I love the smell of books. It’s not a weird fetish thing, I just like the crisp smell of paper and ink, it sparks memories of adventures past that I’ve taken when I’ve dived into reading a book. You just can’t beat a book for entertainment, “but what about TV, movies and music?” I hear you cry – And my answer is this:
A book forces you to use your mind’s eye, to see a world you haven’t created, one that you are visiting and exploring through the writer’s story. Those worlds are full of images, sounds, smells – visceral things. You haven’t heard music until it’s been described in text – because it’s your mind that’s making it (from the given description).
Books are just – awesome as a source of entertainment.
And print books – which I grew up with as a mainstay, opened worlds to me that I never knew existed.
But the world has changed, technology has reached into the world of print books and forever changed it.
eBooks are not a new thing. They’ve been around since the late twentieth century. But it’s now, in the twenty-twenties that they have come into their own. eBooks are a mainstay, normal and a big part of the publishing industry. In fact, for the longest of times, some genres were only available as ebooks.
But the world has changed, things have moved on.
I resisted ebooks and ereaders for a time. You can’t replace a print book, the feel of it, the smell of it, the memories holding it invoke. But in the end, even I have succumbed to the charm of them. Being in hospital as much as I have in the past, I found an ereader to be invaluable, the ability to carry a library around with you – to be able to choose with ease what you want to read next – not to have to bug your partner to carry in an armful of print books for you…
Oh yes, I found ereaders to be very much of use.
And as arthritis has started to claim my hands, I have found it more practical to hold a thin and light ereader, rather than try to hold a print book.
But there is also something else as well.
eBooks are green.
Think about it, no paper is consumed in producing them, no inks are used (which can pollute the environment). No trees are chopped down at all to make an ebook. Yes, of course, electricity is used. Plus, obviously the time, sweat (blood?) and tears of the author. And with more renewable sources of energy going online, the move to sustainable technology is at a high.
So, the truth is, ebooks are the future – they are going to become the norm, with print books fading to become more specialist and rare.
Some people might argue that producing ereaders isn’t exactly green – especially when it comes to the built-in rechargeable batteries they use. And there is some truth to that. But again, the move to sustainability and ethically sourced elements is changing that. How long do ereaders last? A good quality one can last decades with the added benefit that many companies now recycle older models.
Doesn’t epaper suck though?
No.
ePaper is fantastic, easy on the eyes – better and healthier for you than an OLED screen (or whatever your computer or tablet is using) to read off. Yes, epaper is still in its infancy, it’s not good enough to watch videos on – yet. And colour epaper can be hit and miss, depending on how it’s implemented, which is why colour ereaders are only just becoming mainstream (come on Amazon, read the room and produce a colour Kindle, it’s embarrassing that you are so far behind the competition!).
eReaders have become very versatile, you can load audiobooks on them, read comics on them – and if your eyes are tired, some of them will even read the books out to you.
The point, I guess, is that technology has caught up with print books. I find it harder and harder to justify spending money on them when it’s sometimes cheaper (not always) to pick up the ebook instead. It’s greener, better for the environment, and the number of ebooks you can store on an ereader these days is… mind-boggling. I have over a thousand books on mine, and I’m still only scratching the surface of its storage.
The only thing is… eReaders don’t have the same smell as print books, and I’ll be honest and say I miss that, there’s probably already a candle or spray, out in the world that mimics that smell. But it’s not the same, as a crisp new book, turning each page with anticipation and joy as you dive into a new world of someone else’s imagination. But it’s close, and I highly recommend it.
The Tao of James 