To EBook or Not to EBook, That is the Question
In 1843, the Commissioner of the Patent Office, Mr. Henry L. Ellsworth, reported to Congress that: “The advancement of the arts from year to year, taxes our credulity and seems to presage the arrival of that period when human improvement must end.” [Note: This comment was later immortalized in myth, being misquoted with "Everything that can be invented, has been invented", at which time (the myth suggests) the Commissioner was compelled to resign. After all, if there were no more inventions requiring patents, a Commissioner would be unnecessary.]
Truth or myth, the concept expressed is that mankind may actually reach a point of technological achievement beyond which there is nothing left to achieve. I don’t know if that’s possible given the incredible capacity of the human imagination…the only true limits may lie in the limitations of the physical world, which operates within set parameters of physics and chemistry. Anyway, I hope we don’t reach an end point any time soon. At my age– and perhaps because of my age– I truly enjoy the marvels of technology that keep expanding around us faster than a matron’s waistline after her girdle’s yanked off. Many of the fascinating ’technicities’ (my own made up word, I hope) that wowed us on Star Trek (the original one) some thirty plus years ago, actually exist now. The communicators have warped into cell phones that seem to do everything but beam us up. Computers can and do talk back (if programmed to do so, of course). Virtual reality is virtually here! And the greatest invention of all– a device by which a book lover can pack hundreds of books into one small space. Forget the old cartoon where a tiny cube could open up into a gigantic house complete with furniture, I like the paperback sized piece of hardware that can open up into an entire library– and yet remain the size of a paperback novel! This is a book lovers dream!
Don’t get me wrong, I still love real paper books– there’s a certain comfort in the texture of a page, the sound of its turning as you read. The cool slick feel of the cover (if it’s a paperback) and weight of the words in hand. I’ve used this analogy many times, but it suits so I’ll use it again– my room looks like that last scene in The Raiders of the Lost Arc, but instead of crates stacked all over, it’s books (have a look at the picture at the top of this page). Have I read all of them? No, there are a few that await my attention, if I ever get the time. I’ve always had a bad habit of buying more books while I still have unread ones waiting in the wings. Can’t help myself. I’m drawn to browse and I’ll always see a title that titillates, a cover that grabs my eye, the name of an author I can’t resist, so I add to the stacks in spite of that nagging little voice that says “Don’t do it! You don’t have room. What about the books you haven’t read?” Anyway, I don’t see my personal Lost Arc menagerie shrinking any time soon. However…
I love my ebook (eBook Reader Central). I can read it at night with the light out because the screen on which the words are revealed is my light. I can carry this ‘hard-book’ anywhere, just like a paperback, and I do. It is my bed book, my bathroom book, my read-at-lunch book, absolutely no different than the paper one. The difference is, it is many books in one. Literally. I love the fact that when I’m reading a series (serious readers love duologies and trilogies and every kind of ”ologies’ there are), when I finish one book late at night and can’t possibly run out to buy the next one, I can go right online and buy and download it in a matter of minutes. Oh, sure, I could just buy the whole series in one shot while I’m at the book store, but unlike some people my finances don’t really allow that. At least not now that I’m on a debt management program. And it’s far easier to restrain myself from grabbing too much at once when I know I can get that next book as soon as I’m done with the one I’m on. Of course, if the next book hasn’t been published yet, I’m not going to get it any faster than any other reader. But–oh, the joy! If I want (and can) buy two or three or four books at a time, I can keep them on my ‘virtual’ bookshelf where they take up little space and don’t gather dust.
The crux of the matter is this– I like both kinds of books, the physical print and the virtual. After all, it isn’t the mechanics of the reading that are important, it’s the reading itself! In the end, if one is logical and honest (or at least strives to be) it’s the storiesI love, not the manner of their presentation. Is that not so with everyone? I’ve been reading the debate between book lovers who love that paper weight– the smell, the feel, the tradition– of paper, and those who love the convenience and practicality of the ebook reader. One proponent of the paper book even said they would never switch, and someone would have to pry their book from their cold, dead fingers. Ummm…not a pleasant image. And that had me asking myself, “Self, is it the book that reader loves, or the story in the book?” I mean, if the book was there, beautifully bound and presented, but the pages were blank, would he/she be holding the thing? If the screen on an ebook reader doesn’t display, will it’s owner continue to stare at it, enthralled? I’m not a rocket scientist, but I believe the answer to that is a resounding NO!
Which is why it is so interesting that the debate generates such passion. [Ah, well, readers are passionate people. Those who ingest words, which are thoughts and images galore, stuffing their brains with tales and knowledge, dreams and visions, yesterdays and tomorrows--how can they be other than bright and articulate and passionate? After all, they've got the world in all its aspects tucked between their ears.] If the whole purpose of reading is to learn, or escape, or enjoy, to immerse oneself in the real world that they wouldn’t otherwise have a chance to see, or revel in the excitement of an unreal world of romance or fantasy, of mystery or horror that a writer’s gift of imagination provides, what matter the mode of its arrival? Even acknowledging and admiring the passion evoked, I still have to wonder why such passion is devoted to the manner of presentation rather than the meat of the presentation? Tradition, that has to be it. People have great difficultly in changing traditions, the norm, what they are used to.
There were naysayers when television came on the scene– how could that possibly replace radio? Who believed when the first computers came into use (those things were the size of an 18-wheeler!) that they would replace the tried and true, ever reliable typewriter? Thank God those who wrestle with ‘technicities’ were able to shrink the suckers. Now no one who uses a computer feels they could do without it. Cell phones and related gadgets? How could they be better than a solid connected land-line? Ha! They’re so much better they’re now like hand-held computers! Most people (not all!) are leery of new fangled inventions and changes in the manner of how they do their daily activities. For a reader, crawling into bed with a book is one of the traditions by which they live. Guess what– I still crawl into bed with a book, and I, for one, couldn’t care less that I push a little button to turn the pages of the story rather than flip the page with my fingers. But– there you go again. I’m more concerned with the content of the message than the way the message is delivered. But hey, to each his own.
For those who cannot live without the texture of the paper page, enjoy. Just don’t snub the beauty of the virtual word. It is neither unpleasant nor unwieldy. Nor is it fattening or illegal. The story/tale/sojourn into the magical land of imagination is every bit as vital and satisfying no matter how it manages to reach your eyes and, in turn, your brain. I would be perfectly happy if someone could invent a way to read from a holograph–imagine words floating in the air right in front of your face, no matter what position you were in or where you were. Wow!
Dream on…and read.
