Do you Digital? E-books vs The Printed Word

This morning I read an article from The Tennessean, "Publishers try to adjust to e-reader surge" and it kind of got my goat. OK, the article itself and all involved didn't directly get my goat a groaning, it is the whole e-everything that did.

Has our reliance on all things electronic devalued our basic abilities? Prior to email I practiced my handwriting skills on pretty note paper I had to go to the stationary store to pick out. My school notes were hand written on college lined notepaper, plenty of artistic drawings and scribbles in the margins. Sitting in airports across the country on a weekly basis, once finished checking my Palm Pilot calendar and to-do list, I headed to the Media News Stand to buy printed books and magazines to read in between vivaciously people watching.

I am a bibliophile. Always have been. From the moment I learned how to read I constantly needed to have a book in my hand. This month and the beginning of next I am reviewing 3 books...all e-pubs! The first book I am almost through reading and will admit toting my tablet around instead of a book AND tablet in my bag helps on the shoulders. What I don't like is that I don't see the cover every time I go to read the book. I can't turn the book to its side to see where my dog-ear is and how far I've read and have to go. I can't like a freak put the book to my nose and smell that unique book smell (you're gonna try it now, I know you are). Strangers don't come up to me asking "Oh how is that book, I wanted to read it?" For all they know I'm just updating one of my social networking sites or playing drawing games. Convenience. That is all e-readers provide.

Comfort. That is what reading a printed book provides me. To me, the e-book is the lollipop I sucked on while quitting smoking. It satiated my hand-to-mouth-motion need but the whole time I knew it was a sucker not a smoke which made the experience, well, suck.


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