Did I mention I now own 2 Nooks? Thanks to my in-laws, our family has entered the e-reader age.
I had a good conversation about e-readers the other day with a friend. She reads almost everything on them because it’s so easy to get new books. I’ve finished four or five books on the e-reader my in-laws sent me, and it is fun to be able to immediately access the next book in a series. The kids have bought a few things. And since I don’t really browse e-books, I’ve only bought books I’m want to read right now, as opposed to buying or checking out books that look good at the library or book store, that then end up languishing in a to-be-read pile.
I suppose I did download a bunch of free e-books that haven’t been read yet, but since they were free and are weightless, they carry less of a psychological burden. Plus, something about the money spent on e-books seems unreal. I haven’t noticed the $30 or so I’ve spent, mostly on books the kids wanted – the next books in the Hunger Games series and in the Mother-Daughter Book Club series.
I suppose I did download a bunch of free e-books that haven’t been read yet, but since they were free and are weightless, they carry less of a psychological burden. Plus, something about the money spent on e-books seems unreal. I haven’t noticed the $30 or so I’ve spent, mostly on books the kids wanted – the next books in the Hunger Games series and in the Mother-Daughter Book Club series.
So in many ways, I can see the convenience of e-readers and digital books, especially since we live in an area under-served by libraries and book stores.
But there are a few quibbles I have:
1. When I was reading on the plane to Indiana, I didn’t like having to power down as the plane took off and landed.
2. Sometimes the page turner function glitches and skips ahead or goes back, or calls up the library.
3. It’s got that battery issue – a problem since three or four people often pick up the Nook and use it during the day, although my husband would count it as a benefit that the thing ran out of juice about midnight the other night. I probably would have stayed up to finish the last 50 pages or so if it hadn’t, but I was too tired to go sit near a plug.
But there are a few quibbles I have:
1. When I was reading on the plane to Indiana, I didn’t like having to power down as the plane took off and landed.
2. Sometimes the page turner function glitches and skips ahead or goes back, or calls up the library.
3. It’s got that battery issue – a problem since three or four people often pick up the Nook and use it during the day, although my husband would count it as a benefit that the thing ran out of juice about midnight the other night. I probably would have stayed up to finish the last 50 pages or so if it hadn’t, but I was too tired to go sit near a plug.
My bigger concern is that reading an e-reader uses fewer senses. With a paper book you’ve got odors and paper density and type fonts to engage the imagination and root the book into your brain. I know there's a way to mark passages on the e-reader, but it's a lot easier to just fold the corner of a page down, or drop a scrap of paper between the pages to make a spot you want to return to. Meanwhile e-books all look the same, and once you finish them, you don’ t have their spines on your shelf to remind you of what you loved about them. Maybe you don’t need that extra-sensory integration to remember what you read. But the look of a page certainly does become part of the experience.
This isn't really an issue when reading a best-seller or something that is simply entertainment. But part of the reason I haven't read those free classics yet is because I'm afraid I won't enjoy them as well as I would reading a paper copy.
Plus, there's the sustainability factor. The e-reader should be the green choice - all those trees saved and I know it costs a lot of fuel to ship books around. But it takes electricity to charge up the e-reader - and how is it disposed? At least paper books can be passed on - and gain another sensual dimension in the exchange of hands and the sharing of underlined passages and coffee stains.
So mixed reviews for e-readers. I look forward to being able to read some new things out here in the Pacific, and I've thought about subscribing to the Wall Street Journal. But I'm not going to stop shopping used book stores.
