Robert Johnson I read in college. I have lugged books up and down California and across 3 states when I have moved. I still morn the loss of a box of books that was pilfered during one move when someone saw the boxes on the sidewalk outside an apartment building and went through them, taking some choice volumes.
My dream home has rooms of floor to ceiling bookcases.
When e-readers came out I had no interest. As more and more people around me got them, I had some mild curiosity, but when I held one it knew it was not for me. I love books - not just reading. One woman in my book club said that if she really likes one of the books she reads on her Kindle, she buys a copy to keep! That just seems so odd to me. Other friends have told me that they never really know where they are in a book - they miss the placement of a bookmark and the glance that tells them how much more there is before they finish.
As my eyes get older, I sometimes get eyestrain and need brighter light to read by. Sometimes I increase the font size on my computer and I appreciate the possibility of doing the same on an e-reader. I can also see the benefit for travel when you would otherwise, perhaps, end up carrying several volumes. Having one lightweight reader would be
nice in that circumstance.
I know there are arguments on both sides about the greeness of paper and ink books versus e-books. I would just miss bookstores so much and there are so few left that offer the pleasures of wandering through and discovering authors, subjects and stories which aren't on the current best seller lists.
I sense that it is all going to go away so much faster than I am prepared for. That my bookcases are going to be full of books that are considered as old fashioned as the typewriter I have in the back of the closet.
7 comments:
Mostly I read library books. I couldn't afford it otherwise. I have a Kindle, which contains books I love and want to re-read (because I am out of shelf space for the real ones) and lots of freebies. Real books will never be out of style. What if the power goes out? What if you're off the grid? I still have a basic phone that doesn't require electricity, just for emergencies.
My Borders, so close that I could walk there, is closing too. I don't understand why-it was always full of customers. I do love my Kindle though.
I love, love, love books, too. I know I should get books from the library, but I'd rather own my books. They're like my friends. I still have pretty much every book from college and grad school and a lot of my childhood favorites. It does my heart good to see my girls reading my well-worn copy of "The Phantom Tollbooth" or "Anne of Green Gables."
I'm with you. I love the feel of an actual book, and have very little interest in owning an electronic reader. I really don't see what a person gains by owning a Kindle, Nook, or similar device, and I also worry about what might be lost -- electronic technology is constantly evolving, so just how fast is the Kindle a person buys today going to go obsolete and turn into an overpriced paperweight?
Like Small Town Mom, I mostly read library books. I got a Nook because of an upcoming trip, but also because we're running out of shelf space. Since I've gotten my Nook, I've alternated back and forth between digital and paper -- I don't think I'll ever give up paper books.
As for the specifics of the Nook, I can increase or decrease font size, I can turn off the Nook and when I come back it will take me right back to where I was in the book, and it also tells me how far I am into the book (page 36 of 479).
My ColorNook converted me. I love it most for very large books and, because of the night reading feature, have grown to love reading in bed with the lights out.
I'm torn on this subject. I love books, but an ereader would be nice for the reason Jenn mentioned, as well as the fact that I can't break my page flicking habit so I don't read in the same room with MathMan because the sound drives him crazy.
I want both. I want it all. Books, ereaders, time to read.....
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