Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Digital Books? No Thanks.

The demise of printed books has been predicted for many years. With recent advances in technology we have Ebooks, Kindles, PDFs, and so on. I think it will be quite a while until printed books go away because they have become part of our culture. Think of what you can do with a printed book that you can't with a digital book. Many people like to have a book shelf filled with books they have read or intend to read someday. I do. Curling up in bed or in front of a fire with your favorite book is not the same as curling up with a Kindle. It's a different experience. You can dog ear your favorite paperback book and stick it in your back pocket to read later. You can't do that with a Kindle. If you are lucky, you can go to an author signing, buy a book and have the author sign it. I have several signed copies of books that I cherish. Try that with an digital book. Most people would rather read a printed page than a computer screen. I think it will be a while, maybe never, before people stop buying and reading printed books. There will probably always be some die hards, like me, who don't want to give up their library of printed books. Maybe if most people start reading digital books, the prices of printed books will go up. I'll still buy them and put them on my bookshelf.

2 comments:

  1. hi Jeff
    glad to see that you still writing again even after the painful death of you cat!!
    going green always been an obsession for some folks at the expense of the others .Jeff i think you should be more worrying about the environment and saving trees all over the world than being worrying about you self or the way you appreciates reading a book i agree with you it's too hard to give up on something you like much but that the way it is ,every decade in life has it's advantages and disadvantages going green worth the sacrifice Jeff!
    i do like the kindle ,no only it's a green technology but imagine he could hold up to 3500 books do the math and you can figure out how many tree could been saved on every person who own that device.
    jeff you shown a such amount of emotions and (over)sensitivity just for losing you dear cat and now I'm expecting you to give up gradually on paper-book I know the addiction of reading has no cure ,but i promise we will help you out to pass it
    Jeff now it's a big time to shift your emotions and over sensitivity from animals(your dear cat) to trees just to keep ours planet clean and safe for the next generations to came including you adorable daughters whom i know you love them much

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  2. Hello Brahim,

    I guess we will have to agree to disagree. Maybe I like printed books more than I like trees. Or maybe I am addicted to reading and the smell of ink and the feel of paper.

    Have a good summer reading your Kindle.

    Jeff

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